Our Projects
From endangered tongues to national languages, every Panglot project is a step toward a more linguistically inclusive world.
Taiwanese indigenous languages
(Formosan languages)
Taiwan, a.k.a. Ilha Formosa “the beautiful island”, is the homeland of the Austronesian peoples. Thousands of years ago, the original Austronesians set sail from Taiwan’s shores to eventually populate islands as far-flung as New Zealand, Hawaii, and even Madagascar. Today, sixteen indigenous tribes are recognised by the government, each with their own language and often several dialects, for a total of 42 language varieties.
Panglot is creating an app for the 16 Austronesian languages of Taiwan and their 42 dialects, in order to help revitalize these languages that have sharply declined in usage from the middle of the 20th century due to oppressive language policies and social pressures at that time. Our work with local language communities has been very fruitful, and we look forward to our first release in late 2026!
te ggana Tuuvalu (Tuvaluan)
Tuvalu is an archipelago nation in the Pacific Ocean. Its highest point being merely 4.6 metres above sea level, Tuvalu’s entire land mass is under threat by rising sea levels. The population is being gradually evacuated to Australia and New Zealand, and in 2022 the foreign minister Simon Kofe announced a plan to digitize Tuvalu’s culture and even its geography in the name of preserving their heritage for future generations.
Panglot is working with the Tuvaluan Embassy of Taiwan to move forward with a project to create an app to preserve the Tuvaluan language, including both northern and southern dialects, so that the culture can live on among those who have moved away to their new homes in Australia and New Zealand.
Kpɛlɛwoo (Kpelle)
Kpelle is a Niger-Congo language spoken primarily in Liberia and Guinea. With around 1.3 million speakers, it is considered stable and safe; however, it still lacks sufficient documentation and learning materials.
Panglot is creating a demo app for learning the Kpelle language, hoping to allow more people to enjoy this language, and help reverse the pressure that is affecting the language in the modern day.
Other Austronesian languages
At Panglot, we believe in providing learning resources for all under-resourced languages, even for some that are not endangered or minoritized.
Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) is the national language of Indonesia and is spoken by over 250 million people. However, despite the enormous number of speakers, it is our observation that there is not much available to learn this language online.
Filipino (Tagalog) is the national language of the Philippines. In a similar situation to Bahasa Indonesia, is spoken by 83 million people and yet there are not many high-quality resources to learn it.
Panglot’s Bahasa Indonesia and Tagalog apps will be available for download on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store in September 2025.
