Chi: A Chichewa-Inspired Programming Language with Real-Time Python Interoperability for Education and Community Applications

Chi Programming Language: A Natural-Language-Inspired Programming System for Bridging Native Language and Python

This work presents Chi, a experimental programming language designed to make programming more accessible by integrating natural-language concepts with computational logic. Chi enables users to express algorithms using structured linguistic constructs that can be interpreted and translated into Python code, supporting bidirectional conversion between Chi and Python.
The implementation provides an interpreter that allows Chi programs to be executed directly or embedded within Python environments, enabling seamless interoperability with existing Python ecosystems. This design aims to lower the barrier to programming by allowing learners to begin coding in a more intuitive, language-adaptive format while gradually transitioning to standard programming syntax.
Chi is released as an open-source Python package and is publicly available via the Python Package Index (PyPI), allowing researchers, educators, and developers to experiment with its capabilities. The system is intended for educational purposes, computational linguistics exploration, and programming language design research.
This preprint documents the design principles, architecture, and implementation of Chi, and serves as an initial step toward exploring hybrid natural-language programming systems that support multilingual accessibility in computing education.