Revitalizing Mandailing Language Through a Digital Dictionary: A Contribution to Sustainable Development in Indonesia

Abstract

Indonesia is the second most linguistically diverse country after Papua New Guinea, with 718 regional languages spread across 17,380 islands. This linguistic diversity is an invaluable cultural asset, but it faces serious threats from language shifts, education policies, and economic migration. The urgency of this research lies in the weakening of intergenerational transmission and the lack of digital documentation of regional languages, especially Mandailing. This research uses a Research and Development (R&D) approach combined with qualitative descriptive methods. The data analysis followed these steps: 1) Data collection and organization, 2) Content analysis, 3) Synthesis and model development, 4) Expert validation. The main finding is that language revitalization through digital technology is crucial in the current era, so compiling the Mandailing-Indonesian-English Digital Dictionary in digital format is a strategic solution in lexical documentation and intergenerational learning media. The findings also show that the development of this digital dictionary supports mother tongue literacy, opens up space for the integration of Mandailing in education and research, and strengthens the existence of Mandailing at the national and global levels. In conclusion, language revitalization based on digital technology is an adaptive, participatory, and sustainable step in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).