A field study of an endangered language

NaxiAI 纳西语 · naq xi

Preserving the Naxi language through AI — a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by roughly 300,000 people in the Lijiang valleys of Yunnan, and home to Dongba, the world's last living hieroglyphic script. 用人工智能保护纳西语。纳西语属藏缅语族,约30万人使用,主要分布于云南省丽江。纳西族拥有世界上唯一仍在使用的象形文字——东巴文。

Plate I · Dongba pictographs 东巴文
sun
mountain
water
to see
person
词典词条 Dictionary Entries
平行语料 Parallel Corpus
已评估模型 Models Evaluated
The fine-tuned model on HuggingFace →

Photo · Naxi drummers, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain — CEphoto, Uwe Aranas · CC BY-SA 3.0

§ I Translate

纳西语翻译 Translate with Naxi

使用微调翻译模型进行对话。支持纳西拼音、中文和英文。
Chat with our fine-tuned translation model. Supports Naxi Pinyin, Chinese, and English.

纳西语翻译 Naxi Translation

试试纳西语、中文和英文之间的翻译
Try translating between Naxi, Chinese, and English

纳西拼音声调标记:l=高调, q=低调, f=升调, 无标记=中调
Naxi Pinyin tone markers: l=high, q=low, f=rising, (none)=mid

从 From
到 To
§ II Evaluation

NTQS 模型排行榜 Model Leaderboard

纳西语翻译质量评分——AI模型翻译纳西语的能力如何?
Naxi Translation Quality Score — how well can AI models translate Naxi?

#
模型 Model
NTQS
声调 Tone
语义 Semantic
完整 Complete
Plate II The Naxi world

东巴之乡 A Homeland of Living Script

The language this project serves belongs to a place — the Lijiang basin beneath Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, and the people who still read its pictographs. 纳西语所属之地——玉龙雪山下的丽江坝子,以及至今仍能读写东巴文的纳西人。

Jade Dragon Snow Mountain rising above pine forest near Lijiang
Fig. 1 Jade Dragon Snow Mountain 玉龙雪山 CEphoto, Uwe Aranas · CC BY-SA 3.0
The Moon-Embracing Pavilion and stone bridge at Black Dragon Pool, Lijiang
Fig. 2 Black Dragon Pool 黑龙潭 Colin W · CC BY-SA 3.0
A Naxi elder in traditional dress in Lijiang Old Town
Fig. 3 A Naxi elder, Lijiang chensiyuan · CC BY-SA 4.0
Back of a Naxi woman's dress showing the seven embroidered star discs of the sheepskin cape
Fig. 4 The seven-star cape 披星戴月 CEphoto, Uwe Aranas · CC BY-SA 3.0
Elderly Naxi musicians performing Naxi Ancient Music
Fig. 5 Naxi Ancient Music 纳西古乐 Peter Morgan · CC BY 2.0
A Dongba-script antithetical couplet manuscript
Fig. 6 A Dongba manuscript 东巴经 Daderot · Public domain
Dongba pictographs painted on a stone wall on Qiyi Street, Lijiang
Fig. 7 Living pictographs, Qiyi St. BrokenSphere · CC BY 3.0
Performers carrying baskets before Jade Dragon Snow Mountain
Fig. 8 Beneath the mountain CEphoto, Uwe Aranas · CC BY-SA 3.0
§ III The project

关于项目 About the Project

为濒危语言构建AI工具 Building AI tools for an endangered language

数字词典 Digital Dictionary

3,800+纳西语词条,含拼音、IPA转写、声调标记及中英文释义,数据来源于Webonary、Pangloss和田野录音。
3,800+ Naxi entries with Pinyin, IPA transcription, tone markers, and parallel Chinese/English definitions sourced from Webonary, Pangloss, and field recordings.

微调模型 Fine-Tuned Models

基于60,000+纳西语样本训练的LoRA微调语言模型。最佳模型达到82.3 NTQS——比零样本前沿模型提升41分。
LoRA-adapted language models trained on 60,000+ Naxi examples. Our best model achieves 82.3 NTQS — a 41-point improvement over zero-shot frontier models.

文化保护 Cultural Preservation

纳西族的东巴文是世界上唯一仍在使用的象形文字。七星背包象征着知识的旅程——七颗星照亮前路。
The Naxi people's Dongba script is the world's last living hieroglyphic writing system. Their seven-star backpack symbolizes the journey of knowledge — seven stars to light the way.