Wenden relies on technology to preserve the accent.

The municipality of Wenden is planning to create a mobile app to preserve the local language. Using artificial intelligence and audio recordings, the app aims to ensure the uniqueness of “Wendschen Platt”.

Turn – It is an idea to preserve your own dialect and make it accessible to everyone. In this way, the uniqueness of one's language should be preserved for future generations. The municipality of Wenden wants to achieve this with a “Wendsch-Platt dictionary app” on mobile phones. A separate working group is dealing with the development and should also be responsible according to the decision taken at the last council meeting artificial intelligence Enter it into the application.

Users can help

“Users should fill out the app using the dictation function, so that the words are available not only in writing, but also as a short audio recording. In addition, the app should convey information such as current announcements, a basic presentation of the rules and an overview of the background of the working group. In addition to this function, there should also be a rating system by which individual users can evaluate each other’s audio recordings with regard to correct pronunciation, etc. “The terminology search should complement the basic development of the app,” the project of the “Wendsch Platt” working group is described in the draft resolution.

Group leader Christian Stock reports on a preliminary conversation with Professor Dr. Heiner Gevers from the South-Westphalian University of Applied Sciences. The municipality of Winden is not the only one that wants to preserve the old dialects. “It is a meaningful issue and a great story. The municipality of Winden is not the only one that wants to develop such a basic application,” says Heinz Zimmermann from the UWG.

The growing dictionary database can be used to implement the translation function to translate texts into Wendsch-Platt. To do this, in addition to the stems of verbs, nouns and adjectives, the tenses as well as the singular and plural must also be recorded.

“Since terms can vary locally, this includes, for example, the location in the Wenden area. During preparation, the database must be set up accordingly, and when adding words, the user must be able to create variants of the word and specify its grammatical classification.

It will now be clarified together with the South-Westphalian University of Applied Sciences whether such a dictionary app can be developed and how it can be supplemented with an AI component. Ultimately, such an app is a “gift to the Lundische”.

The cost of the application is said to be 17,400 euros. The Winden municipal administration and the working group have previously investigated whether cost savings could be made, but no cheaper alternatives have been found.

With only one abstention, the council members voted in favour of developing a “Wendsch-Platt Dictionary App”. It will also be examined whether it is possible to apply for funding for the project and whether a simpler name could be found.