Cherokee Nation joins Unicode Consortium

Cherokee Nation Joins International Language ConsortiumThe Cherokee Nation has joined the Unicode Consortium, a nonprofit formed in 1987 to set international software standards, to help promote growth in use of the Cherokee language.

“Our program [the Cherokee Nation Language Technology Program] focuses on getting all kinds of technology to support the Cherokee language. So, we’ve done work with Apple to get Cherokee on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, and we’ve worked with Facebook to get some of the localization of that into the syllabary. We’ve worked with Google doing the same thing,” said Roy Boney Jr., a language technologist with the Cherokee Nation.

“When Windows 8 comes out next year, it’ll have a keyboard and font standard on all Windows 8 machines as well,” said Boney’s co-worker and fellow language technologist, Joseph Erb. “We work with major companies to make sure that when a product comes out our language has access to it.”Below:  Roy Boney Jr. (left) and Joseph Erb (right), language technologists with Cherokee Nation Education Services, give a presentation about Cherokee language technology during a conference. The Cherokee Nation and the Cherokee language are now represented in the Unicode Consortium, a nonprofit international organization that sets international software standards."