Common Voice Spontaneous Speech 5.0 - Kabardian

Адыгэбзэ (Къэбэрдей) — Kabardian (kbd)

This datasheet is for sps-corpus-5.0-2026-09-11 of the Mozilla Common Voice Spontaneous Speech dataset for Kabardian [Адыгэбзэ (Къэбэрдей) - kbd]. The dataset contains 915 clips representing 8.62 hours of recorded speech (5.33 hours validated) from 44 speakers.

Language

Kabardian (/kəˈbɑːrdiən/, also known as East Circassian) is a Northwest Caucasian language spoken by the eastern subgroups of Adygheans (Circassians). Identified by the ISO 639-3 code kbd, it belongs to the Northwest Caucasian language family and is widely considered to be the eastern dialect of Adyghe. Kabardian is also one of the official languages of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic and the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, both federal subjects of the Russian Federation.

The Kabardian (East Circassians) population is estimated at 500,000 to 750,000, yet only around 300,000 are believed to actively speak the language. Kabardians are primarily located in the Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia republics of Russia, with additional diaspora populations in Turkey, Jordan, Syria, and other countries due to historical migrations. The language includes several dialects, with the Baksan and Malka varieties being the most prominent. However, only a limited portion of the Kabardian population is considered literate in the language.

There is no definitive and official publication on this matter. Data published by organizations such as Wikipedia, Etnologue, and the Joshua Project do not reflect reality. Many Kabardians living in both the Caucasus and the Diaspora identify themselves as Adyghe unless specifically asked. Therefore, to obtain reliable results, researchers must be well-versed in the Adyghe tribes and their culture.

Variants

The following table presents the general language variants of the Kabardian language used in the Common Voice project.

Sentences in the MCV project are provided in Cyrillic and Turkish transliteration to support non-literate users from the Turkish diaspora. With "literacy" we mean being able to read the Kabardian alphabet.

Data splits for modelling

The dataset clips are categorised by transcription status and training-set assignment. The following tables summarise the distribution.

Audio clips

Training splits

Training split coverage: 508 of 508 transcribed & validated clips (100.0%)

Transcriptions

Transcription status

Writing system

The Kabardian language uses the Cyrillic script with some additional letters to represent specific sounds in the language. The alphabet consists of 59 letters, including 33 standard Cyrillic letters and 26 additional letters unique to Kabardian. The writing system is phonetic, meaning that words are generally spelled as they are pronounced. Kabardian is written from left to right.

During the period when there was no Kabardian keyboard option, the recorded text content was written with the Russian keyboard as the closest alternative. The characters in the Kabardian alphabet defined by the Unicode Consortium as "Cyrillic Letter Palocka ('Ӏ': u04C0, utf-8)" and "Cyrillic Letter Small Palocka ('ӏ': u04CF, utf-8)" are not defined in this keyboard model. For this reason, since the early days of computers, when creating digital data in Adyghe or Kabardian, one of the characters "Latin Capital Letter i ('I': u0049, utf-8)", "Latin Small Letter L ('l': u006C, utf-8)" or "Digit One ('1': u0031, utf-8)", albeit rarely "Vertical Line ('|': u007C, utf-8)" was used randomly due to their visual similarities (Nemlioğlu, 2018). This situation emerges as an important factor that negatively affects data quality (Nemlioğlu,2025).

Symbol table

Main Alphabet: (Ordered by ascending) а э б в г {гу} {гъ} {гъу} д {дж} {дз} е ё ж {жь} з и й к {ку} {кӏ} {кӏу} {къ} {къу} {кхъ} {кхъу} л {лъ} {лӏ} м н о п {пӏ} р с т {тӏ} у ф {фӏ} х {ху} {хь} {хъ} {хъу} ц {цӏ} ч ш щ {щӏ} ъ ы ь ю я ӏ {ӏу}

Orthographic–Phonetic Table (IPA):

Auxiliary exemplar: The following letters are also present in the dataset, but are not part of the official Kabardian alphabet. They are used to represent three specific sounds in the different sub dialects.

