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| How to email a Cherokee | How to email a Cherokee |
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| You can use Gmail in 57 different languages, among them Malayalam, Tagalog, Telugu and, as of last week, Cherokee. Which is odd, considering the Native American dialect – pronounced "jaw la gee" – has fewer than 20,000 speakers. By way of comparison, those other three boast well over 25 million each. | You can use Gmail in 57 different languages, among them Malayalam, Tagalog, Telugu and, as of last week, Cherokee. Which is odd, considering the Native American dialect – pronounced "jaw la gee" – has fewer than 20,000 speakers. By way of comparison, those other three boast well over 25 million each. |
| Even Basque and Welsh, Google email's second and third smallest languages, have more than 700,000 speakers apiece. Indeed, there are well over 1,200 world languages more widely spoken. But somehow Cherokee has become Gmail's 57th language. In fact, it's staging an online revival. In 2002, a Cherokee Nation survey found there were no speakers under the age of 40, but the language has since gone digital. Native American techies have created a Cherokee Wikipedia with around 400 pages, and Apple has integrated the language on its products since 2003. There are 100 Native American children now studying at a tech-heavy Cherokee-speaking school, and there's even an online Cherokee New Testament. | Even Basque and Welsh, Google email's second and third smallest languages, have more than 700,000 speakers apiece. Indeed, there are well over 1,200 world languages more widely spoken. But somehow Cherokee has become Gmail's 57th language. In fact, it's staging an online revival. In 2002, a Cherokee Nation survey found there were no speakers under the age of 40, but the language has since gone digital. Native American techies have created a Cherokee Wikipedia with around 400 pages, and Apple has integrated the language on its products since 2003. There are 100 Native American children now studying at a tech-heavy Cherokee-speaking school, and there's even an online Cherokee New Testament. |
| Taking the language online presented a two-fold challenge for Google's software engineers. First, programmers had to devise a virtual keyboard for the dialect's unique 85-character alphabet, created in 1821 by the Cherokee silversmith Sequoyah. | Taking the language online presented a two-fold challenge for Google's software engineers. First, programmers had to devise a virtual keyboard for the dialect's unique 85-character alphabet, created in 1821 by the Cherokee silversmith Sequoyah. |
| Then there was the question of the Cherokee words for "spam filter", "inbox" and "junk mail". Sequoyah, unsurprisingly, hadn't specified. Top Cherokee linguists were consulted, and suitable composite terms invented. For "email", they chose a word that translates into English as "lightning paper". | Then there was the question of the Cherokee words for "spam filter", "inbox" and "junk mail". Sequoyah, unsurprisingly, hadn't specified. Top Cherokee linguists were consulted, and suitable composite terms invented. For "email", they chose a word that translates into English as "lightning paper". |
| It's not the first time Native American linguists have adapted their languages to new technology. During the second world war, speakers of Cherokee and 17 other tribal dialects acted as "code talkers" for the US army, devising code words including "sewing machines" for machine guns, "turtles" for tanks and "crazy white man" for Adolf Hitler. The code talkers waited decades to be formally recognised for their service. Granting them the chance to lightning paper a relative – and receive a little spam – is another step in the right direction. | It's not the first time Native American linguists have adapted their languages to new technology. During the second world war, speakers of Cherokee and 17 other tribal dialects acted as "code talkers" for the US army, devising code words including "sewing machines" for machine guns, "turtles" for tanks and "crazy white man" for Adolf Hitler. The code talkers waited decades to be formally recognised for their service. Granting them the chance to lightning paper a relative – and receive a little spam – is another step in the right direction. |
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