Every word carries a world.
A community-owned library of Dene words, phrases and voices, built for classrooms, homes, and the language tools of the future.
See the project in a minute and a half.
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From the written page to a living voice.
We gather existing Dene documents and record interpreters reading them aloud. It is the most economical way to build the transcribed audio the AI tools need, and the library is useful on its own from day one.
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Step 1
Gather
- Dictionaries
- Phrase books
- Stories
- Place-name databases
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Step 2
Record
- Interpreters read each entry
- Lossless WAV masters
- Every version kept
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Step 3
Consent
- Consent stored with each voice
- Speakers credited
- Speakers paid
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Step 4
Organize
- Words, phrases, example sentences
- Search in English or Dene
- Themes and categories
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Step 5
Share
- Community decides what is public
- Public learning sites
- Training data for AI
For people Live
- Members’ library at app.dene.ca for recording, translating and reviewing
- Public collections for each community at denekede.ca
- A contribution portal for adding new documents
For machines Next
- Paired Dene audio and text, exported for model training
- Only recordings whose consent allows it
- The foundation for speech-to-text, text-to-speech and chat
One living collection, for every kind of learner.
The library is an educational resource first. It puts the words of each community within reach of anyone learning them, at school or at home.
Students
- Look up any word in English or Dene
- Works on phones, tablets and laptops
- See words used in example sentences
- Hear fluent speakers say each word (audio coming soon)
Teachers
- Theme-based word lists for units
- Vocabulary from your own community
- Ready material for immersion activities
- One trusted source for spelling
Families
- Practise everyday words together
- Kinship terms, food, weather and land
- Free public access, no sign-in
- Soon: pronunciation from Elders and speakers
Language workers
- Interpreters paid for recording sessions
- Fill missing translations in guided sessions
- Review and verify entries
- Soon: rough transcripts from speech to text
Weather, in Fort Good Hope Dene
How a teacher might use the Fort Good Hope collection for a short weather unit.
- 1Pick a theme
Browse the Weather category in the public collection.
- 2Build the word listYahsnow Yah derelesnowing Sılǝ́jusnowstorm Dzı̨ne gonezǫgood day
- 3Listen and repeat
As recordings go public, play each word the way a fluent speaker said it, then practise out loud.
Each community keeps its own words.
- Three separate collections, one per community
- Students learn the language as it is spoken where they live
- Differences are kept side by side, not merged away
| English | K’áshogotʼı̨nęFort Good Hope | Sahtúot’ı̨nęDélı̨nę | Shúhtaǫt’ineTulítʼa |
|---|---|---|---|
| Water | Tu | Tu | Tu |
| Snow | Yah | Zhah | Zhah |
| Fish | Luge | Łue | Łue |
| Caribou | Ɂǝdǝ | Ekwę́ | Ekwę́ |
Browse by theme
Three AI tools, one voice library underneath.
Recent advances in AI make tools possible that were out of reach a few years ago. Each one is trained on recordings from the library.
Speech to Text
Automatic speech recognition
Transcribes recordings or live Dene speech into written text.
Benefits
- Makes existing audio archives searchable
- Saves interpreters time with rough transcripts
- Enables conversation practice for learners
Text to Speech
Voice synthesis
Reads Dene text aloud with the proper pronunciation and accent.
Benefits
- Speaks words that were never recorded
- Read-along books for learners
- A voice for conversational tools
Chat
Conversational assistant
Answers questions about Dene languages and links to recordings in the library.
Benefits
- Answers questions about the language
- Translations for learners
- Audio interface once speech models are ready
Audio needed per dialect
The community decides what is shared.
The software was built around consent and ownership from the start, not added later.
Consent on every voice
Each recording carries the speaker’s consent. Consent is never assumed.
Private until published
Nothing appears on a public site until the community publishes it.
Speakers credited and paid
Speakers are named with their recordings and paid for their work.
Nothing is lost
Lossless masters are kept, and re-recording adds a new version instead of replacing the old one.
Your data, your copy
Communities can export their full collection, with every recording and its consent.
Self-hostable
The whole system can run on community-controlled servers, with no outside cloud services required.
Progress so far.
Recording, translation sessions, review and consent at app.dene.ca.
Fort Good Hope, Délı̨nę and Tulítʼa, searchable at denekede.ca.
Words linked to the phrases that show them in use.
Interpreters reading entries aloud, word by word.
Recordings are coming to the public collections.
Gathering phrase books, stories and place names.
Trained once enough transcribed audio exists for a dialect.
Needs 10 or more hours per dialect.
A text assistant first, with voice once the speech models work.
Help keep the voices.
The library grows with every document shared and every word recorded.
Speakers and Elders
Record words and phrases in paid sessions.
Communities
Start a collection for your community’s dialect.
Schools
Bring the public collections into your classroom.
Documents
Share dictionaries, phrase books, stories and place names.