BantuNomics My BantuNomics

The value model

One recording. Six datasets.

A single consented story take self-labels into six kinds of ground truth a lab would otherwise assemble from six separate vendors. Nothing extra is annotated by hand — the structure falls out of how the take is captured.

1

Transcript / ASR

The read text IS the reference transcript — supervised speech-to-text, aligned to audio.

2

Forced alignment

Per-sentence segments give time-stamped units — training data for aligners and duration models.

3

Accent label

The speaker's L1 and country stamp the recording — a labeled accent example for robustness.

4

Code-switch boundary

In Bantu&English takes, the switch point (switch_ms) is a labeled language boundary.

5

TTS voice

Clean, consented, page-length native speech — training material for a natural voice.

6

Prosody / phrasing

Connected page-length reading carries phrasing and rhythm that isolated units cannot.

Per mode

Each mode decomposes differently.

The same six-way idea, specialised by mode — this is what a machine sees for a real take in each mode (LIVE = extractable today, PENDING = on the roadmap).

Bantu only

bem · Ulubuli Lulaletelela · 3.5s

asr

audio span ms: [0, 3540] · segmented: True

tts voice

audio span ms: [0, 3540] · sr hz: 48000 · accent: bem/Zambia

aligned units

n segments: 0 · method: read-aloud

translation pair

present: True

prosody

LIVE

connected: True

lexicon fsi

PENDING

Bantu & English (code-switch)

bem · Imbali Shibili · 6.4s · switch @ 4588 ms

asr

audio span ms: [0, 6557] · segmented: True

tts voice

audio span ms: [0, 6557] · sr hz: 48000 · accent: bem/Zambia

aligned units

n segments: 2 · method: read-aloud

translation pair

present: True

codeswitch boundary

LIVE

switch ms: 4588

prosody accent

LIVE

connected: True

segment preview (first 2)
0–4588 ms None
4588–6557 ms None

English only (Bantu-accented)

bem · The Morning at Home · 214.6s

asr

audio span ms: [0, 214620] · segmented: True

tts voice

audio span ms: [0, 214620] · sr hz: 48000 · accent: bem/Zambia

aligned units

n segments: 92 · method: read-aloud/stt-aligned

accent label

LIVE

accent: bem/Zambia

wer benchmark

LIVE

wer: 0.0958

prosody

PENDING

connected: True

segment preview (first 8)
0–6720 ms The Morning at Home
6720–9240 ms I woke up early.
9240–11280 ms The house was quiet.
11280–13200 ms The sun was not yet high.
13200–15240 ms I opened my eyes slowly.
15240–17520 ms I listened for a moment.
17520–19320 ms I could hear a bird outside.
19320–22200 ms I could hear someone sweeping the yard.

Oral narration

loz · None · 174.2s

asr

audio span ms: [0, 174170] · segmented: True

tts voice

audio span ms: [0, 174170] · sr hz: 48000 · accent: loz/Zambia

aligned units

n segments: 0 · method: read-aloud

translation pair

present: False

prosody

LIVE

connected: True

lexicon fsi

PENDING

Reproducibility

The same text, across accents.

Mode 3 uses a small set of language-neutral English stories read by many Bantu L1 speakers. Same words, different mouths — a matched benchmark that isolates accent from content. That is why the accent WER numbers are comparable across languages.