Common Voice Spontaneous Speech 2.0 - Kabardian

Адыгэбзэ (Къэбэрдей) — Kabardian (East Circassian) (kbd)

This datasheet is for version 2.0 of the the Mozilla Common Voice Spontaneous Speech dataset for Kabardian (East Circassian) (kbd). The dataset contains 829 clips representing 9 hours of recorded speech (6 hours validated) from 37 speakers.

Language

Kabardian (/kəˈbɑːrdiən/, also known as East Circassian) is a Northwest Caucasian language spoken by the eastern subgroups of Adygheans (Circassians). Identified by the ISO 639-3 code kbd, it belongs to the Northwest Caucasian language family and is widely considered to be the eastern dialect of Adyghe. Kabardian is also one of the official languages of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic and the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, both federal subjects of the Russian Federation.

The Kabardian (East Circassians) population is estimated at 500,000 to 750,000, yet only around 300,000 are believed to actively speak the language. Kabardians are primarily located in the Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia republics of Russia, with additional diaspora populations in Turkey, Jordan, Syria, and other countries due to historical migrations. The language includes several dialects, with the Baksan and Malka varieties being the most prominent. However, only a limited portion of the Kabardian population is considered literate in the language.

There is no definitive and official publication on this matter. Data published by organizations such as Wikipedia, Etnologue, and the Joshua Project do not reflect reality. Many Kabardians living in both the Caucasus and the Diaspora identify themselves as Adyghe unless specifically asked. Therefore, to obtain reliable results, researchers must be well-versed in the Adyghe tribes and their culture.

Variants

The following table presents the general language variants of the Kabardian language used in the Common Voice project.

Questions in the MCV-SS project are provided in Cyrillic and Turkish transliteration to support non-literate users from the Turkish diaspora. With "literacy" we mean being able to read the Kabardian alphabet.

Data splits for modelling

Transcriptions

• Prompts: 154

• Duration: 8:13:25 [h:m:s]

• Avg. Transcription Len: 393

• Avg. Duration: 35.71[s]

• Valid Duration: 19141.704[s]

• Total hours: 8.22[h]

• Valid hours: 5.32[h]

Writing system

The Kabardian language uses the Cyrillic script with some additional letters to represent specific sounds in the language. The alphabet consists of 59 letters, including 33 standard Cyrillic letters and 26 additional letters unique to Kabardian. The writing system is phonetic, meaning that words are generally spelled as they are pronounced. Kabardian is written from left to right.

During the period when there was no Kabardian keyboard option, the recorded text content was written with the Russian keyboard as the closest alternative. The characters in the Kabardian alphabet defined by the Unicode Consortium as "Cyrillic Letter Palocka ('Ӏ': u04C0, utf-8)" and "Cyrillic Letter Small Palocka ('ӏ': u04CF, utf-8)" are not defined in this keyboard model. For this reason, since the early days of computers, when creating digital data in Adyghe or Kabardian, one of the characters "Latin Capital Letter i ('I': u0049, utf-8)", "Latin Small Letter L ('l': u006C, utf-8)" or "Digit One ('1': u0031, utf-8)", albeit rarely "Vertical Line ('|': u007C, utf-8)" was used randomly due to their visual similarities (Nemlioğlu, 2018). This situation emerges as an important factor that negatively affects data quality (Nemlioğlu,2025).

Symbol table

Main Alphabet: (Ordered by ascending) а э б в г {гу} {гъ} {гъу} д {дж} {дз} е ё ж {жь} з и й к {ку} {кӏ} {кӏу} {къ} {къу} {кхъ} {кхъу} л {лъ} {лӏ} м н о п {пӏ} р с т {тӏ} у ф {фӏ} х {ху} {хь} {хъ} {хъу} ц {цӏ} ч ш щ {щӏ} ъ ы ь ю я ӏ {ӏу}

Orthographic–Phonetic Table (IPA):

Auxiliary exemplar: The following letters are also present in the dataset, but are not part of the official Kabardian alphabet. They are used to represent three specific sounds in the different sub dialects.

