Lincladu: Empowering Indigenous Communities Through Language Preservation and Communication

The app has been downloaded over three thousand times, but Juliano indicates that the number of users is even higher. He says, “During the testing phases, we used a file sent via WhatsApp, and some indigenous people shared the archive among themselves even before the app was released.”

In addition to facilitating daily communication, the app allows for the translation of books and other texts from Portuguese into indigenous languages. It also enables women from these communities to earn income using their knowledge of local languages. A project called “Lincladas” was established to gather these translators, including former indigenous language teacher Rosilda Cordeiro da Silva, who considers the app “a very positive matter” and finds that it boosts her confidence when translating.

The app also helps preserve some indigenous languages. Vanda Weytoto, an activist, is attempting to “save the Weytoto language,” and she says, “The keyboard has allowed us not to use other characters that are not part of our language.”

Beyond the Amazon region, the protection of languages poses a global challenge, as half of the world’s languages are endangered by 2100, with the majority belonging to indigenous groups, according to a report published by the United Nations in 2018.