Common Voice Scripted Speech 23.0 - Basaa
License:
CC0-1.0
Steward:
Common Voice
Task: ASR
Release Date: 9/15/2025
Format: MP3
Size: 242.15 MB
Description
A collection of scripted spoken phrases in Basaa.
Specifics
Considerations
Restrictions/Special Constraints
You agree that you will not re-host or re-share this dataset
Forbidden Usage
You agree not to attempt to determine the identity of speakers in the Common Voice dataset
Processes
Intended Use
This dataset is intended to be used for training and evaluating automatic speech recognition (ASR) models. It may also be used for applications relating to computer-aided language learning (CALL) and language or heritage revitalisation.
Metadata
Basaa — Basaa (bas)
This datasheet is for version 23.0 of the the Mozilla Common Voice Scripted Speech dataset
for Basaa (bas). The dataset contains 14 hours of recorded
speech (12 hours validated) from 54 speakers.
Language
Basaa is a language spoken in Cameroon by a population of around 500k speakers. While the vitality of Basaa is considered to be stable by Ethnologue, intergenerational transmission is not systematically achieved, mostly in urban areas.
Demographic information
The dataset includes the following distribution of age and gender.
Gender
Self-declared gender information, percentage refers to the number of clips annotated with this gender.
| Gender | Pertentage |
|---|---|
| Undefined | 100.0% |
Age
Self-declared age information, percentage refers to the number of clips annotated with this age band.
| Age Band | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Undefined | 39.0% |
| Fourties | 61.0% |
Writing system
Basaa has several competing writing norms. The most widely used are the Catholic missionary orthography, the Prostestant missionary orthography, and a version of the General Alphabet of Cameroonian Languages that was adapted to Basaa.
This dataset is mostly based on the Protestant missionary's orthography, with minor alterations concerning, for example, the signaling of b as implosive [ɓ]. For example, m'bôñ "cassava" vs mbôñ "poison". Other alterations includes the signaling of the n- prefix followed by the y symbol, to distinguish it from the complex symbol ny. For example, nyo "mouth" vs a n'yo "he stole palm wine from the palm trunk".
Community links
Contribute
Datasheet authors
Emmanuel Ngué Um ngueum@gmail.com
Licence
This dataset is released under the Creative Commons Zero (CC-0) licence. By downloading this data you agree to not determine the identity of speakers in the dataset.