Google in Hawaiian now available (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Google in Hawaiian now available

Updated at 3:57 am, Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Tags: google, hawaiian language, kalena silva, te taka keegan, uh-hilo

MEDIA RELEASE
http://www.hawaii247.org/2009/08/11/google-in-hawaiian-now-available/

The University of Hawaii at Hilo has announced the development of a Hawaiian
language interface for Google, the world’s most popular Internet search engine.

The translation project is part of the Google in Your Language program, which
encourages advocates of minority and indigenous languages to translate several
of Google’s products into their own languages.

The translation was completed by Keola Donaghy, an assistant professor at Ka
Haka Ula O Keelikolani College of Hawaiian Language at UH-Hilo.

“The addition of a Hawaiian language interface for Google is a tremendous
development for Hawaiian speakers,” said Dr. Kalena Silva, director of Ka Haka
Ula O Keelikolani. “Google is the most heavily-used search engine on the
Internet, and from a practical and a symbolic standpoint, this interface puts
Hawaiian on par with the many other languages that Google currently supports.”
Searchers can select the Hawaiian language interface, see Google’s commands and
navigational text in Hawaiian, and conduct searches in Hawaiian.

Search results and Web pages found by Google are not translated into Hawaiian.
Additional software is not required. Searchers simply select Hawaiian as their
language preference on Google.

The Hawaiian language interface is currently visible only to users of Apple’s
Safari Web browser who have selected ‘ōlelo Hawaii as their first language
preference in their Macintosh OS X “International” preferences.

The Hawaiian language interface will be available to users of other Web browsers
soon.

“Google has become the primary source of the world’s information and being able
to source this information through the medium of the Hawaiian language
indicates that the Hawaiian language has purpose and relevance in today’s
information society,” said Te Taka Keegan, a lecturer at the University of
Waikato in Aotearoa (New Zealand), indigenous language activist and part-time
employee of Google. “It will undoubtedly give a sense of identity, pride, and
promise for Hawaiian children (and parents) who are able to search and retrieve
information through their indigenous language.”

The staff of Ka Haka Ula O Keelikolani and its Hale Kuamoo Hawaiian Language
Center have been the source of many technology innovations, which have
benefited speakers of Hawaiian: the translation of Netscape’s Navigator Web
browser into Hawaiian in 1998; the inclusion of a Hawaiian language keyboard
and other Hawaiian language resources in Macintosh OS X in 2002; and the
continuous work with technology vendors to strengthen the ability of Hawaiian
speakers to use the language with these technologies.