Can phone app save dying aboriginal language? Iwaidja spoken by
less than 200 people on Croker Island A smartphone app has been
launched to help save an Australian indigenous language that is
in danger of disappearing. Its creators say the The Ma! Iwaidja
free mobile phone app is the first phone app for an Australian
indigenous language and aims to prevent the extinction of the
Iwaidja language -- one of Australia's 100 endangered languages.
It is spoken by less than 200 people on Croker Island, off the
coast of the Northern Territory of Australia. The app contains a
1,500-entry Iwaidja-English dictionary and a 450-entry phrase
book that users can update. "There has been an enthusiastic
uptake of mobile phone technology in indigenous communities in
Australia, so the idea is to capitalize on that," says linguist
Bruce Birch, coordinator of the Minjilang Endangered Languages
Publication project, which developed the app. "People have their
phones with them most of the time, the app is incredibly easy to
use, and