Common Voice Scripted Speech 23.0 - Duala

[Duala] — Duala (dua)

This datasheet is for version 23.0 of the the Mozilla Common Voice Scripted Speech dataset for Duala (dua). The dataset contains 16 hours of recorded speech (14 hours validated) from 13 speakers.

Language

Duala is a coastal Bantu language spoken in the Wouri, Moungo Divisions, Littoral Region in Cameroon.

Variants

The Administrative Atlas of Cameroon's Languages (Breton and Bikia Fohtung, 1991) lists two varieties of Duala: Pongo and Muungo. Contributors to this dataset have listed another dialect, Ewale, which is reflected in the collection of sentence prompts used for read speech in this dataset.

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.

Age

Self-declared age information, percentage refers to the number of clips annotated with this age band.

Writing system

The collection of sentence prompts provided by the language representatives aligns with the General Alphabet of Cameroonian Languages

Sample

There follows a randomly selected sample of five sentences from the corpus.

1. Na mɔ́ é alá nyɔ́ madíɓá ó son á toŋgo é tá ɓɛɓɛ na mú mbutu mwá ɓewudú

2. Ɓodû ɓó mapúlánɛ́ moto pái na mutúmbu, m̀ɓóso na masɔŋgɔ́ɔ̄

3. Njɔu e ɓɛ̂n yɔdú yá ɓwaɓɛ̀

4. Mapapá ma e mɔŋgɔ mwáō na ó dibum na ó mídi míɓanɛ́

5. Ó wásé áō ndé minyáŋgádú mí moōlɛɛ́ mí enɔ́

Automatic random samples

Ni ená ní íŋgéá ó tǔŋ.
A ɓélɛ́ múnja áō na ɓaɓɔ́ ɓá ɓáísɛ́ mɔ́ ná:
Muɗóŋgó mú asám mú e ɓɛɓɛ na múnja.
Ɓá mabúsísɛ́ ɓepúndúŋga ɓéndɛ̄nɛ ó ɓekúkúdú ɓé pɔ́tí wásē.
Na timbí ndé ka mɔɔ́ nyányū ó ndutu yɛ́sɛ̄.

Community links

• Common Voice translators on Pontoon

Contribute

https://commonvoice.mozilla.org/dua/speak

Acknowledgements

The compilation of this dataset occured during data camp organized in Yaoundé (Cameroon) in September-October 2024. Two main contributors were involved in the localization of the MCV interface for Duala, gathering of the sentence prompts, reading sentence prompts, and validating recordings. They are :

• Eyoum Ndando Thomas

• Lydie Grâce Njowe Etongo

The organization of the data camp was conducted by a dynamic whose dedication is herewith acknowledged :

• Eliette Emilie-Caroline Ngo Tjomb Assembe (Project Lead)

• Dr. Florus Landry Dibenge

• Blaise Mathieu Banoum Manguele

• Blaise Abo Djoulde

• Mathilde Nyambe A.

• Brice Martial Atangana Eloundou

• Jeff Sterling Ngami Kamagoua

• José Mpuda Avom

• Zacharie Nyobe

• Emmanuel Giovanni Eloundou Eyenga

• André Pascal Likwai

Datasheet authors

Emmanuel Ngue Um ngueum@gmail.com, Eyoum Ndando Thomas thomas.eyoum@ucac-icam.com, Lydie Grâce Njowe Etongo njowelydie25@gmail.com

Citation guidelines

Ngué Um E, Ngo Tjomb EEC, Dibengue FL, Banum Manguele BM, Abo Djoulde B, Nyambe MA, Atangana Eloundou BM, Ngami Kamagoua JS, Mpouda Avom J, Nyobe Z, Eloundou Eyenga EG, Likwai AP (2025) Speech Technologies Datasets for African Under-Served Languages. Proceedings of the Eight Workshop on the Use of Computational Methods in the Study of Endangered Languages, edited by Lachler J, Agyapong G, Arppe A, Moeller S, Chaudhary A, Rijhwani S, Rosenblum D. URL Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL).

Funding

The organization of the data camp that led to the compilation of this dataset was made possible by a grant by the Mozilla Foundation under the Opem Multingual Speech Fund (OMSF)

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.