App for indigenous languages to be released

A new app out of BC could spell hope for recovery and survival of Saskatchewan's indigenous languages.

FirstVoices Chat is a free IPhone app containing over 100 keyboards of indigenous languages.

Developers included not only the 32 original native BC dialects, but all indigenous languages of Canada, Australia and New Zealand as well as some in the United States.

According to the Canadian University Press, between 2006 and 2011, the amount of indigenous language speakers in Saskatchewan fell by over 2000 people.

Winona Wheeler, head of the department of native studies at the University of Saskatchewan attributes the decline to a lack of support, and language programs for speakers.

Wheeler added that when the languages die, the cultures are lost with them.

Peter Brand, manager of FirstVoices, believes the app is the dawn of a new era for indigenous languages in Canada.

STORY WRITTEN BY: CATLIN SPENCER