Linguistics and HLT for countries with minimal ICT infrastructure

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Periodical article

Title:	Linguistics and HLT for countries with minimal ICT infrastructure
Authors:	Lerato, Lerato Machobane, Matsepo Lephoto, Mope
Year:	2008
Periodical:	Review of Southern African Studies (ISSN 1024-4190)
Volume:	12
Issue:	1-2
Period:	December
Pages:	30-50
Language:	English
Notes:	biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:	Lesotho Southern Africa
Subjects:	information technology Sotho language linguistics language Language and languages
Abstract:	This paper presents a visionary Human Language Technologies (HLT) model aimed at enabling computer illiterate Basotho, who are unable to access internet but have access to either a landline handset or a cellular phone, to browse and access electronic government information services in their language, Sesotho. This requires various speech-based HLT components such as pronunciation modelling, speech recognition, text-to-speech (TTS) and language identification. For the purpose of this article, the authors concentrate on speech recognition and TTS. The paper also provides a preliminary experimental setup necessary for the proposed model. The proposed model is specifically intended to empower the illiterate and the underprivileged members of society in Lesotho. Bibliogr., sum. [Journal abstract]