In Bolivia, the new indigenous president, Evo Morales, was helped to introduce the digital age to his people by, of all groups, Microsoft. Bill Gates has taken Bolivia under Microsoft's wings.
President Morales is the first indigenous Indian leader in South America and is hoping to bring digital competence to the non-Spanish speaking majority in the country. He is beginning with Quechua, a language with 10 to 13 million speakers in Bolivia. From this start he plans to help “empower” other native speakers with the use of Internet access and computer literacy in their native languages.
Some of the first beneficiaries of the new technology will be writers of a new constitution in the national assembly. Members recently came close to a physical fight over whether or not Quechua could be used on the floor of the assembly.
The software was unveiled in Bolivia by a Microsoft executive and the foreign minister, David Choquehuanca. The dedication was made using both Spanish and Quechua.
"Anchay agradeseiki (''Thank you'' in Quechua) for trusting in us,'' Nelson Cuentas, chief of Microsoft's Bolivian operations, told the gathering. ''Microsoft Bolivia wants indigenous culture to form a part of the information age, thanks to this truly new digital vision.''
Microsoft worked for three years with professors from a number of universities and native speakers to translate the Windows commands into a version of the language. “File,” for instance, was finally translated as ''kipu'' (KEE-poo), the name of an ancient and complex sequence of knots tied in string to record information. “Internet” was finally turned into ''Llika'' (LEE-ka), the name for spider webs. Personally, I believe “spider web” would be a great alternative to “Internet,” as it is both more folksy and more descriptive. Welcome to the spider web.
The translation program is a simple patch available as a free download. It is part of a program of 47 languages, including the languages of Quechua, Lithuania, and Maori, designed to assure communications won't get lost in translation. To wit: Te whakarato wheako mahi rorohiko pai ake mhō ngā Kaikōrero Māori (which may mean, “Delivering a Better Computing Experience for Maori Speakers”).
Article comments
1 - tom
Hi,
I enjoyed the article about Microsoft in Bolivia. However, the comments concerning Venezuela's Chavez are way off base. How is it exactly that a president who has been democratically elected three times in elections that no institution has ever called into question the legitimacy of can be referred to as "dictatorial? The only accusations of fraud came from the opposition politicians who offered no proof thereof.
Thank you,
Tom
2 - Alex
Bolivia has only 8 million people, there cant be 10 million quechua speakers...