TAHLEQUAH, Okla. — With help from another prominent indigenous entity, the Cherokee Nation debuted its own language learning app on Dec. 9.
With a ceremony inside Durbin Feeling Language Center, tribal leaders lauded the release of the app as a means to fully resurrect a mother tongue that almost went extinct over hundreds of years due to acts of cultural genocide.
WATCH: Cherokee Nation debuts official language-learning and dictionary app
"We used to have 100% of our population speaking the language," Cherokee Nation language program director Howard Paden said. "Now, less than one-half of one percent speaks our language."
But to move in the right direction, the Cherokees received the help of Kiwa Digital Ltd., a renown dubbing and AI-language company based in New Zealand, founded by Māori individuals that also helped the Cherokee Film Institute in its film and series dubbing projects.
The app uses the Durbin Feeling Cherokee Dictionary as a key source for learning and researching words and phrases.
"At the heart of any culture is the language," Kiwa Digital managing director Steven Renata told 2 News. "Being able to work with any tribe, sub-tribe, first nations...is a real honor and really a real responsibility."
- Previous coverage>>> Cherokee, Choctaw nations celebrate native language dubbings of major series
With the app now available on both the iOS and Google Play stores, the tribe's deputy chief Bryan Warner hopes the language once critically endangered - now expanded 700% in the last decade - will grow even more with generations young and old.
"We understand who we are and what we are. We also understand what other efforts have been going on around the world pulling together and saving languages," Warner said. "It is something that is vital to all indigenous communities."
The app is geared to both parents and kids, students and professionals, and features voice, grammar, and writing functions.
"This is something that is very sacred to us, our language," Warner added. "This is what helps define us as being Cherokee."
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