Inuktitut iPhone, iPad keyboards help strengthen Inuit language

It's suddenly a whole lot easier for Inuit to share their thoughts in their language in Facebook posts and text messages.

The Government of Nunavut and thePirurvik Centre, a non-governmentorganizationfocused on keeping Inuit culture alive, have launched a new set of Inuit-languagekeyboards for Apple products, includingiPhones and iPads.

• Download the app from the iTunes app store

"We hope [the keyboards, known in Inuktitut as Naqittauttit] will help improve and facilitate the greater use of our language on popular mobile phones and tablets," said Minister of Languages George Kuksuk in a news release.

People who use Microsoft have been able to type in Inuktitut syllabics for a decade, but this technology includes a new feature.

Now Inuit-languagespeakers can type using Roman orthography and have their message appear in syllabics, provided the spelling is correct.

Pirurvik's president, Leena Evic, says the ability to usesyllabics on Apple deviceswill make Inuit languages more visible on social media.

Keeping Inuit languages alive in the digital age, and with adwindling number of speakers, has been a hot topic in the territory this year.

In March, Minister of Education Paul Quassa sparked debate among residents, when heannounced that the government is looking at the possibility of no longer teaching syllabicsin Nunavut schools, but rather, switching to the use of Roman orthography.