<b>Smartphone app could help save Australian Aboriginal language from extinction</b><br><br>The Iwaidja language is currently spoken by fewer than 200 people.<br><br>By John PlattWed, Nov 14 2012 at 4:20 PM EST<br>AUS<br><br>
Around the world nearly 3,000 languages are facing extinction. At least 100 of those endangered languages are in Australia, where one, Iwaidja, now has fewer than 200 fluent speakers. The language is only used on Croker Island, a 130-square-mile island off the coast of Northern Australia that is home to a regional group of indigenous Australian Aboriginals.<br>
<br>Losing a language like Iwaidja can rob a people of their culture and the world of their history and accumulated knowledge. But saving a language can be a time-intensive project, involving recording equipment and the presence of a trained linguist. That takes both money and labor, which are in short supply.<br>
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