Award in Recognition of the Inuktitut Version of Microsoft Windows Vista and Office 2007
Award in Recognition of the Inuktitut Version of Microsoft Windows Vista and Office 2007
IQALUIT, Nunavut (February 12, 2010) - Honourable Lorne Kusugak, Minister of Community and Government Services, on behalf of Louis Tapardjuk, Minister of Languages, presented Microsoft Canada Inc. with an award in recognition of their contribution to Inuit Language promotion. The presentation occurred during a demonstration of 'Microsoft in the Inuit Language' at the Nunavut Language Summit in Iqaluit on February 11, 2010.
On behalf of the Government of Nunavut, I would like to thank Microsoft Canada, the Pirurvik Centre and others who contributed their time and expertise to make this interface available," said Minister Kusugak.
Since 2004, Microsoft Canada Inc., in collaboration with the Pirurvik Centre and the Government of Nunavut have been working on the development of the Microsoft Inuktitut Language Interface Packs. More than a million words have been translated and approximately 5000 of those terms newly created through this project. With this latest release, users of Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office are able to freely download Inuktitut versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Office 2003 and Office 2007.
"This is a great example of the government and the private sector working successfully together to help make the Inuit Language working language in our territory," said Tapardjuk. "This is a significant achievement in terms of making Inuktitut available in the information technology systems, and advancing the use of Inuktitut in the workplace."
"Microsoft Canada is committed to developing technology to help improve the lives of all Canadians," said Shann McGrail, Director of Education, Microsoft Canada. "This download will give Inuktitut-speaking Canadians the opportunity to communicate in their own language, something the rest of Canada takes for granted. We hope the language pack will help preserve the language and thank the government of Nunavut for helping us make this a reality."
The Inuktitut versions of Microsoft Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 were officially launched last Spring. The introduction of language-specific programs allows for an increased use of Inuktitut in the workplace, in schools and in the home. Microsoft initiated their Local Language Program to support small and emerging market languages to create localized versions of Office 2003 and Windows XP. This is a first time a small language user group of less than 100,000 speakers are able to use Microsoft interface in their language.
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