SPACE WIRE
Microsoft to give Arctic peoples a Windows on the world
TORONTO (AFP) Mar 29, 2004
How would an Inuit hunter who scratches out a meagre living in the Arctic chill write "e-mail," "log off" or "shut down?"

That's a teaser facing Microsoft programers in their new project to adapt Windows XP and Office applications to the ancient tongue of Inuktitut, spoken by the Inuit, formerly known as Eskimos.

The frozen Inuit homeland encompasses some of the planet's coldest and most inhospitable regions in parts of northeastern Russia, areas of Greenland, Alaska and northern Canada.

Computing is not among the Inuit's typical pursuits, as the civilisation has been passed from generation to generation with storytelling, drum dancing and hunting and fishing skills.

So the first task for software engineers is to find words and concepts in the Inuit language applicable to computers.

"It is very important to us to make sure the composition of the words is acceptable to the community," said Mina Gharbi-Hamel, Windows International Program Manager to Microsoft Canada.

Microsoft's venture will mark the first time the software behemoth's programs have been made available in an aboriginal Canadian language.

The move will also represent a substantial boost for a language, which like other ancient and native tongues is suffering from the global onslaught of English.

A development team is to spend four to six months compiling a glossary of words to be used in the program, which will allow Inuit users to follow the menus and commands familiar to millions of Windows users.

Inuit is a particularly difficult language to adapt as it is written as a mixture of symbols and consonants.

The program will be offered free as a downloadable "skin" on Microsoft's website to existing Windows customers.

Gharbi-Hamel visited the northern Canadian territory of Nunavut, earlier this year, where Inuit is the official government language, to research potential consumers for the project.

"It will bring the community closer," she said.

"I think there will be some job opportunities too, in areas where there is technology but where people see barriers because of their language."

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