A transition-year student group hopes to tap into the global app market with a product that translates Cork slang into standard English.
Its creators, a team of six Foróige members from Leap, west Cork, hope to boost sales worldwide by targeting Irish community groups abroad. The “local vocal” app has been downloaded in the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand since its launch on the Apple App store market last week.
The product features 32 phrases native to Cork but not readily understood elsewhere, according to Austin Keane, who helped develop the app.
Included are “You’re about as useful as a Kerryman with a hurley”, “Go away you langer” and “Shove Wesht” – meaning move over.
“It began when we were looking for a project for a TY mini-company at school. When we thought about using Cork slang, we began hearing it everywhere and most of it isn’t used outside Cork at all,” Mr Keane said.
The app took four months to complete and involved condensing a substantial list of phrases down to 32 for “translation into English” using the app. Comedian Pakie O’Callaghan lent his Cork lilt for the recording phase to complete the project at Watchtower studios in Clonakilty.
The app is available for download at the Apple App Store for 79c. www.localvocal.ie