Hello team!
I hope you are all having a great Thursday. Manuel here, from the Latinoamérica Habla team.
Over the past few months, we have been testing our first version of the Qom Keyboard with community members here in Argentina. It is really exiting to see it in use and we are already working on our first update to it.
A point that has come up repeatedly (particularly when users have to search for the language or install the keyboard in their mobile devices) is the fact that the language is currently listed as “Toba”. According to the community, “Toba” is not a name acquired by the Qom people, but a pejorative Guaraní name that means “person with a big forehead”, referring to the habit of these people of wearing their hair shaved high in front. The proper term to be used to refer to them is Qom, which in their language means “person” or “people” and alludes to the whole community.
Would it be possible to change this? We discussed this with some community members, and I tried to explain that you were most likely using a list of language names from another organization, Ethnologue. I actually went into their system and found that they have Qom recorded as the autonym.
We want to know what alternatives are available, and it would be great if we could offer a change to show them that their concerns are being heard.
Please, let me know if there’s anything we can do on this end, and we would be happy to assist on this.
Thanks for everything,
Manuel.