Bamun-TTS-Dataset

Language

Bamun or Shüpamom/Shupamem is a Bantu-Grassfield language spoken in the Noun Division, West Region in Cameroon.

Variants

The Bamun language is quite homogeneous within their indigenous territory, the Noun Administrative Division. However, the Administrative Atlas of Cameroon's Languages (Breton and Bikia Fohtung, 1991) indicates a few "islands" outside the Noun Department where the Bamun language exhibits minor variations. These include Bapi in the Mifi Division in the West Region and Bamalang and Bangolan in the Mezam Division in the Northwest Region.

Writing System

1. Vowels

The vowel inventory reflected in the dataset is: i, e, ɛ, a, ɔ, o, u, ʉ, ə

The vowel ə / ә is particularly frequent and functions as a central vowel.

2. Consonants

The consonant system includes the following simple consonants: b, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, ŋ, p, r, s, t, v, w, y, z

Complex and cluster-like consonants attested include: mb, nd, nk, ng, nt, nj, mf, kp

Digraphs: sh, gh

3. Tone system

The transcription encodes lexical tone using diacritics, corresponding to standard tonal categories:

• High tone (H): marked with acute accent (á, é, ɔ́, ʉ́, ŋ́)

• Low tone (L): marked with grave accent (à, è, ɔ̀)

• Mid tone (M): marked with macron (ā, ē)

• Rising tone (LH): marked with caron (ǎ, ě, ɔ̌)

• Falling tone (HL): marked with circumflex (â, ê)

Source

This dataset originates from audio recordings documenting personal histories of German colonisation. These recordings were made in the early eighties as part of a research project led by Prince (Professor) Koum A Ndoumbe III.

Abdou Salam Ntieche Fifen created the transcriptions associated with this dataset. The transcriptions were made in 2017.

For the purpose of creating this dataset, the textual material was segmented into short utterances and aligned with corresponding audio recordings to support TTS modelling.

Domain

This dataset is derived from prompted speech in the form of directed interviews. The content reflects personal narratives related to colonial history in Cameroon.

The dataset has been transformed into read-style segmented speech suitable for speech synthesis tasks.

Size

219.97 MB The dataset is composed of 24 folders containing audio clips and corresponding mapping files.

Each folder contains between approximately 10 and 280 audio files. Individual audio clips typically range from 1 to 10 seconds in duration.

Folder-level durations range from approximately 1 minute to over 18 minutes of audio. The dataset therefore represents several hours of segmented Bamun speech data.

The total duration of the recording is 4h 30m 25s.

Structure

The dataset is composed of 24 folders containing audio clips and corresponding mapping files.

Each folder in the dataset contains:

• A collection of audio files in MP3 format, between approximately 10 and 280 audio files. Individual audio clips typically range from 1 to 10 seconds in duration.

• A tab-separated mapping file linking each audio file to its transcription

Folder-level durations range from approximately 1 minute to over 18 minutes of audio. The dataset therefore represents several hours of segmented Bamun speech data.

The total duration of the recording is 4h 30m 25s.

Each line in the mapping file follows the format:

audio_filename.mp3 | transcription

The dataset is designed for TTS pipelines requiring paired audio-text data.

Sample

1. 03246844d87f5a76ec4fc1f636626bb5.mp3 | Euh mí u tóóshә́ ŋwәt ru

2. 14289dc77904b3edb98afcfbb5776ee1.mp3 | Í nzie Li shá?

3. 2579e22b2b248815938631969ae22200.mp3 | Li shú, nә nguu yúá

4. 33380524f516027e3b6acad30c6a4f0f.mp3 | Ndǔ lʉ́m mú

5. 364c11dd9cc6d98ae53d9fca5ef0b374.mp3 | Mbúá' NJI FIFEN