Te reo Maori comes to iPhones

DONNA WALSH/Waikato Times

I-TE REO: Peter Moorfield and Damian Rosewarne are developing an iPhone application for the Maori language.

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A Hamilton company has created the technology to bring te reo Maori to iPhones, where a simple text message will see English translated into Maori.

The iPhone application is being launched nationally by Auckland University of Technology and Te Upukare National Maori Language Institute next week, the start of Maori Language Week.

Hamilton company VO2 has come up with the iPhone application after digitising the Maori dictionary for the institute.

Peter Moorfield and Damian Rosewarne are the brains behind the technology.

The application for iPhone will see the Maori dictionary built into iPhones, but the pair have also developed the systems for text messaging which would see translations and definitions text messaged to phones.

The pair developed the online Maori dictionary at the end of 2007 and it has been generating large volumes of traffic.

"It's definitely our busiest site." Now it is so successful they wanted to take it to the next level to produce this new initiative which would give the language a broader reach, Mr Moorfield said. The aim was to get information on the language into the hands of as many people as possible. While the iPhone was still new to New Zealand, it was the direction the technology was heading.

VO2 become Soda Inc's first tenant late last month, setting up offices in the Meteor theatre in Hamilton's Victoria St.

Soda Inc was set up in October last year as the region's business incubator, with Dame Cheryll Sotheran, founding chief executive of Te Papa, its chairwoman and South African Grant Collier its general manager.

Professor Tania Kai, Te Ipukare director, said people would be able to sign up to the service for a nominal fee which would depend on what services the user wanted. There was the option of downloading the full dictionary or people had the option of texting in a word in Maori or English which would then be sent back in Maori.

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www.maoridictionary.co.nz

tewhanake.maori.nz

- © Fairfax NZ News