Speak your language.Keep it for the next child.
Every language holds its people’s stories. Record yours in your own voice, check what others recorded, and add to a free, open collection.
Free and open. Your phone number is never published.
How it works
Three things, all from your phone
Where the words come from
Every word has a history you can follow
Nothing on Tonal is invented, by a person or a machine. Here is how one word got here: àkyèn, Eggon for “one”.
Cited
Written as àkyèn in a published study of how Eggon counts (Ashesla, 2017).
Permission given
Before recording, the speaker chose how their voice may be shared. They can change their mind at any time.
Recorded
Said aloud on a phone by a native speaker of the Wana dialect.
Checked
Other speakers listened all the way through and agreed it was right. A linguist’s vote counts twice.
Given to children
It is now in the Numbers lesson of Tonal Kids, with its picture. If someone finds a better spelling, it can be corrected, and the old one stays on record.
- Meaning
- one
- Source
- Ashesla (2017)
- Lesson
- Numbers
Tonal Kids
A child’s first words, in the voices of their own people
Over a hundred everyday words with pictures, counting to twenty, then short conversations and stories. A child hears a word, says it back, and hears their own voice. It works on a phone, a tablet or the family TV, with its remote.
Open Tonal Kids
Languages
Open now, and coming next
- ego Open nowMo EgonEggon · Nasarawa State, Nigeria Hear EggonTake part
Coming next
Choose yours to join its waitlist. We’ll let you know when it opens.
- hauHarshen HausaHausa · Northern Nigeria and NigerJoin the waitlist
- tivdzwa TivTiv · Benue, Nasarawa, Taraba, Plateau and Cross RiverJoin the waitlist
- nupNupeNiger, Kwara, Kogi, Nasarawa and AbujaJoin the waitlist
- iglIgalaKogi StateJoin the waitlist
- gbrGbagyiAbuja, Kaduna, Niger and NasarawaJoin the waitlist
- bomCèn BèromBerom · Plateau StateJoin the waitlist
- iduÌdɔ́màIdoma · Benue StateJoin the waitlist
- yeriTárókTarok · Plateau and Taraba StatesJoin the waitlist
- ancNgasPlateau StateJoin the waitlist
- alaAlagoNasarawa StateJoin the waitlist
- afoEloyiBenue and Nasarawa StatesJoin the waitlist
- mdaMadaNasarawa and Kaduna StatesJoin the waitlist
- mgiLijiliMigili · Nasarawa StateJoin the waitlist
- gwnGwandaraAbuja, Nasarawa, Niger, Kaduna and KogiJoin the waitlist
For partners
Open data, with consent behind it
Learning apps get checked words with their pictures and recordings in one request. Only what speakers agreed to share.
$ curl https://api…/v1/collections/tonal-kids-ego \ -H "Authorization: Bearer tnl_live_…" { "title": "Tonal Kids: first words", "version": "7c880414b8322645", "ready": 10, "total": 154, "sections": [{ "title": "Numbers", "items": [{ "text": "àkyèn", "english": "one", "picture": { "url": "…/one.webp" }, "audio": { "url": "…/preview.m4a", "durationMs": 939, "dialect": "Wana", "speaker": "spk_4064f944" } }, …] }, …], "license": "CC-BY-4.0"}Full datasets under CC BY 4.0 are on the way.