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| license: apache-2.0 |
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| # Dataset Datasheet: NST – Nordic Language Technology Norwegian Speech Corpus |
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| ## 1. Motivation |
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| The NST dataset was created to support the development of automatic speech recognition (ASR) and speech-to-text dictation systems in Norwegian. The dataset provides high-quality, annotated audio recordings for linguistic research and ASR system training. |
| Originally developed by Nordisk Språkteknologi Holding AS (NST), the dataset was later acquired and preserved by a consortium of Norwegian institutions, including University of Oslo, University of Bergen, and the National Library of Norway. |
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| ## 2. Composition |
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| Each example in the dataset includes: |
| - Audio: A 16kHz sampled .mp3 file of spoken Norwegian. |
| - Text: The transcribed content of the speech. |
| - Metadata: Rich speaker and recording metadata, such as age, sex, region of birth/youth, recording session info, and technical parameters. |
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| The full dataset contains: |
| - 9 train shards and 3 test shards for Norwegian (no). |
| - Variants for close, distant, and both microphone positions. |
| - Thousands of annotated utterances. |
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| What are the data types? |
| - Audio data (MP3) |
| - Structured metadata (JSON) |
| - Text transcription (Norwegian language) |
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| No direct personal identifiers are included, but demographic metadata such as age, sex, and region is present. |
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| ## 3. Collection Process |
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| The recordings were originally made by NST using multiple speakers under controlled environments with both close and distant microphone setups. |
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| Speakers belong to varying demographics: |
| - Ages: Varies widely (some errors or missing values may exist) |
| - Sex: Male and female |
| - Regional background: Multiple Norwegian dialect regions |
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| ## 4. Preprocessing and Labeling |
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| What preprocessing was done? |
| - WAV files converted to MP3. |
| - Non-standard or corrupted metadata (e.g., ages with “ramslie”) is coerced into a usable format (e.g., defaulted to 0). |
| - Fields such as t0, t1, t2, and number_of_recordings are cast to integers or defaulted. |
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| What labeling is provided? |
| - Transcription (text field) in Norwegian |
| - Microphone position (close, distant) |
| - Linguistic and demographic metadata |
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| ## 5. Uses |
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| What are the intended uses? |
| - Training and evaluating ASR systems in Norwegian. |
| - Linguistic research on Norwegian dialects and pronunciation. |
| - Voice-based human-computer interaction studies. |
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| What are the out-of-scope uses? |
| - Applications requiring real-time conversational data or informal speech. |
| - Use in sensitive profiling without additional privacy controls. |
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| ## 6. Distribution |
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| The dataset is distributed under the Apache 2.0 License. |
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| - Hugging Face Dataset Hub: https://huggingface.co/datasets/NbAiLab/NST |
| - Språkbanken (Norwegian National Library): https://www.nb.no/sprakbanken/en/resource-catalogue/oai-nb-no-sbr-54/ |
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| ## 7. Maintenance |
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| The dataset is hosted by NbAiLab on Hugging Face and curated by the National Library of Norway. |
| Users are encouraged to provide feedback or contribute improved versions by contacting: sprakbanken@nb.no |
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