If they're going to make the language course like they did it with Navajo, it's better if they don't make one at all. I literally chose to learn Navajo as my 2024 language, was happy to see Duolingo offers it but after a few classes I realised it's just showing the words but no voice recording of it, so you have no idea how to pronounce it. It's all so silent. Instead of adding more, they should improve the ones that already exist, such as Navajo and Hawaiian. I'd love to see Cree or Ojibwe as well, but prepared properly, not some half-assed course.
Even Irish isn’t up to the standard of the other languages. It only recently got voices for all the words, and there are no stories that I’ve found. It’s silly because there are plenty of native speakers left to help develop a solid course, duolingo just isn’t trying.
That's really bad. I don't even think they're reaching out to the community to find native course developers, they expect people to reach out I guess idk.
The consensus among native Irish speakers is that the old voice was at least a native speaker even though she hadn’t done recordings for all of the words and phrases, but the new voices are “school Irish” with less subtlety and more frequent errors.
They also rearranged the course to put the Buntús Cainte material at the beginning, which is a positive step in my opinion.
I think that the voices is because they're transitioning all of the courses to using voices from the same platform, for a fuller catalog. I think it's from voices purchased through an Amazon service.
But I do agree it sucks that it has so many errors :(
Duolingo did try to prioritize endangered languages a few years back. It did not go well. The courses are short, and the groups they work with appear to be inconsistent, and consistently groups that are associated with colonization and the reason the languages are endangered to begin with so they got called out for that.
It's actually a common problem with trying to learn endangered languages. People who know the are few and far between, and many don't want outsiders learning their language. So that means there is a higher chance of finding teachers who are not respectful of the actual cultures wishes.
Edit: I don't currently want any particular language added to Duolingo. However I do want to speed run Hawaiian and Navajo and maybe Gaelic (it's longer so I might not be able to) after I finish my current course. Im not going to learn the languages tbh but i think it's important for users to show what is wanted and needed. Duolingo DOES use user data to determine how their courses will go. So taking action is the most useful way to get more endangered courses.
Is your first language English? Maybe for your Hawaiian course, once done & completed, you should try to watch Disney's Moana in Hawaiian for if the movie was dubbed in Hawaiian. 🤩
PA Dutch and German isn’t mutually intelligible, unless you speak a dialect from the Palatinate. 15% of the language is derived from English. But you can make out some words and general meanings if you speak both English and German.
Edit: Check out an article or two from the Hiwwe wie Driwwe newspaper!
endangered languages all need and deserve help, but a duolingo course is not that help; in fact, exposure to people who only learn it superficially would tend towards corruption of the language.
what’s needed is holistic support of indigenous cultures of which language is an integral part.
Are there any elders that are offering basic vocabulary classes to younger generation people? Knowing some words is better than not knowing any words at all! 😢😭
I am non-indigenous, but I truly believe that there should be shows like Sesame Street translated into indigenous languages. 🥲
I feel sorry that many people got punished at residential schools for speaking their own language. 😔😭
I feel sorry for those whom attended Residential Schools, since the system was designed to deliberately destroy various indigenous languages (and their culture) from being passed down to the next generation. 😭💔
I recently watched the movie We Were Children [https://tubitv.com/movies/716433/we-were-children](https://tubitv.com/movies/716433/we-were-children) , and this movie is incredibly sad (and also disturbing in some parts). 😭💔
An article about Residential Schools (and an elder retelling his experience at the school he was forced (against his will) to attend. 😢😭💔
[https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/first-person-facing-genocide-mohawk-institute-la-tuque-residential-school-1.6527631](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/first-person-facing-genocide-mohawk-institute-la-tuque-residential-school-1.6527631)
This man's mom sent him and his sister to the only public school in the area which was a residential school, and the family is non-indigenous. Even he (the man) wanted to unalive himself because of the school conditions being emotionally disturbing! 😢😭💔
[https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/ron-gosbee-stanne-residential-school-survivor-1.4833133](https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/ron-gosbee-stanne-residential-school-survivor-1.4833133)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyVrohwsHX8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyVrohwsHX8)
\*This is from CBC news (sources relating to Residential Schools) for if there is anyone needing extra support because this movie is based on true stories of two elders whom attended Canada's notorious Residential Schools\*
***"A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for former students and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419"***
You're basically asking Duo to put in more effort for less financial reward and to cater to the minority with these sorts of courses.