{гь}: Voiced dorso-palatal plosive [ʄ] (e.g. гьанэ (ɟa:ne) [Some dialects of Kabardian] = джанэ [Kabardian]: shirt/dress) {кь}: Voiceless dorso-palato-velar plosive [kʲ] (e.g. кьыржын (kʲərʒən) [Some dialects of Kabardian] = чыржын [Kabardian]: a type of cookie made from corn flour ) {кӏь}: Glottalized voiceless dorso-palato-velar plosive [kʲʼ] (e.g. гьэдыкIьэ (ɟedəkʲ’e) [Some dialects of Kabardian] = джэдыкӏэ [Kabardian]: egg)

Prior to dataset utilization, the following transformations should be applied to resolve transcription inconsistencies related to dialectal phoneme representation:

г' -> гь чӏ -> кӏь

Other Languages: Some entries in the dataset include words originating from other languages, such as Russian or Turkish. These words have been phonetically transcribed using the Kabadrian alphabet, with characters chosen to approximate their original pronunciation as closely as possible.

Samples

Questions

There follows a randomly selected sample of questions used in the corpus.

1. Узэреплъымкӏэ, сыт цӏыхур зыгъэпудыр? [Vuzerêplhımç'e, sıt ts'ıxur zığepudır?]

2. Узэреплъымкӏэ, сыт хуэдэ ӏуэхугъуэ зэӏумыбзхэра нэхъыщхьэу уи къэралым щыщыӏэр? [Vuzerêplhımç'e, sıt xuede 'uexuğue ze'umıbzxera nexhışheu vui kheralım şışı'er?]

3. Еджапӏэм ущеджэм сыт хуэдэ дерсыр нэхъ пфӏэфӏт? Сыт щхьэкӏэ? [Yêcap'em vuşêcem sıt xuede dêrsır nexh pf'ef't? Sıt şheç'e?]

4. Фи унагъуэм вгъэлъапӏэхэр сыт хуэдэ махуэхэра? [Fi vunağuem vğelhap'exer sıt xuede maxuexera?]

5. Уи ныбжьэгъуфӏым и хьэлым нэхъыфӏу хэплъагъуэр сыт? [Vui nıbjeğuf'ım yi helım nexhıf'u xeplhağuer sıt?]

Responses

There follows a randomly selected sample of transcribed responses from the corpus.

1. Ди къэралым и унафэщӏым упщӏэ естыну сызыхуер [disfluency] цӏыху сымаджэм еӏэзэ дохутырхэр пщӏэншу хьэ щымытрэ. Етӏыуанэрауэ [disfluency] щӏалэгъуалэм ӏэщӏагъэ, щӏэныгъэ зрыгъэгъуэтыныр [disfluency] апхуэдизу уасэр хьэ лъагэн хуей. Мис а упщӏитӏыр япэ дыдэ изгъэувэнут.

2. Апхуэду сыхэдэфу щытатэмэ, [disfluency] епщӏанэ лӏэщӏыгъуэм згъэзэжу, атчӏэ ӏэщэ сытхэр зэращӏыр къэсщӏауэ, мис апхуэду згъазу, абдейм дей, адыгэ хэкум дей, ӏэщи нэгъуэщӏи къинэмыщӏи псори дыублэу, итӏанэ зэры- адыгэ лъэпкъ зэбгрыдзахэр псори зы тщӏыуэ, апхуэду [disfluency] зы хэку дгъуэтауэ, атчӏэ дэри империе дыхъуэуэ, апхуэдэу сщӏынт. [noise]

3. Уей, интернетым уегупсысмэ, тӏумчӏи уегупсысми хъунущ [disfluency] зымкӏи щхьэхуит дищӏа нэхъ [disfluency] нэгъуэщӏымчӏэ дилъэхъащ [disfluency]. Япэрауэ, щхьэхуит сыт дызэрищӏар нэхъ [disfluency] щӏэныгъэу зыгуэр зэбгъэгъуэтынумэ, зыгуэр улъэхъу- улъыхъуэнумэ, къэбгъуэтыну ухуемэ, инг'исту тынш дыдэу интернет уихьэу къыпхуэгъуэтынущ ар. Иг'исту [disfluency] упщӏэ зыри щыӏэкъым [disfluency] жэуап интернет иримытыфыну. Абы теухуауэ нтӏэ, щхьэ хуит нэхъ дищӏащ. Ауэ нэгъуэщӏчӏэ уеплъмэ, а интернетыр нобэ паупщӏмэ, зэшэзэпӏу паупщӏмэ дауэ дызэрыхъунур? Дэ абы псори дыщыгугъуу десэжащи ар ягъэункӏыфӏмэ пщэде сыт тщӏэнур? Дыкъызыхуэнэну-дыкъзыхуэнэнур сыт, уже дес- десэжауэ. Аращи ауэду тыншкъым а упщӏэр.

