There’s a new way to learn Native languages: Sealaska Heritage Institute has created an online searchable dictionary with accompanying audio.
The online dictionary allows users to search words and phrases in English or Lingít (Tlingit language), Xaad Kíl (Haida language) and Shm’algyack (Tsimshian language).
The audio recordings allow users to listen to heritage language speakers pronouncing words and phrases.
SHI launched an app for the Tlingit language in 2016, and more recently launched apps for Tsimshian and Haida. But the apps only allowed users to browse words and phrases.
This new online dictionary is the first software that allows users to search words and phrases and the first that includes all three languages in one place, according to Sealaska Heritage’s May 8 announcement.
The Tlingit section includes over 50 categories of words, the Haida section has nearly 40 categories and the Tsimshian section has 30. Categories include fish, food, geography, plants and clothing.
The online dictionary and apps are available for free on SHI’s website through sealaskaheritage.org or here for direct access. The dictionary will continue to be updated with words and audio recordings.
SHI began as a nonprofit in 1980 to preserve and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures in Southeast Alaska. In the 1990s it began to make language revitalization a priority, sponsoring teaching activities and university classes and developing resources like videos, apps, podcasts and games.
“We have produced materials to revitalize our languages and apps that allow people to browse categories and hear audio. Now we have a database that offers all of that and includes a search function,” SHI President Rosita Worl said in a prepared statement. “It’s a game changer.”
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