As a part of the regional Mentrau officers meetings organised by Mentrau Iaith Cymru in December, Rhoslyn Prys gave a presentation and activity on a truly important project to the future of the Welsh language in homes across our communities.
Common Voice Cymraeg
With ‘home assistant’ devices like Alexa, Siri and OK Google becoming more popular in homes, and their not understanding the Welsh language (and accents!), there’s an increasing possibility that the language of the home will gradually change from Welsh to English while asking questions and receiving answers from these new family members.
Canolfan Bedwyr Language Technology Unit at Bangor University, Meddal.com and tech company Mozilla with this project intend to collect free data that will allow large giants like Amazon, Google and Apple to introduce Welsh to their devices easily. As Common Voice Cymraeg marketing materials states;
“This is one of the best opportunities we have to lay groundworks for the use of Welsh in the technology of the future.”
How to contribute?
Sian-Elin Williams from Menter Gorllewin Sir Gâr recording her voice on Common Voice Cymraeg
As part of the meeting, the officers were split into small groups of 4 or 5 to complete the two main aspects of the project – 1) Speak and 2) Listen,
Speak:
They would record themselves reading 5 short phrases using their smartphone, tablet 0r computer before presenting them.
Listen:
They would listen to 5 soundclips recorded by others picked at random, to verify their quality.
The officers said after the presentation:
“We had a beneficial presentation from Rhoslyn Prys. The resource will be a big help to every Menter and is certainly something we will promote.”
“Its was a great presentation. We can certainly adapt the activity to suit groups that we work with.”
For more information on the project and to take part go to voice.mozilla.org/cy , download this pamphlet, or contact your local menter to take part in an activity in your area or to organise the activity for your group.