A University of Winnipeg student is looking for fluent speakers of Swampy Cree to help develop a new translation language app.
Cameron Lozinski is an 18-year-old Indigenous Studies student at the U of W. He said an elder at the university came up with the idea and he’s decided to take it on, with the help of one of his instructors.
“She (the elder) just mentioned that she’d like to create like a story thing so that she could tell her stories, and then my suggestion was we could do stories but also language because it would be cool if we could teach some of the language,” said Lozinski, who has a Cree background.
He said he’s reached out to the school’s computer sciences department for help, and he’s also looking for a developer. He said he’s received one quote so far, of $29,000. He’s set up a GoFundMe page to help finance the project.
He said he wants the app to focus on spelling and grammar, helping people translate words from English to Swampy Cree and vice versa. He said the app will target younger people, including those in the community of Norway House, where the Swampy Cree language is common.
He said he wants the app to have a conjugation table for verbs, along with exercises for sentence structure and pictures.
“Images help, so images with for instance food items and animals, those are something that I feel would be easier for children to learn.”
Lozinski said there are a few other Swampy Cree language apps, and he wants his to go a step further.
“That’s not my intentions, to look at the troubles (of other apps) and try to make a new app. It’s the sense that I want to expand on this app and teach grammar.”
Lozinski said he’s not getting any school credit for the initiative. He just wants to help produce younger speakers.
“I’m actively learning Swampy Cree and it’s very hard to find speakers for it. And I also want to gain interesting things that actually make people interested in the app so that they can learn how to say things that are common in today’s world.”
Lozinski said he’s reached out to members of his family in Norway House, but he’s still looking for more translators who can speak Swampy Cree fluently.
He said he wants users to be able to download the app on their devices, and it’ll be free.
“I’m not going to charge anything for it because I don’t believe that I should be making money off of a language, it’s not my first language and it’s also a revitalization stage so people should be encouraged to download it free of charge.”
Lozinski hopes to have the app developed within a year.
