Woolly Translator

Maliseet-Passamaquoddy is listed as an endangered language, with less than 500 native speakers. (Wikipedia) There are many initiatives on endangered languages focussed on documentation, and the resources created out of that are very helpful in acquiring the phonology (sounds and sound system) of the language. At the same time, there are none focussed on expression. This situates beginner language learners in a passive position and is a major barrier in getting to an intermediate level of fluency. Having the additional support of a translation app would reinforce learners' knowledge of morphology and grammar. 

Woolly will give you the words to anything you want to say. Its mascot is a friendly cartoon woolly mammoth, one of our relatives who lived long ago. The morpheme "woli" also means good/happy in Maliseet.

Utilizing the large volume of language resources available online as its corpus, and supported through its early development by native speakers, Woolly is a translation tool similar to Google Translate/DeepL. An additional feature of transcription would provide users with a transcript of user-uploaded audio/video files.

Woolly could serve the growing community of beginner and intermediate Maliseet language learners. Woolly would be free to use and accessible to anyone. Woolly could also eventually support other languages such as Mi'kmaw, Ojibway, and Cree due to their similarity as members of the same language family. 

Having more access to our own language will be beneficial for all our people. There are approximately 5500 Maliseet/Passamaquoddy community members across the Canada-US border that this application could directly benefit and serve future generations. Learners and educators would likely get the greatest use from Woolly, as well as creatives.

This solution will address their need to make learning and applying Maliseet-Passamaquoddy language more accessible to learners. As a community member, I am aware of relatives who are directly working to save our language such as MIT Linguistics scholars Roger Paul and Newell Lewey as well as Dr. Andrea Bear-Nicholas, all of whom I would be consulting for my project. 

Throughout my undergraduate studies in Linguistics (BA, 2023 graduate), I have gained a deeper understanding of the systematic aspects of language. I want to use this knowledge to help our communities get our language back. A key informant for my solution will be Dr. Andrea Bear-Nicholas as she is regarded as a language expert. As well, I will be consulting with the MIT MLK Scholar Patricia Saulis, who is my mother and is well-known for community/tribal expertise. 

MIT Solve could help our community overcome financial, technical and legal barriers. I believe that having the help to develop this software would be invaluable. I also believe in Indigenous-led solutions and this would be very helpful to our communities across the border. 

My team is connected directly to the communities I am looking to serve with this solution. I am a First Nation member of Tobique First Nation. I have connections to elders, language keepers, and knowledge carriers in my communities.