To help his daughter retain the Inuit language, Vancouver-based Qajaaj Ellsworth has created an online game and application software. The language is indigenous to the North American Arctic as well as parts of subarctic Labrador.
Ellsworth’s product, Ilinniarnaqsivuq (Time for School), will focus on children age three to seven. It features three languages, English, Inuktitut¸ and Inuinnaqtun, to teach vocabulary such as animals, the alphabet, weather, colors, and numbers. Ellsworth hopes his application will be used both in school and at home.
“I have a daughter who is almost four years old, who is very comfortable with technology. She likes to play with our iPad, but there’s not much access to Inuktitut-language material,” Ellsworth told the Vancouver Sun.
