Digitizing the Higaonon Language: A Mobile Application for Indigenous Preservation in the Philippines

Abstract

This research addresses the critical need for language preservation among the Higaonon indigenous community in Mindanao, Philippines, through the development of a culturally responsive mobile dictionary application. The Higaonon language faces significant endangerment due to generational language shift, limited documentation, and a scarcity of educational materials. Employing user-centered design principles and participatory lexicography, this study involved collaboration with tribal elders, educators, and youth to document and digitize Higaonon vocabulary across ten culturally significant semantic domains. Each Higaonon lexeme was translated into English, Filipino, and Cebuano to enhance comprehension across linguistic groups. The resulting mobile application incorporates multilingual search capabilities, offline access, phonetic transcriptions, example sentences, and culturally relevant design elements. An evaluation conducted with 30 participants (15 Higaonon and 15 non-Higaonon speakers) revealed high satisfaction ratings across functionality (4.81/5.0), usability (4.63/5.0), and performance (4.73/5.0). Offline accessibility emerged as the most valued feature (4.93/5.0), while comparative analysis identified meaningful differences in user experience between native and non-native speakers, with Higaonon users providing more critical assessments particularly regarding font readability and performance optimization. The application demonstrates how community-driven technological interventions can support indigenous language revitalization while respecting cultural integrity, intellectual property rights, and addressing practical community needs. This research establishes a framework for ethical indigenous language documentation that prioritizes community self-determination and provides empirical evidence that culturally responsive digital technologies can effectively preserve endangered languages while serving as repositories for cultural knowledge embedded within linguistic systems.