A personal Dhivehi language learning app, built for anyone wanting to connect with a Maldivian partner or just explore a beautiful and under-resourced language. Think of it as a lightweight Duolingo for Dhivehi — with an AI tutor powered by Claude.
- Phrasebook — 100+ phrases across 9 categories (greetings, love, daily life, questions, food, numbers, travel, emotions, family), each with Thaana script, phonetic pronunciation, and English meaning
- Text-to-speech — hear every phrase spoken aloud using the browser's built-in speech engine
- Quiz — multiple choice quiz that pulls from the full phrase library, with streak tracking
- AI Tutor — chat with a Claude-powered Dhivehi tutor; ask it to translate anything, explain grammar, or teach you new phrases
- Thaana Script guide — interactive reference for the Dhivehi alphabet and vowel diacritics (fili), with tap-to-hear
dhivehi-tutor/
├── dhivehi-learn.html # App shell — markup only, no inline JS or CSS
├── styles.css # All styling
├── phrases.js # Phrase data (PHRASES array) — edit this to add/correct phrases
├── app.js # All app logic (tabs, quiz, phrasebook, speech, chat)
├── alphabet.js # The Thana alphabet
├── server.js # Express server — serves static files and proxies AI requests
├── ecosystem.config.cjs # PM2 config for running on a server/Raspberry Pi
├── package.json
├── .env.example # Template for environment variables
└── .gitignore
The frontend is plain HTML, CSS, and vanilla JavaScript — no framework. phrases.js loads before app.js so the phrase data is available globally.
The Express server (server.js) does two things:
- Serves the static frontend files
- Exposes a
POST /api/chatendpoint that forwards messages to the Anthropic API
The API key lives only in .env on the server — it is never sent to the browser.
Prerequisites: Node.js 18+, an Anthropic API key
git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/dhivehi-tutor.git
cd dhivehi-tutor
npm install
cp .env.example .env
# open .env and paste your ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
npm startThen open http://localhost:3000.
For development with auto-restart on file changes:
npm run devThis setup lets you access the app from your phone anywhere in the world, with your API key staying safely on your own hardware.
# Node.js
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt install -y nodejs
# PM2 (keeps the app running and restarts it on reboot)
sudo npm install -g pm2git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/dhivehi-tutor.git
cd dhivehi-tutor
npm install
cp .env.example .env
nano .env # paste your ANTHROPIC_API_KEYpm2 start ecosystem.config.cjs
pm2 save
pm2 startup # follow the printed instruction to enable auto-start on rebootThe app is now running on port 3000.
# On the Pi
curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh
sudo tailscale upInstall the Tailscale app on your phone and sign in with the same account. Your Pi will appear in your Tailscale network with a stable hostname (e.g. raspberrypi.tail12345.ts.net).
Open your phone browser and navigate to:
http://raspberrypi.tail12345.ts.net:3000
It will work from anywhere as long as Tailscale is active on your phone.
cd dhivehi-tutor
git pull
npm install # only needed if package.json changed
pm2 restart dhivehi-tutorAll phrase data lives in phrases.js. Each entry looks like this:
{ dhivehi: 'ޝުކުރިއްޔާ', phonetic: 'Shukuriyya', english: 'Thank you', category: 'daily' }Available categories: greetings, love, daily, questions, food, numbers, travel, emotions, family
Note: The Dhivehi phrases were compiled with care but may contain inaccuracies — the language is under-resourced online. If you spot something wrong, a native speaker's correction is always preferred.
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY |
Your Anthropic API key |
PORT |
Port to run the server on (default: 3000) |