{"id":112671,"date":"2015-02-23T06:00:27","date_gmt":"2015-02-23T14:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/?p=112671"},"modified":"2022-07-20T07:48:39","modified_gmt":"2022-07-20T14:48:39","slug":"office-cherokee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/microsoft-365\/blog\/2015\/02\/23\/office-cherokee\/","title":{"rendered":"Office in Cherokee"},"content":{"rendered":"
In celebration UNESCO\u2019s International Mother Language Day on February 21st<\/sup>, we honor the efforts of the Cherokee Nation for embracing their language. The Cherokee Nation Language Program\u2019s goal is to ensure Cherokee language lives on for future generations. \u201cThe Cherokee language is one of the most important aspects of who we are as a tribe, and many elements of our culture are contained in our language. Our language offers more than communication. It transmits cultural knowledge and a mode of thinking that is uniquely Cherokee. To lose our language would mean a huge loss of part of our heritage.\u201d says Roy Boney, Cherokee language program manager.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s post was written by Alfred Hellstern, senior international project manager at Microsoft.<\/em><\/p>\n When the Cherokee Nation wanted to continue to expand technology to their users with localized versions of applications and services that they use every day, the Microsoft Local Language Program<\/a> was a perfect fit. Having already localized Windows 8, they wanted to bring the familiar Microsoft Office applications\u2014Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote\u2014to all Cherokee tribal members in their native language. Office Online in Cherokee was first released early last year, and is being continuously updated as new features come online. It was localized into Cherokee in a collaboration between the Microsoft Local Language Program, the Microsoft Office division and the Cherokee Nation\u2019s Language Program. Jeff Edwards, language technology specialist working on this project on a daily basis, notes that, \u201cTechnology is an important tool in revitalizing our language. The partnership between Cherokee Nation and Microsoft made a digital Cherokee environment possible where we can create original Cherokee language content in the Office applications.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n I was part of the international team at Microsoft who worked with the Cherokee Nation on the Office project. But, the Cherokee translation team (including the author of the de\ufb01nitive Cherokee-English dictionary<\/a>, Durbin Feeling) had the hardest job: not only did they need to juggle their other projects with translating software, but they needed to invent new terms for new technical concepts. They also needed to keep technical concept terminology consistent between the Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote applications.<\/p>\n A few terminology examples<\/a>:<\/p>\n