RRU student creates Dëne Sųłıné digital dictionary for Łutsël K’é community

Royal Roads University doctoral student Shawna Yamkovy is creating a Dëne Sųłıné digital dictionary that will preserve her mother’s ancestral language. Yamkovy visited the Łutsël K’é community and met with community members and elders to receive guidance on digitizing the current Łutsël K’é Dëne Sųłiné dictionary. She plans to add recordings of fluent speakers pronouncing and using words so that students learning the language can link them to concepts. Yamkovy also wanted to make sure that the dictionary could grow. “The dictionary project is going to be a huge resource to offer the community for years and generations to come, with the ability to hear these speakers,” said Yamkovy. “To have this in a formalized way and incorporated into an educational tool forever – the benefits are going to be great for the community, supporting this path of language revitalization.”

RRU