4. Мис мы упщӏэм сэ жэуап естыфынуӏым. Сыту жыпӏэмэ, сэ нэхъыфӏу слъагъур тхакӏуэ хэхакъым, [disfluency] тхакӏуэ ӏэг'эми тхыгъэ, ӏэдакъэщӏэкӏ дахэхэр яӏэщ. Мес мо тхакӏуэм и мис мыпхуэдэ ӏэдакъэщӏэкӏыр, е мис модрей тхакӏуэм и мис мыпхуэдэ ӏэдакъэщӏэкӏыр. Мис ахэращ сигу ирихьыр, нэхъыфӏу слъагъур жысӏэу, апхуэдэущ сызэрыщытыр, армыхъуамэ, мес мо зы тхакӏуэм хэхауэ псори итхыу хъуар сигу ирохь жысӏэу, апхуэдэу [disfluency] зыхужысӏэн тхакӏуэ щыӏэщ, ауэ апхуэдэхэр мащӏэ дыдэщ. [disfluency] Нэхъыфӏу слъагъуу мис а зи ӏэдакъэщӏэкӏ сытри сигу ирохь жыхуэсӏэу ауэду яхэтыр [disfluency] Жюль Верн, Герберт Уэллс. Мис ахэращ.

5. Цӏыхур егъэпуд нэмысыншагъэм, пцӏыупсыныгъэм, нэпсеягъэм, егъэлеяуэ пагэным.

Recommended post-processing

These transcriptions are provided as-is, and no additional post-processing is required. However, users may choose to perform Unicode normalization (NFC or NFD) depending on their specific use case.

Although the sentences (questions/translation texts) have been written and verified using correct Unicode characters via the ady & kbd keyboard for Windows, it is possible that some text inputs beyond our control may have been submitted due to Common Voice’s open participation model.

After the datasets are published, we re-audit these entries and take the necessary steps to ensure corrections in the next release.

Fields

Each row of a tsv file represents a single audio clip, and contains the following information:

• client_id - hashed UUID of a given user

• audio_id - numeric id for audio file

• audio_file - audio file name

• duration_ms - duration of audio in milliseconds

• prompt_id - numeric id for prompt

• prompt - question for user

• transcription - transcription of the audio response

• votes - number of people that who approved a given transcript

• age - age of the speaker1

• gender - gender of the speaker1

• language - language name

• split - for data modelling, which subset of the data does this clip pertain to

• char_per_sec - how many characters of transcription per second of audio

• quality_tags - some automated assessment of the transcription--audio pair, separated by |

  • transcription-length - character per second under 3 characters per second

  • speech-rate - characters per second over 30 characters per second

  • short-audio - audio length under 2 seconds

  • long-audio - audio length over 5 minutes

  • non-allowed-script - transcription contains characters from a writing system not associated with the language

  • mixed-script-words - a single word contains characters from multiple writing systems

  • mixed-script-transcription - transcription spans multiple writing systems, but each word consistently uses only one

Get involved

Community links

• If you want to join kbd community, start here: https://bit.ly/cv_circassian_start_here

You can find more information about how to participate in the Common Voice Project on the following page:

• Common Voice translators on Pontoon

• Common Voice Communities

Discussions

• Common Voice on Matrix

• Common Voice on Discourse

• Common Voice on Discord

• Common Voice on Telegram

Contribute

We do not advice to contribute to this dataset directly, because of writting system-keyboard issues. Please, read the section "Writing system" above and the following article: https://www.nemerko.org/the-importance-of-adyghe-keyboard-usage-for-artificial-intelligence-training/

If you want to contribute to the Kabardian language, please visit the following links: https://bit.ly/cv_circassian_start_here

A special thanks to all the volunteers who contributed to this dataset.

• Contribute questions

• Validate questions

• Answer questions

• Transcribe recordings

• Validate transcriptions

Acknowledgements

Datasheet authors

• M.Ugur Nemlioglu <[email protected]>

• Murat Topçu <[email protected]>

• Murat Topçu <[email protected]>

• Elizaveta Gogunokova

• Saida Abregova

• M.Uğur Nemlioğlu

• Bülent Özden (Technical Advisor)

Funding

This dataset was partially funded by the Open Multilingual Speech Fund managed by Mozilla Common Voice.

Licence

This dataset is released under the Creative Commons Zero (CC-0) licence. By downloading this data you agree to not determine the identity of speakers in the dataset.

Footnotes

1. For a full list of age, gender, and accent options, see the demographics spec. These will only be reported if the speaker opted in to provide that information. ↩ ↩2