News
01/09/2010 - We are happy to announce this first release of the
English / Chichewa (Nyanja) Online Dictionary as a free service
available to the public. We will try to run and provide it, as much
as possible, in the spirit of an free, open and users driven project.
Since this is the first release, there is still a lot of room for
improvements both to the functionality and usability of the site as
to the number of known words in the dictionary database. However we
hope that over the time the service will get better and better. As
the idea is to provide the service mainly as an users driven project
so will its quality and usefulness depend largely on the needs and
suggestions of its users. So use it, support and contribute to it in
the way you think you can, make suggestions, send us feedback and
don't stop asking for more :)
Chewa language
Chewa, also known as Nyanja, is a language of the Bantu language
family. The gender prefix chi- is used for languages, so the language
is also known as Chichewa and Chinyanja (spelled Cinyanja in Zambia),
and locally Nyasa in Mozambique. Chewa is the national language of
Malawi. It is also one of the seven official African languages of
Zambia, where it is spoken mostly in the Eastern Province. It is also
spoken in Mozambique, especially in the provinces of Tete and Niassa,
as well as in Zimbabwe where, according to some estimates, it ranks
as the third-most widely used local language, after Shona and
Northern Ndebele. It was one of the 55 languages featured on the
Voyager.
Wikipedia
The English language has acquired an important position in the
societies of Central and Southern Africa. However, the vernacular
languages have remained indispensable vehicles of communication. For
more than 15 million people in Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania,
Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa, Chinyanja or Chichewa has become
the most significant language of daily life. The language has gained
importance and strength by developments in its written and oral use,
and because an increasing number of its speakers have come to
discover and emphasise their common linguistic heritage and practice.
That is why it has become an intermediary language for all Malawians,
and for many people in the whole of Central and Southern Africa.
Chichewa Dictionary
Project About
The English / Chichewa (Nyanja) Online Dictionary service will try to
be run and provided to the public, as much as possible, in the spirit
of an free, open and users driven project. While the service is for
now available at the sasrc site it is sasrc interest and commitment
to mainly do research and development on the technical side of the
project while the rest of it (mainly the content and the dictionary
database) is largely left to be driven forward by its users.
Additionally to developing the technical side of the project, we hope
to be able to keep a small team of users and supporters that will try
to cover the basics to keep the rest of the project updated and
running. Generally any individual or group interested to support and
work on the project can become a part of this team.
Since a
large part of the project is meant to be open and driven by its users
it is not possible to guarantee that everything is 100% accurate or
error-free. The content is provided as it is and we cannot take any
responsibility for it. However if you have any suggestions or find
some mistakes we will be happy and grateful when you inform us about
them so we can review and fix them. Same goes for possible legal or
other issues.
As for using the dictionary itself it is
important to understand that it is, in its present form, working
mainly as a dictionary and not as a translator. That is, it is doing
single word by word lookups and not full sentence translations. It is
important to understand this difference to be able to use it
efficiently and get the most out of it. We hope to be able to improve
its functionality, usability and quality over time by both increasing
the database of known words as also by the research and development
done on the technical side.
Feedback
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