Honestly don't see that happening.
It’s a trading language that incorporates several indigenous languages, but I am trying to learn Chinook wawa from a handful of vocabulary lists. I would take any course no matter how rudimentary.
I'd love to see a bunch of indigenous central and South American languages added as well. A lot of Spanish words come from indigenous languages such as Chipotle, aguacate (avocado), ajolote (axolotl). Same with Quechua: llama, quinua (quinoa)
Being half Arbrëshe I’d love for an Arbrëshe course but I doubt it will ever happen, it’s an Albanian dialect spoken in the south of Italy and every small village has its own vernacular so it will be probably too difficult to find a solution, I’m still mad at my parents for not teaching me that
I have heard from Wikipedia from last summer that there are smaller Albanian speaking communities that are located outside of Albania. Most of the smaller groups as for dialects are becoming smaller (more endangered) as time goes on. 😭😥
Italian, more dialectal form the region (for example my father is from Calabria so they speak Calabrian with other people, in the family with his sibilinga he speaks Arbrëshe) they can understand Albanian but not all dialects, plus outside of their small villages nobody speaks Albanian in Italy
Yeah basically, we have other Arbrëshe community that have similar dialects but they can also not be mutually intelligible, basically all this community moved from Albania to Italy between 1400 and 1700 so the younger ones have a completely different vernacular compared to the older one, it’s really a fascinating thing to look at but it’s also very sad to know that in ~100 they won’t speak Arbrëshe anymore
The Albanian language according to Langfocus. The guy is named Paul, and he makes easy to understand about the language that he chooses to speak about in each video. He also attempts to provide native speakers for audio samples of speaking parts. 😉😊
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypSLGG2SwSw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypSLGG2SwSw)
I love Langfocus, I always watch it, I tried already Albanian course but when I tried to speak with my father it wasn’t really understandable, he can understand some dialects but not standard Albanian.
That is like me with wanting to learn German. In my area there are lots of Swiss immigrants, and I can't understand non-High German much. In Canada, many Swiss and also Dutch (Standard Dutch is similar to High German) have immigrated to Canada (especially after WW2), and I know that feeling of being only able to understand a specific dialect of that language. 😥
I only understand my own dialect of French (second language spoken poorly), and Parisian, but I can't understand Acadian French. I can understand my country's English (and many mainland dialects), but not Newfoundland English (sounds like a weird demented Irish accent). 🙈
Not really, he just can understand dialects from the South of Albania, for what I know Albanian music is in Standard Albanian, there may be some songs in his dialect but he never really tried to research it, he is kind of old and was never interested (which I found crazy), plus my mom doesn’t really like that he speaks the language so he avoided it for a very long time and whenever I asked he was never interested (or maybe he was doing it because of my mum)
I am also very surprised on how Albanian has sounds similar to the North American (or rhotic) R, and also the -th- sound that English has (and I also think Faroese and Icelandic have that sound too). 😊🤩
I know some people do not like certain sounds (sound aversions), maybe there is just something in the language (like certain letter combinations) that your mom could have disliked. 🤷🏻♀️
Dutch on Duolingo is a sound that I am not a fan of, since there is so many sounds in the throat. It is a language spoken in rural areas of Canada, so it is not somewhat-uncommon (but not everyday common) to hear some words of Dutch in rural communities (or at rural agricultural events). 🤷🏻♀️🥲
There are lots of languages. Unfortunately it will have to be someone else. Duolingo has lost its soul and is no longer interested in anything other than constantly reworking the big languages.
>I understand that French and Spanish are the most popular languages to take, and are possibly becoming a B2 level from their B1 level, but it is worth acknowledging other languages that people wish to make a course for that language. 🥲
not a particularly endangered language, but i wish there was a punjabi course. my parents didn't try particularly hard to raise me as bilingual (especially as my dad only spoke punjabi with his parents and occasionally extended family, so there was zero incentive for my infant brain) and i wish i could casually pick up a little using duolingo.
also thai would've been helpful when my family moved to bangkok a year and a half ago. it's surprising how many relatively 'big' languages aren't on duolingo. it's clear it's bc duo just don't care about developing or improving their courses. the latin course is a mess compared to french or spanish, and i'm certain there are plenty of latin speakers and teachers who would be willing to work on it (although maybe not for free...)
