Yoruba speech dataset
We source Yoruba speech data to order — speaker recruitment, recording, transcription and annotation, delivered with the consent documentation that makes the dataset usable rather than merely delivered.
What makes Yoruba hard to collect
Yoruba has three tones, and they change in connected speech. Diacritics mark tone in writing, but everyday text frequently drops them — text that does not match the actual pronunciation is the norm in existing corpora.
This is the part that cannot be templated. Every language has a specific failure mode, and a project that does not plan for it produces data that looks complete and trains badly.
Language profile
| Language | Yoruba |
|---|---|
| Primary region | Sub-Saharan Africa |
| Writing system | Latin (diacritics) |
| Collection difficulty | Tonal language |
What we deliver for Yoruba
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Read and conversational speech
Scripted recording for TTS, and unscripted conversation for recognition. Specified separately because they need different speaker pools.
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Transcription to your convention
Orthographic or phonetic, with the guideline written before production and shared with you for review.
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Speaker metadata
Age band, gender, region and dialect background per file, so you can slice the dataset rather than take it whole.
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Consent documentation
Signed speaker consent covering the intended use, plus collection methodology and the annotation guideline.
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Pilot batch
A small batch first, which you can reject. Misalignments surface after a few hours rather than at delivery.
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Delivery in your format
Audio format, sampling rate, segmentation length and metadata schema set to your pipeline's requirements.
More on Yoruba
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Yoruba TTS datasets
How we approach tts dataset work for Yoruba, and what to specify.
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Multilingual projects
Running Yoruba as part of a multi-language delivery, and what changes.
Questions we get about Yoruba
How many distinct speakers can you provide for Yoruba?
It depends on the specification and the timeline, and we will give a real number rather than a target. Speaker recruitment is usually the step that sets the schedule for Yoruba, so the answer to this question is also the answer to how long the project takes.
Can you annotate to a custom guideline?
Yes, and for Yoruba we would recommend it. The default conventions for this language leave several decisions open, and those decisions are exactly where annotators diverge. Send us your guideline, or we will draft one and you can review it before production.
Do you offer a sample before we commit?
Yes. Select a free sample in the request form and describe what you need. A pilot batch is the cheapest way to establish whether the quality bar is reachable before committing to a full run.
What if Yoruba is not something you can source?
Then we will tell you rather than take the order. We would rather decline a project than deliver something that does not meet the specification.
Request Yoruba speech data
Tell us the language, the hours, and what the data needs to look like. You will get a real number and a real timeline — not a range. If we cannot source it well, we will tell you that instead.
- Pilot batch before the full run, so problems surface early.
- Consent documentation delivered with the data.
- No medical or clinical data. No recorded telephone calls.