isiXhosa.click: Boosting Access to isiXhosa Vocabulary Through Student Innovation at North-West University
The journey of learning a new language is filled with the excitement of discovering new sounds and words. For learners of isiXhosa, this journey has been made significantly easier by the introduction of isiXhosa.click, an innovative online dictionary bridging isiXhosa and English. This tool, which is both free and open-source, is enhancing the way users engage with the language, facilitating a smoother learning experience.
Supported in part by the South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR), isiXhosa.click stands out for its ease of use and community-driven focus. By simply entering an English or isiXhosa term into the search bar, users are met with instant search results, further enriched with examples and related words. Currently, the dictionary boasts an impressive 2062 entries, making it a substantial resource for both new and seasoned learners of the language.
The inception of isiXhosa.click was born out of a shared passion for language by a student-led team at the University of Cape Town (UCT), spearheaded by Cael Marquard, a computer science honours student and part-time developer. Alongside team members Jacob Lund, William Moultrie, and Luvo Gcingca, Marquard envisioned a solution to the glaring gap in high-quality, reliable, and easily accessible isiXhosa learning resources. The team, all of whom studied isiXhosa through to their final high school year, recognized the limitations imposed by existing resources; learners often had to choose between expensive, rights-restricted professional dictionaries or unreliable, machine-generated options.
Marquard explains, “This online dictionary is a evolving resource, aimed at not only bridging the online resource gap but also making the language more accessible.” Highlighting the project’s initial focus on healthcare-related vocabulary, he notes the utility of having such resources readily available on one’s phone, especially in contexts like the Western Cape where many hospital patients are first-language isiXhosa speakers.
The project received crucial funding from SADiLaR, used primarily to employ isiXhosa honours students from UCT for the inclusion of words from an isiXhosa statistics glossary and other contributions. Further support involved improving website functionality and moving the site to UCT’s Department of Computer Science’s server for enhanced stability. The project’s open-source nature, with code available on GitHub, invites ongoing collaboration and improvement.
Expressing gratitude for the support, Marquard heralds the contributions of SADiLaR and the opportunities for collaboration that have since emerged, especially highlighting the collaboration with Mthuli Buthelezi in extending the dictionary’s reach to cover isiZulu through the DH-OER Champions initiative. This collaboration exemplifies the project’s broader vision of extending and enriching the dictionary to cover multiple languages and serve varied linguistic needs.
Professor Menno van Zaanen of SADiLaR praised the project’s significant impact on the isiXhosa language and its potential to catalyze further developments in language learning resources. Marquard’s ambitions for the future are similarly expansive, aiming to collaborate with academics, lexicographers, and language practitioners to further enhance the dictionary. Plans include expanding the database of words, improving user experience, and introducing multilingual capabilities.
An engaging addition to the site is an isiXhosa Wordle game, which challenges users with a new six-letter word daily, further enriching the learning journey.
With these advancements, isiXhosa.click is set to transform the landscape of language learning for isiXhosa speakers and learners, highlighting the power of student innovation in addressing real-world challenges.