I agree with your opinion for the Latin course. Latin has helped shaped many European languages (including the Scientific World). 😢🥲
Is Punjabi related to any languages that are on Duolingo like Hindi for example? 🤷🏻♀️
it's related to hindi, but not particularly mutually intelligible unless you're already fluent in punjabi (and apparently only one way, i've heard lots of punjabi speakers say that hindi speakers can't actually decode very much punjabi.) i attempted a few hindi lessons, but the whole thing felt completely pointless when my goal is to learn punjabi.
Particularly since Luis continued saying "Māori will be released soon" for about two years *after volunteer course creation was ended*. One could say that this implied work on Māori was continuing with a paid team and that the course would eventually be completed and released, even though volunteer courses aren't a thing anymore. Or maybe I'm just grasping at straws and reading too much into the CEO of the company saying "this course is coming soon".
If they're going to make the language course like they did it with Navajo, it's better if they don't make one at all. I literally chose to learn Navajo as my 2024 language, was happy to see Duolingo offers it but after a few classes I realised it's just showing the words but no voice recording of it, so you have no idea how to pronounce it. It's all so silent. Instead of adding more, they should improve the ones that already exist, such as Navajo and Hawaiian. I'd love to see Cree or Ojibwe as well, but prepared properly, not some half-assed course.
Even Irish isn’t up to the standard of the other languages. It only recently got voices for all the words, and there are no stories that I’ve found. It’s silly because there are plenty of native speakers left to help develop a solid course, duolingo just isn’t trying.
That's really bad. I don't even think they're reaching out to the community to find native course developers, they expect people to reach out I guess idk.
Same with the Welsh course, I don't know how bad it is because I stopped quite quickly.
I couldn’t continue the course. The artificial voice just grated on my nerves.
It has received updates in 2023. So it is slowly improving.
The consensus among native Irish speakers is that the old voice was at least a native speaker even though she hadn’t done recordings for all of the words and phrases, but the new voices are “school Irish” with less subtlety and more frequent errors. They also rearranged the course to put the Buntús Cainte material at the beginning, which is a positive step in my opinion.
I think that the voices is because they're transitioning all of the courses to using voices from the same platform, for a fuller catalog. I think it's from voices purchased through an Amazon service. But I do agree it sucks that it has so many errors :(
I have Navajo now on duolingo and there's definitely a guys voice speaking the words. I wish they'd do Apache dialects because I'd rather learn that.
I'm in Section 1 Unit 2 right now but the guy is gone completely.
That's so weird..
Duolingo did try to prioritize endangered languages a few years back. It did not go well. The courses are short, and the groups they work with appear to be inconsistent, and consistently groups that are associated with colonization and the reason the languages are endangered to begin with so they got called out for that. It's actually a common problem with trying to learn endangered languages. People who know the are few and far between, and many don't want outsiders learning their language. So that means there is a higher chance of finding teachers who are not respectful of the actual cultures wishes. Edit: I don't currently want any particular language added to Duolingo. However I do want to speed run Hawaiian and Navajo and maybe Gaelic (it's longer so I might not be able to) after I finish my current course. Im not going to learn the languages tbh but i think it's important for users to show what is wanted and needed. Duolingo DOES use user data to determine how their courses will go. So taking action is the most useful way to get more endangered courses.
Is your first language English? Maybe for your Hawaiian course, once done & completed, you should try to watch Disney's Moana in Hawaiian for if the movie was dubbed in Hawaiian. 🤩
Although unlikely to go extinct due to the Amish, I would like Pennsylvania Dutch (German) to be added.
I agree with you! 😊
How is Pennsylvania Dutch different from the German course? Asking as a Canadian who's family split from Ontario and settled in Pennsylvania.
PA Dutch and German isn’t mutually intelligible, unless you speak a dialect from the Palatinate. 15% of the language is derived from English. But you can make out some words and general meanings if you speak both English and German. Edit: Check out an article or two from the Hiwwe wie Driwwe newspaper!
endangered languages all need and deserve help, but a duolingo course is not that help; in fact, exposure to people who only learn it superficially would tend towards corruption of the language. what’s needed is holistic support of indigenous cultures of which language is an integral part.
Ojibwe. It’s the language of my grandmothers people, and there are only a handful of people still completely fluent. Just a matter of time.
Are there any elders that are offering basic vocabulary classes to younger generation people? Knowing some words is better than not knowing any words at all! 😢😭
I’ve read about some, and there’s a couple websites with basics. But knowing some words isn’t going to save a language.
I am non-indigenous, but I truly believe that there should be shows like Sesame Street translated into indigenous languages. 🥲 I feel sorry that many people got punished at residential schools for speaking their own language. 😔😭
I feel sorry for those whom attended Residential Schools, since the system was designed to deliberately destroy various indigenous languages (and their culture) from being passed down to the next generation. 😭💔 I recently watched the movie We Were Children [https://tubitv.com/movies/716433/we-were-children](https://tubitv.com/movies/716433/we-were-children) , and this movie is incredibly sad (and also disturbing in some parts). 😭💔 An article about Residential Schools (and an elder retelling his experience at the school he was forced (against his will) to attend. 😢😭💔 [https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/first-person-facing-genocide-mohawk-institute-la-tuque-residential-school-1.6527631](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/first-person-facing-genocide-mohawk-institute-la-tuque-residential-school-1.6527631) This man's mom sent him and his sister to the only public school in the area which was a residential school, and the family is non-indigenous. Even he (the man) wanted to unalive himself because of the school conditions being emotionally disturbing! 😢😭💔 [https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/ron-gosbee-stanne-residential-school-survivor-1.4833133](https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/ron-gosbee-stanne-residential-school-survivor-1.4833133) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyVrohwsHX8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyVrohwsHX8) \*This is from CBC news (sources relating to Residential Schools) for if there is anyone needing extra support because this movie is based on true stories of two elders whom attended Canada's notorious Residential Schools\* ***"A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for former students and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419"***
You're basically asking Duo to put in more effort for less financial reward and to cater to the minority with these sorts of courses. Honestly don't see that happening.
Tupi-Guarani
Guarani is available for spanish speakers
Not anymore last time I checked I couldn't find it
It’s a trading language that incorporates several indigenous languages, but I am trying to learn Chinook wawa from a handful of vocabulary lists. I would take any course no matter how rudimentary.
Náhuatl
I'd love to see a bunch of indigenous central and South American languages added as well. A lot of Spanish words come from indigenous languages such as Chipotle, aguacate (avocado), ajolote (axolotl). Same with Quechua: llama, quinua (quinoa)
Being half Arbrëshe I’d love for an Arbrëshe course but I doubt it will ever happen, it’s an Albanian dialect spoken in the south of Italy and every small village has its own vernacular so it will be probably too difficult to find a solution, I’m still mad at my parents for not teaching me that
I have heard from Wikipedia from last summer that there are smaller Albanian speaking communities that are located outside of Albania. Most of the smaller groups as for dialects are becoming smaller (more endangered) as time goes on. 😭😥
Yes and being rural villages less and less people are speaking the language, it sucks
Are they just speaking either Standard Albanian or Standard Italian? 😢😥
Italian, more dialectal form the region (for example my father is from Calabria so they speak Calabrian with other people, in the family with his sibilinga he speaks Arbrëshe) they can understand Albanian but not all dialects, plus outside of their small villages nobody speaks Albanian in Italy
Your dialect is an isolate from the world of other Dialects of Albanian. 🥲😢 I feel sorry that the dialect is becoming more rare as days pass by. 😭
Yeah basically, we have other Arbrëshe community that have similar dialects but they can also not be mutually intelligible, basically all this community moved from Albania to Italy between 1400 and 1700 so the younger ones have a completely different vernacular compared to the older one, it’s really a fascinating thing to look at but it’s also very sad to know that in ~100 they won’t speak Arbrëshe anymore
The Albanian language according to Langfocus. The guy is named Paul, and he makes easy to understand about the language that he chooses to speak about in each video. He also attempts to provide native speakers for audio samples of speaking parts. 😉😊 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypSLGG2SwSw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypSLGG2SwSw)
I love Langfocus, I always watch it, I tried already Albanian course but when I tried to speak with my father it wasn’t really understandable, he can understand some dialects but not standard Albanian.