{гь}: Voiced dorso-palatal plosive [ʄ] (e.g. гьанэ (ɟa:ne) [Some dialects of Kabardian] = джанэ [Kabardian]: shirt/dress) {кь}: Voiceless dorso-palato-velar plosive [kʲ] (e.g. кьыржын (kʲərʒən) [Some dialects of Kabardian] = чыржын [Kabardian]: a type of cookie made from corn flour ) {кӏь}: Glottalized voiceless dorso-palato-velar plosive [kʲʼ] (e.g. гьэдыкIьэ (ɟedəkʲ’e) [Some dialects of Kabardian] = джэдыкӏэ [Kabardian]: egg)

Prior to dataset utilization, the following transformations should be applied to resolve transcription inconsistencies related to dialectal phoneme representation: > г' -> гь > чӏ -> кӏь

Other Languages: Some entries in the dataset include words originating from other languages, such as Russian or Turkish. These words have been phonetically transcribed using the Kabadrian alphabet, with characters chosen to approximate their original pronunciation as closely as possible.

Extralinguistic tags

Samples

Questions

There follows a randomly selected sample of questions used in the corpus.

Уи пщӏыхьэпӏэр нэхуапӏэ щыхъуа щыӏэ? [Vui pş'ıhep'er nexuap'e şıxhua şı'e?]
Нэхъыбэрэ узрихьэлӏэ псэущхьэхэм утхутепсэлъыхьын? [Nexhıbere vuzrihelh'e pseuşhexem vutxutêpselhıhın?]
Уэ узэреплъымкӏэ, зэлӏзэфыз зэбгъэдэкӏыжхэм я бжыгъэр зэрыхэхъуэм и щхьэусыгъуэр сыт? [Vue vuzerêplhımç'e, zelh'zefız zebğedeç'ıjjxem ya bjjığer zerıxexhuem yi şheusığuer sıt?]
Рестораным ущышхэмэ, нэхъ къапщтэрэ хьэмэрэ унагъуэ шхынхэр нэхъ пфӏэфӏ? [Rêstoranım vuşışşxeme, nexh khapştere hemere vunağue şşxınxer nexh pf'ef'?]
Дэтхэнэ уэрэджыӏакӏуэхэра фӏыуэ плъагъур? [Detxene vuerecı'ak'uexera f'ıue plhağur?]

Responses

There follows a randomly selected sample of transcribed responses from the corpus.

Си пщӏыхьэпӏэр куэдрэ нэхуапӏэ мэхъу. Нтӏэ, щыӏэщ [disfluency] Алыхьым къытхуигъакӏуэ пщӏыхьэпӏэхэри [disfluency] а пщӏыхьэпӏэм ипкъ итчӏэ дигъэлъагъу [disfluency] къэхъунымрэ къытпэплъэмрэ. Мэхъу нэхуапӏэ си пщӏыхьэпӏэр куэдрэ.
Нэхъыбэрэ сэ псэущхьэу сызрихьэлӏэр хьэм, уей, хьэрэ джэдурэ. Джэдухьэр сфӏэфӏӏым, хьэхьэр нэхъ сфӏэфӏщ, ауэ хьэхьэр унэм щыщӏэсым деи сфӏэфӏӏым. Ар унэм щыщӏэсым дей къабзэу щытӏым, я цыр атчӏэ-мытчӏэ щылъщ, къыдрехьей, унэр фӏейуэ щытщ сытым деи хьэ щӏэсу щытмэ. Ауэ урамым, щӏыбым дэту сыту щытмэ, сфӏэфӏщ, дауи, садэджэгуну, сэ сщӏэрэ, сеплъыну, къезгъэжыхьыну, скъэ- къесхуэчӏыну.
Сэ сызэреплъымчӏэ, зэлӏзэфыз зэбгъэдэчӏыжхьэм я бжыгъэр зэрыхэхъуэм щхьэусыгъуэ куэд иӏэнчӏэ хъунущ, ауэ абыхьэм ящыщ зыр зэрышэхьэр балигъыпӏэ имыувауэ зэрызэрышэрауэ къысщохъу. Ар ныбжьми епхаӏым. Цӏыхур илъэс тӏощӏ фӏэчӏа мыхъуу балигъыпӏэ иувауэ, ауэ илъэс щэныкъуэми щӏигъуарэ балигъыпӏэ имыувауэ сэ си щхьэчӏэ срихьэлӏащ. Ар зэпхар цӏыхум и ныбжьыраӏым. ӏэпкълъэпкъым и ныбжьымрэ акъылым и ныбжьымрэ зэтемыхуэнчӏэ хъунущ. Абы щыгъуэм зэлӏзэфызыр япэ зыӏууа [disfluency] гугъуехьым зэгъусэу пэщӏэмыувэу, я къарур зэхалъхьэрэ зэрыпэлъэщыным хэмыту, занщӏэу зэбгрожыж.
Сэ шхэн тӏэкӏур сфӏэфӏщи, рестораным сашэми, кафем сашэми, унагъуэм срагъэблагъэу щытми, сфӏэфӏ дыдэу дэни сыщышхэнущ, шхын зыхэдзи сщӏыӏым, ауэ сэ езыр фӏы дыдэу сопщафӏэ, цӏыху згъэхьэщӏэнууи сфӏэфӏщи, унагъуэ шхыныр нэхъ къызощтэ.
Дэ уэрэджыӏакӏуэ цӏэрыӏуэ куэд диӏэт, фӏы дыдэу уэрэд жаӏэу, ауэ сэ псом нэхърэ нэхъыфӏу слъагъур Нэхущ Чэримщ. Нэхущ Чэрим япэ дыдэ зэрыщӏидзэрэ, уэрэд щыжиӏэм деж, абы и уэрэдым зыгуэр къызэузмэ, сигъэхъужу къысщыхъуу, [disfluency] гукъыдэж дахэ къызиту, [disfluency] дунейр, гъащӏэр фӏыуэ уигъэлъагъуу зэрыщытым щхьэкӏэ псом нэ нэхъыфӏу къызолъытэ. Гъащӏэ Тхьэм къуит, Чэрим!

