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Voice of Swahili (Kiswahili)
Explore and listen to the sounds of Kiswahili, a major lingua franca of East and Central Africa.
Overview
Kiswahili is a major lingua franca of East Africa used in schools, work, in the media (newspapers, radio, TV) and popular culture. In 2022, it was adopted as an official working language of the African Union.
Sample Audio
Transcript: Habari, unaendeleaje? (Hello, how are you doing?)
Writing system
Modern Swahili is written in the Latin alphabet and uses straightforward, phonemic spelling where most letters map closely to the sounds they represent. Common digraphs like ch, sh, ng, ng’ and ny capture sounds that don’t have single-letter equivalents. Historical texts also appear in Ajami (Arabic script), but contemporary education, media, and government overwhelmingly use the Roman script. Swahili does not mark tone, and long vowels are usually not indicated unless a teaching text or dictionary needs to highlight pronunciation..
What’s Here Now
Urban Dialogue
Transcript: Habari, unaendeleaje? (Hello, how are you doing?)
Market Talk
Transcript: Habari, unaendeleaje? (Hello, how are you doing?)
Community Radio
Transcript: Habari, unaendeleaje? (Hello, how are you doing?)
Why It Matters
for AI
Swahili is under‑represented online; adding clear, community‑reviewed audio can help build tools for local broadcasting, education, and assistive technologies.
Speech Recognition
Speech recognition datasets teach AI systems to accurately understand and transcribe African languages. By training models on diverse accents and tones, we make voice technology more inclusive and effective for real-world communication.
Translation
Access high-quality Swahili translation datasets featuring paired text and voice samples. These resources support language research, model training, and cultural preservation. Sign in to request access or contribute your own translations.
Information Access
Information access datasets help AI systems bridge the language gap, making online knowledge, education, and public information available in African languages. They promote digital inclusion and empower communities through localized, AI-driven access to information.
Swahili Datasets
Swahili Corpus v1.0
Version: 1.0
Size: 2GB
License: CC-BY 4.0
DOI: 10.1234/swahili.001
Swahili Corpus v1.0
Version: 1.0
Size: 2GB
License: CC-BY 4.0
DOI: 10.1234/swahili.001