First online Northern Sotho-English dictionary for SA

TshwaneDJe Human Language Technology Development, in a bid to create public awareness of African languages have created the first online bilingual Northern Sesotho-English dictionary.

TshwaneDJe said they were motivated by the lack of quality language learning resources in the multilingual society of South Africa. The group pointed out the lack of readily accessible basic information about the various languages themselves and hopes to promote a truly multilingual culture amongst South Africans.

The new dictionary, which has been recently launched is the first internet dictionary created in the country by South Africans. The dictionary contains 25 000 Sesotho sa Leboa-English entries. The website includes feedback forms and it also includes a section containing a linguistics terminology list.

TshwaneDJe said they wish to aid in language issues that have had a bearing on everything from day to day intercultural relations, to more crucial issues such as the quality of education. The group intend to launch more dictionaries in other South African languages.

Sesotho sa Leboa (Northern Sotho), previously called Sepedi, is used as a home language by approximately 4 million South Africans (about 10% of the population). It is spoken mostly in the Limpopo province, Gauteng and Mpumalanga. It is related to Sesotho (Southern Sotho) and Setswana.