Yamal Launches Mobile App to Preserve the Khanty Language
New app aims to help children and families keep an Indigenous language alive through digital learning
A mobile app designed to teach the Khanty language has been presented in Salekhard, Russia. The digital resource was created to help children and families preserve their ancestral language, according to the Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia, and the Far East.
Learning From Home
The app, Yalap khanty poset (Khanty language learning app), was developed by the nonprofit organization Na yazyke serdtsa (In the Language of the Heart). The project is tied to the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, which runs through 2032, and is intended to draw children’s attention to the culture and language of Indigenous peoples of the North. Developers expect the digital format will allow children to study Khanty at home together with their parents.
According to Lyubov Vozelova, a researcher in geoecology at the Earth Cryology Laboratory and a volunteer on the project, families have noted that children are using their ancestral language less frequently in everyday life. The app is intended to help reverse that trend.
The app’s design was created by Salekhard-based artist Varvara Sermer. The digital resource is expected to launch in the near future.
Earlier, it was reported that specialists from Kamchatka State University and the Higher School of Economics School of Linguistics are using digital technologies to preserve the Koryak language.
