Design and Development of a Collaborative and Open-Content Bilingual Online Dictionary: Oshindonga-English

Description

The national language policy of Namibia has changed over time and it now recognises some of the local languages in various formal structures of the country such as lower primary education. Even though all these languages are being used daily, only a handful of them have created digital content that can be accessed and understood by a limited number of people across the country. Some of the available content from back in the days was created before the digital era, thus are not easily accessible or available and if they are, they have not been updated in a long time. Realising these facts and acknowledging the importance of indigenous languages in Namibia, we focus this study on creating solutions to the challenges presented.

We are therefore proposing to design and develop a Collaborative and Open-Content Oshindonga-English Bilingual Online Dictionary. It will function as a simple language translation proof of concept platform service for several Namibian indigenous languages. It will provide an open and collaborative platform on which anyone who has an interest in learning more on Namibian indigenous languages can go to, at the same time they will also be able to contribute to the preservation and development of these various languages.