Talking Dictionaries: Creating Language Accessibility Online
In the fight to sustain languages, talking dictionaries are a significant innovation that uses digital technology to make linguistic tools easily accessible to users around the globe.
Talking dictionaries are tools that allow both speakers and linguists to record a language’s vocabulary and demonstrate the pronunciation of each word. Professor K. David Harrison of Swarthmore College coined the term in 2004, and with students built the first talking dictionary in 2006, which is Tuvan–English.
Many talking dictionaries exist online, meaning they are easy to distribute and often open to all. This is a huge improvement upon print dictionaries, which can be difficult to obtain or even, in some cases, impossible for the speakers to access if they are out of print or owned by a university or private institution. In addition, talking dictionaries often help readers and users provide both the literal meaning and contextual meaning of words by recording both the translation and notes on the operation or significance of a given word in the language’s cultural context.
A Multimedia Tool for Everyone
Talking dictionaries accomplish all of the functions of a print dictionary while also including visual and auditory recordings. Speakers can upload a word’s pronunciation, use in a sentence, conjugation, and examples, allowing users to hear the word as it would be pronounced by a native speaker. Online dictionaries in sign feature videos of speakers demonstrating the movements associated with each word. Auditory recordings also illuminate dictionaries by adding the voices of those who speak them. Additionally, by offering the option to include visual aids, talking dictionaries allow readers to dive deeper into the significance of each word’s meaning. For example, in the Siletz Dee-ni Talking Dictionary’s definition of the many words relating to basket weaving, users are able to upload and share images on how baskets are made in Siletz tradition, illustrating how the verb is applied in this specific culture. In this way, talking dictionaries enable individuals to better capture the full spectrum of a given word’s meaning.
An Example: the Nafe Talking Dictionary
More than just a linguistic tool, talking dictionaries allow individuals to record and store many aspects of cultural knowledge in a single location. One great example is the Nafe Talking Dictionary, a collaboration between the Kwamera people of Tanna Island in Vanuatu, botanists at the New York Botanical Garden, and linguists at the Living Tongues Institute and Swarthmore College. This project has recorded visual, auditory, and text catalogues of the local fauna on the island. Understanding each of these elements is integral to fully comprehend the Nafe vocabulary, since the Kwamera’s cultural traditions are inextricably attached to the word for each leaf and tree. By combining a study of Nafe with a visual and auditory catalogue of local plant life, the talking dictionary is able to truly illustrate the meaning behind its words.
The project is especially vital because of the threat climate change poses to the local ecosystem. Rising sea levels and the worsening condition of tropical storms in Vanuatu have already transformed some of the islands’ residents into climate refugees, forcing those who have lived on the coast for generations to move further inland or to higher ground. Rising temperatures, along with increased yet more sporadic rainfall, may negatively impact the survival and health of local plant life in future years — meaning that our changing climate presents a very real danger to the cultural knowledge that the Nafe Talking Dictionary hopes to capture.
The Living Tongues Talking Dictionary App: Allowing Speakers to Create Their Own Dictionaries
In September of 2019, The Living Tongues Institute launched a mobile-friendly Talking Dictionary App. The organization first created their talking dictionary software in 2007, making it available to speakers of languages around the world. Through this software, the Institute was able to work with speakers to create 120 Talking Dictionaries between 2007 and 2018. The mobile app further extends the reach and accessibility of this software. Since the app is readily available online, native speakers can use talking dictionaries to work towards recording their own languages without having to depend upon help from outside organizations. Using the app, users can record their own high-quality audio files, record words and meanings, and add and manage images to accompany definitions. Swarthmore College has also been a significant force behind the creation of talking dictionaries, with a large catalogue of work. Similarly, Enduring Voices, a collaboration between Living Tongues and National Geographic, has run workshops teaching speakers how to use the software to help sustain their own languages.
Professor Harrison has continued to spearhead many of the collaborations between linguists and speakers that have made these initiatives possible. In a 2015 article, Professor Harrison told the New Yorker that he hopes to help speakers “technologize their language[s]” and ensure that “living tongues…evolve to deserve the term.”
Using tools such as these, hopefully we can all ensure that speakers everywhere will have access to resources which allow them to showcase the wealth of knowledge contained in their words.
If you would like to donate to support the work of Wikitongues or if you would like to get to know our work, please visit wikitongues.org. To watch our oral histories, subscribe to our YouTube channel or visit wikitongues.org to submit a video.
