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Not everyone loves Google; some think it’s got way too much data on us all, and they may be right. But Google is still one of the most awesome tech companies in the industry, because it does cool, totally unnecessary things like this. The latest language addition to Gmail is Cherokee.
Yep, Cherokee, a language spoken by fewer than 20,000 people. Why did Google do this? To help preserve the Cherokee language, of course. Apparently a chance encounter between a Google engineer and a member of the Cherokee nation in the US spurred the effort. First out the gate was Google search in Cherokee and now Gmail, with Google and the language department at Cherokee Nation having to work together to figure out words for things like ‘Inbox’ and ‘Spam’.
Yes, it might seem like a complete waste of time to the majority of the world, but to the 20,000 or so people, that’s pretty awesome, which makes Google pretty damn awesome in my books. [Google via RWW]
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Deffo a waste of time.
Your comment was a waste of time, as was this one.
And this one.
Why? This has always been a difference between Google and other companies. At Google there are people who like to do things for the sheer joy of taking on a technical challenge and beating it. While I’m sure this will get Google some positive publicity it is unlikely to add a penny to it’s balance sheet, but does that mean it isn’t worth doing? I don’t think so.
Amen @Darrel Jones – couldnt agree more.
MS provide language packs in Maori, Native speakers = 60,000 people in a 1991 cencus, so that number would have dropped also…. bum that? no but bum google? yes….. Fanatical fanboyism.
Here here Darren, Im pretty sure the 20,000 cherokee speakers probably dont think its pointless
Please don’t call me Darren. It upsets me.
My bad
You are forgiven.
It can also be also good business, as projects like this encourage innovation. Google famously encourage their engineers to devote one day a week to their own personal projects. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is one of the fruits of that policy.
Oh man, get the hyperlink right but make a basic grammatical error in the first sentence. Story of my week, really.
#editbuttonplease
absolutely.
Useful for Cherokee Native Americans. Useless to the rest of Blighties.
Damn Straight.
The world would be a much better place with more understanding between people if only one language existed (English would be good for me
).
I understand the sentimentality of keeping separate languages going BUT in my opinion it’s a waste of time and money and keeps the human race from progressing faster.
I speak 5, and can read and write in 3 including English. Always be prepared
What 5 languages do you speak?
Would I be right in assuming Hindi is one of the 5?
Excusing English,
I can read and write:
i) Spanish &
ii) Punjabi/Panjabi
Basic reading and writing with good speaking proficiency:
ii) German
iv) Hungarian
I can understand Hindi well enough but I wouldn’t consider it one of my main languages.
Why not Mandarin as it is the most spoken native language in the world by far. 14.1% of the world speak it compared to just 5.52% who speak native English. Hell even Spanish has more native speakers than English. Your notion that Language is holding back the human race is absurd by the way.
I agree, learning more languages opens up more barriers and extends lines of communication.
Mandarin is spoken by more people because of the population of China, Spanish is actually behind English and English is widely spoken in 59 separate countries (French is next in 29) so English technically makes more sense if you’re picking a world language as more countries have an understanding of it. (Also, I did wink to indicate I was choosing English as it’s my native language).
You don’t think that languages and lack of understanding holds communication back?
I think your oversimplyfying a problem I can speak to an english person and still get the wrong end of the stick due to different dialects a lack of understanding of the lanaguage poor articulation and body language. Language isn’t the problem
but you’re more likely to get the wrong end of the stick if you don’t even have a language in common….
Including second languages changes that stat significantly.
Mandarin is indeed at no. 1, but according to http://listverse.com/2008/06/26/top-10-most-spoken-languages-in-the-world/ English is at number 2. True, it’s not the most natively spoken, but as a second language and the language of commerce, it’s still critically important. I’d love to speak Mandarin though!
I agree with you.
Nah. Every language has limitations for expressing everyday things. Every language also has words that other languages don’t. The more languages, the less limitations the human race has for expressing everyday things.
whilst it might make sense to share a basic common language, surely you see that it would be almost impossible on a practical level? there would be so much variation and different dialects would start springing up purely because of how people are spread geographically. the powerful thing about language is that it constantly adapts and changes. perhaps in the future where no land is left untouched by the internet or some other common mass communication tool one specfic language will start to gain a real monopoly. that is a loooong time away though.
it would be cool though. an official ‘earth’ language if you will. Esperanto anyone?!!!
Tio estas bonega ideo!
you go for it pal!
I’d personally prefer having to keep separate languages if we could just rid of all of the tossers on this planet. Now that would make for a much better place.
I like the idea, not bothering preserve anything of historical & cultural significance merely because the world has moved on is comletely missing the point.
Would have been bad news a few years ago though…
http://www.nativetimes.com/life/people/4595-history-and-legacy-of-cherokee-code-talkers-sought
An excellent example, that was over 60 years ago, times have changed and the code would be broken in seconds
Fortunately the Axis powers did not have Google Translate.
It’s all part of the plan for the natives to take their land back from the white man.
Next up; Google in Cornish.
… for the hens?
That’s terrible! but I appreciated the effort.
If it’s things like that this that make people think that Google are awesome, then are things like this really a waste of time?