Māori

He Manawa o Te Reo - the Heart of the Language

Microsoft working with Māori

New Zealanders are now able to use Office 2003 and Windows XP in Māori. Microsoft New Zealand in partnership with the Māori Language Commission (Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori) and Waikato University's School of Māori and Pacific Development have developed Māori Language Interface Packs for Windows XP and Office 2003.

The Language Interface Packs enable your organisation to install a reo Māori layer on top of an existing installation of Microsoft Windows XP and standard Microsoft Office applications - including Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint.

They are free to download and they enable Māori language speakers to work more easily in their preferred language whether at home, in business or education.

The Māori language programme is part of the global Linguistic Partnership Project, bringing alive languages from around the world in Microsoft's technologies.  Through the programme a Language Interface Pack (LIP) will be developed, providing a Māori language 'skin' that will cover approximately 80% (ie. the most used areas) of Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Office 2003.

For the first phase of the project, the Māori community are invited to contribute to the development of a Community Glossary of terms. The glossary holds the technical terms relating to the user interface of Microsoft's technology, such as Hyperlink, Markup, Task Pane etc that may not already exist in te Reo Māori.  People started contributing to the glossary from Monday 26th April.

Microsoft New Zealand will work in partnership with Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori, who will act as the moderator of the Community Glossary.

Ross Peat, Microsoft New Zealand Managing Director says the company feels privileged to contribute to the growth of te Reo Māori through this Linguistic Partnership Project. "We hope the inclusion of te Reo Māori in our newest Windows and Office technologies will help further expand te Reo, allowing speakers to use technology in their own language," says Peat. "By having these technologies in te Reo, speakers will be able to better experience what technology can do for them."

Chief Executive of Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori, Haami Piripi, says the project is a new area of growth for the Māori language. "The Commission is very excited to be involved in this project and to see te Reo growing further into the technology sphere.  This project will help us in our goal of increasing the rate of language development so that te Reo Māori can keep pace with technological development," says Piripi. "We believe the community's involvement in the glossary's development is an important part of the project and we encourage universities, language teachers, iwi and runanga representatives, or anyone with knowledge of te Reo Māori to contribute," says Piripi.

Microsoft New Zealand has a significant working relationship with the Commission through its Innovation Centre bilingual website project.  Microsoft also worked in partnership with Waikato University to develop a Māori macron software package for keyboards.  So far there have been more than 6100 downloads of the free Māori macron software from the Microsoft New Zealand website, highlighting the interest in technology that correctly represents te Reo.

Related sites: