Using AI to keep an endangered language alive

 Using AI to keep an endangered language alive

Why is this important? To the diné, the Navajo language is a gift given by holy deities, as a way to communicate with their people and keep a connection with nature and living things. Did you know some Navajo words are used in Latin American Spanish? With only around 170,000 people being able to speak Navajo, the number is getting smaller. According to Pauly Denetclaw in 2010, 51% of Navajo people could speak Navajo, in 2020 only 25% of the Navajo people speak Navajo and in 2030 it’s estimated to drop down 10%. With our project we hope to create an AI assistant that communicates with you in Navajo so that you can learn the language or at least the basics of having a conversation. With Navajo being an endangered language it's only on three language learning apps and those apps only scratch the surface and don't simulate having a conversation with someone in Navajo. Since Navajo is one of the hardest languages to learn, for our project we want to make the action of listening or speaking Navajo a daily action so that learning Navajo can become easier and faster.