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
this allows data collection to happen spontaneously,
opportunistically," he says. The school on Croke