---
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

1. Audio files were collected and organized by filename structure
2. Text labels were extracted from filenames (format: `[number]_[text].wav`)
3. Files smaller than 1KB were filtered out to ensure audio quality
4. Audio was processed using the [MMS-300M-1130 Forced Aligner](https://huggingface.co/MahmoudAshraf/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](https://huggingface.co/MahmoudAshraf/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.