Microsoft launches software in Andean language

LA PAZ, Bolivia — Evo Morales has a new ally in his quest to promote Indian languages — U.S. software giant Microsoft — which is teaming up with the Bolivian president for the local debut of Windows and Office software in the Andean tongue of Quechua.

Morales, elected in December as the country's first Indian president, will join local Microsoft executives on Friday in the colonial city of Sucre for the programs' Bolivia launch.

"The translation of these technologies into Quechua helps to revalue the language so that it will not be lost over time," Javier Medrano, spokesman for Microsoft's Bolivia operations, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

First launched in Peru in June and now available for download online, the software is a simple patch translating the familiar Microsoft menus and commands into Quechua.

For example, "file" becomes "quipu," borrowing the name of an ancient Incan practice of recording information in an intricate system of knotted strings.

Quechua is spoken by 2.6 million Bolivians — nearly 30 percent of the population — and 10 million people throughout South America.