Learning Maa
A web app for learning Maa, the language of the Maasai. One lesson at a time, with a review queue that brings words back before they are forgotten.
It is also a way of learning to build things. The app is as much an exercise in writing software as it is in learning vocabulary, and both are unfinished.
Where it stands
- Words taught
- 468
- Lessons
- 29
- In reserve
- 7301
- Words recorded
- 0
Reserve words are imported but not yet in any lesson. A word reaches a learner only when a lesson teaches it, so writing a lesson is what puts a word in front of anyone.
How the content is made
Vocabulary is entered by hand from published sources, and every word records where it came from. Nothing here is machine-translated or invented. Where a source is a community website with no editorial process, the entry is marked unverified until a speaker confirms it.
Audio is recorded one word at a time by people who agreed to be recorded. A clip is never played in a lesson until someone has listened to it and approved it, and listening exercises use native-speaker recordings only. There is no synthesised speech: no engine speaks Maa, and a wrong model of pronunciation is worse than none.
Contributing
Anyone can sign up and learn. Contributing content is by invitation for now: the content database draws on sources that are not all free to redistribute, and consent for the recordings was given for use in this app rather than for release. The most useful things to bring are native-speaker recordings, corrections toward Tanzanian Kisonko Maa, and new lessons that promote reserve words into use.
To ask for an invitation, get in touch with the person running this instance.
Thanks
To the speakers who lend their voices, and to the lexicographers whose published work made a beginner's vocabulary possible at all. Mistakes in this app are the app's, not theirs.
Corrections are welcome and expected. A language is not a fixed thing, and neither is this.