Stoney Nakoda Nation members are excited about the release of a new Stoney Nakoda language app next week.
“We are hoping by making our language available the young people will learn the words and want to learn more,” said Tina Fox, Nation elder.
“We have more than 1,900 Stoney speakers on the reserve and some people use it every day and in their home but our language is starting to decline.”
With more than 500 words accessible to learn on the app, people will be able to learn animal, bird and tree names along with months, seasons, pow wow songs and a couple nursery rhymes.
“We are pretty excited about it,” Fox said. “We would love to see young people speaking our language.”
Stoney – also known as the Iyãhé Nakoda language – was historically an oral language but with the help of concerned language speakers and linguistic specialists an alphabet has been created and there is even a Stoney Nakoda language course offered at the University of Calgary.
The Nakoda language app, made with a committee of elders, will be available on June 27.
More information will be available at the school’s year end barbecue at the Nakoda Elementary School located in Morley, approximately 32 kilometres west of Cochrane.
