Pan-African Living Dictionary Online

• Thematic framework: Cyberspace
• Geographical outreach: International
• Types of project: Disseminating information
  
  
• Beneficiary country/countries:
  Tanzania
  Ghana
  Kenya
  Rwanda
  Nigeria Congo (DRC)
  
  
• Main responsible:
  Martin Benjamin
  chemin du Mont-Tendre 11
  Crissier 1023

Summary of the activities
Building on the successful Kamusi Project Swahili-English online dictionary, PALDO will be an interlinked participatory dictionary among multiple African languages. PALDO will begin with :

- a full dictionary linking Kinyarwanda with the existing Swahili and English lexicons, and
- a 2500-word terminology lexicon for each of a dozen languages widely spoken in Africa.

As new partners are identified, the resource will be expanded to include complete dictionaries and learning resources for several dozen African languages, including cross-border and endangered languages.

PALDO will include definitions for each term within its own language (monolingual dictionaries), as well as links between terms in each language, thereby creating the first bilingual dictionaries between most African language pairs.

PALDO will be free, updated regularly, and available in online and portable formats. The project will also work with educational and technology organizations to make the project data widely available in African schools and IT applications. The resource is expected to serve more than 100 million visitors a year by 2012, including millions from throughout Africa.

Main partners
International Development Research Centre (Canada),
World Languages Documentation Centre,
Zuza Foundation (South Africa),
Grambling State University (USA),
Rwanda Institute for Research in Science and Technology, Kasahorow.org (Ghana)