Datasets:

michsethowusu
/

swahili-words-speech-text-parallel

language:
  - sw
license: cc-by-4.0
task_categories:
  - automatic-speech-recognition
  - text-to-speech
task_ids:
  - keyword-spotting
multilinguality:
  - monolingual
size_categories:
  - 1K<n<10K
modalities:
  - audio
  - text
dataset_info:
  features:
    - name: audio
      dtype: audio
    - name: text
      dtype: string
  config_name: default
  splits:
    - name: train
      num_bytes: 0
      num_examples: 411048
  download_size: 0
  dataset_size: 0
tags:
  - speech
  - swahili
  - east-africa
  - african-languages
  - low-resource
  - parallel-corpus
pretty_name: Swahili Words Speech-Text Parallel Dataset

Swahili Words Speech-Text Parallel Dataset

Dataset Description

This dataset contains 411048 parallel speech-text pairs for Swahili, a widely spoken language in East Africa. The dataset consists of audio recordings paired with corresponding text transcriptions, making it suitable for automatic speech recognition (ASR) and text-to-speech (TTS) tasks.

Dataset Summary

Language: Swahili - sw
Task: Speech Recognition, Text-to-Speech
Size: 411048 audio files > 1KB (small/corrupted files filtered out)
Format: WAV audio files with corresponding text labels
Modalities: Audio + Text

Supported Tasks

Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR): Train models to convert Swahili speech to text
Text-to-Speech (TTS): Use parallel data for TTS model development
Keyword Spotting: Identify specific Swahili words in audio
Phonetic Analysis: Study Swahili pronunciation patterns

Dataset Structure

Data Fields

audio: Audio file in WAV format
text: Corresponding text transcription

Data Splits

The dataset contains a single training split with 411048 filtered audio files.

Dataset Creation

Source Data

The audio data has been sourced ethically from consenting contributors. To protect the privacy of the original authors and speakers, specific source information cannot be shared publicly.

Data Processing

Audio files were collected and organized by filename structure
Text labels were extracted from filenames (format: [number]_[text].wav)
Files smaller than 1KB were filtered out to ensure audio quality
Audio was processed using the MMS-300M-1130 Forced Aligner tool for alignment and quality assurance

Annotations

Text annotations are derived from the audio filenames and represent the spoken content in each audio file.

Considerations for Using the Data

Social Impact of Dataset

This dataset contributes to the preservation and digital representation of Swahili, supporting:

Language technology development for underrepresented languages
Educational resources for Swahili language learning
Cultural preservation through digital archives

Discussion of Biases

The dataset may reflect the pronunciation patterns and dialects of specific regions or speakers
Audio quality and recording conditions may vary across samples
The vocabulary is limited to the words present in the collected samples

Other Known Limitations

Limited vocabulary scope (word-level rather than sentence-level)
Potential audio quality variations
Regional dialect representation may be uneven

Additional Information

Licensing Information

This dataset is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Acknowledgments

Audio processing and alignment performed using MMS-300M-1130 Forced Aligner
Original audio used for creating this dataset is published by the International Bible Association.

Citation Information

If you use this dataset in your research, please cite:

@dataset{swahili_words_parallel_2025, title={Swahili Words Speech-Text Parallel Dataset}, year={2025}, publisher={Hugging Face}, howpublished={\url{https://huggingface.co/datasets/[your-username]/swahili-words-speech-text-parallel}} }

Contact

For questions or concerns about this dataset, please open an issue in the dataset repository.