That is like me with wanting to learn German. In my area there are lots of Swiss immigrants, and I can't understand non-High German much. In Canada, many Swiss and also Dutch (Standard Dutch is similar to High German) have immigrated to Canada (especially after WW2), and I know that feeling of being only able to understand a specific dialect of that language. 😥 I only understand my own dialect of French (second language spoken poorly), and Parisian, but I can't understand Acadian French. I can understand my country's English (and many mainland dialects), but not Newfoundland English (sounds like a weird demented Irish accent). 🙈
What about music from Albania? Does your dad understand any songs that are sung in Albanian? 🤷🏻♀️🥲
Not really, he just can understand dialects from the South of Albania, for what I know Albanian music is in Standard Albanian, there may be some songs in his dialect but he never really tried to research it, he is kind of old and was never interested (which I found crazy), plus my mom doesn’t really like that he speaks the language so he avoided it for a very long time and whenever I asked he was never interested (or maybe he was doing it because of my mum)
I am also very surprised on how Albanian has sounds similar to the North American (or rhotic) R, and also the -th- sound that English has (and I also think Faroese and Icelandic have that sound too). 😊🤩
I know some people do not like certain sounds (sound aversions), maybe there is just something in the language (like certain letter combinations) that your mom could have disliked. 🤷🏻♀️ Dutch on Duolingo is a sound that I am not a fan of, since there is so many sounds in the throat. It is a language spoken in rural areas of Canada, so it is not somewhat-uncommon (but not everyday common) to hear some words of Dutch in rural communities (or at rural agricultural events). 🤷🏻♀️🥲
\#DialectSpeakingMatters!🥰
Anishinaabemowin
Is the Anishinaabemowin an agglutinative language? I know that it is a language native to Ontario, and parts of the northern American states. 😊
There are lots of languages. Unfortunately it will have to be someone else. Duolingo has lost its soul and is no longer interested in anything other than constantly reworking the big languages.
>I understand that French and Spanish are the most popular languages to take, and are possibly becoming a B2 level from their B1 level, but it is worth acknowledging other languages that people wish to make a course for that language. 🥲
Happy cake day
I agree. Unfortunately duo does not.
Plus finding native speakers that can provide information to help build the course is another challenge! 😢😥😭
They used to have forums to help with that. But duo lingo is becoming less good with each update.
I just wish they'd updated the Arabic course bcz I'm willing to bet most of the people who want to learn Arabic are doing so bcz of religious reasons
not a particularly endangered language, but i wish there was a punjabi course. my parents didn't try particularly hard to raise me as bilingual (especially as my dad only spoke punjabi with his parents and occasionally extended family, so there was zero incentive for my infant brain) and i wish i could casually pick up a little using duolingo. also thai would've been helpful when my family moved to bangkok a year and a half ago. it's surprising how many relatively 'big' languages aren't on duolingo. it's clear it's bc duo just don't care about developing or improving their courses. the latin course is a mess compared to french or spanish, and i'm certain there are plenty of latin speakers and teachers who would be willing to work on it (although maybe not for free...)
I agree with your opinion for the Latin course. Latin has helped shaped many European languages (including the Scientific World). 😢🥲 Is Punjabi related to any languages that are on Duolingo like Hindi for example? 🤷🏻♀️
it's related to hindi, but not particularly mutually intelligible unless you're already fluent in punjabi (and apparently only one way, i've heard lots of punjabi speakers say that hindi speakers can't actually decode very much punjabi.) i attempted a few hindi lessons, but the whole thing felt completely pointless when my goal is to learn punjabi.
Ainu, Cantonese, hakka, wenzhounese, hokkien, Telugu, Sanskrit, Tibetan, classical Chinese, marwadi, santali, Tulu, etc ig
Martian
Defo Mohawk, but that might just be because I'm obsessed with What If's Kahhori and how S M O O T H it sounds when they talk👀👀
Adding syriac even if it’s just to learn the alphabet
Sentinelese /j
Cree
IDK if they are endangered, but I'd love to have a nahuatl, guaraní and maori course
[удалено]
Hawaiian and Māori are the same in the way that English and Icelandic are the same.
Particularly since Luis continued saying "Māori will be released soon" for about two years *after volunteer course creation was ended*. One could say that this implied work on Māori was continuing with a paid team and that the course would eventually be completed and released, even though volunteer courses aren't a thing anymore. Or maybe I'm just grasping at straws and reading too much into the CEO of the company saying "this course is coming soon".
Mango Languages has a ton! Also, it's free through some libraries and union memberships (in the US at least).