Recommended post-processing

These transcriptions are provided as-is, and no additional post-processing is required. However, users may choose to perform Unicode normalization (NFC or NFD) depending on their specific use case.

Although the sentences (questions/translation texts) have been written and verified using correct Unicode characters via the ady & kbd keyboard for Windows, it is possible that some text inputs beyond our control may have been submitted due to Common Voice’s open participation model.

After the datasets are published, we re-audit these entries and take the necessary steps to ensure corrections in the next release.

Fields

Each row of a tsv file represents a single audio clip, and contains the following information:

• client_id - hashed UUID of a given user

• audio_id - numeric id for audio file

• audio_file - audio file name

• duration_ms - duration of audio in milliseconds

• prompt_id - numeric id for prompt

• prompt - question for user

• transcription - transcription of the audio response

• votes - number of people that who approved a given transcript

• age - age of the speaker1

• gender - gender of the speaker1

• language - language name

• split - for data modelling, which subset of the data does this clip pertain to

• char_per_sec - how many characters of transcription per second of audio

• quality_tags - some automated assessment of the transcription--audio pair, separated by |

  • transcription-length - character per second under 3 characters per second

  • speech-rate - characters per second over 30 characters per second

  • short-audio - audio length under 2 seconds

  • long-audio - audio length over 30 seconds

Get involved!

Community links

• Common Voice translators on Pontoon If you want to join kbd community, start here: https://bit.ly/cv_circassian_start_here

You can find more information about how to participate in the Common Voice Project on the following page: Community Participation Guidelines

Contribute

• Contribute questions

• Validate questions

• Answer questions

• Transcribe recordings

• Validate transcriptions We do not advice to contribute to this dataset directly, because of writting system-keyboard issues. Please, read the section "Writing system" above and the following article: https://www.nemerko.org/the-importance-of-adyghe-keyboard-usage-for-artificial-intelligence-training/

If you want to contribute to the Kabardian language, please visit the following links: https://bit.ly/cv_circassian_start_here

A special thanks to all the volunteers who contributed to this dataset.

Acknowledgements

Datasheet authors

Authors

• M.Ugur Nemlioglu <nemerko@nemerko.com>

• Murat Topçu <murattopcu67@hotmail.com>

Curators

• Murat Topçu <murattopcu67@hotmail.com>

• Elizaveta Gogunokova

• Saida Abregova

• M.Uğur Nemlioğlu

Advisors

• Bülent Özden (Technical Advisor)

Funding

This dataset was partially funded by the Open Multilingual Speech Fund managed by Mozilla Common Voice.

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.

Footnotes

1. For a full list of age, gender, and accent options, see the demographics spec. These will only be reported if the speaker opted in to provide that information. ↩ ↩2