Conversational Speech in Gujarati in the Finance Domain

Dataset creation

The dataset is strictly comprised of natural, spontaneous speech. Speakers were explicitly instructed not to follow a script. They were told to pick a topic they felt comfortable with and think: "How do I talk about this in real life?" To help them sustain natural dialogue for the required 9 to 10 minutes per session, speakers were given a tip to map out 4 to 5 simple bullet points or practice chatting with their partner once before hitting record. They were told to keep it personal, share their own stories, what they have seen around them, and what they think or feel.

The recordings feature natural pairs of individuals who already have an established real-life relationship. Users were told to record the conversations with someone they know, like a friend, a cousin, or a neighbour. To ensure acoustic and conversational diversity, a user could only record with the same partner for a maximum of 3 sessions, and they had to select an entirely different topic each time. For every recording, explicit speaker metadata was logged for the conversational partner, including Age, Gender, Phone Number, and the PIN code of where they are originally from.

Setup and Recording Instructions Given to Speakers: Speakers were instructed to talk in a quiet place so their voices remained clear. While minor background noise was acceptable, it could not interfere with clarity, and both individuals had to be equally audible using the phone’s standard built-in microphone. Speakers were given an IMPORTANT safety instruction: they were strictly forbidden from mentioning their real names, their partner's names, where they work, or where they live. All identifying personal details were intentionally kept out of the conversations. Every submission had to strictly adhere to a window of 9 to 10 minutes. Participants were required to complete a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 8 conversation recordings per assigned domain.

Directory structure

The root directory contains pairs of WAV and JSON files, aligned with a prefix:

• T-18044.MT-ee55b0648bbd4e3aa1863de8d4bdcfc0.MTA-fa9fed6ffc92421a80c19488dc9b125d.A-562950054523254.W-130571.K-user_recording.R-87ec30a3fc9f4075.merged.json

• T-18044.MT-ee55b0648bbd4e3aa1863de8d4bdcfc0.MTA-fa9fed6ffc92421a80c19488dc9b125d.A-562950054523254.W-130571.K-user_recording.R-87ec30a3fc9f4075.wav

File structure

The JSON file has contains three parts: “audio”, “metadata” and “transcriptions”:

• audio: The filename and file format information

• meta The metadata of the speaker and the topic

• transcriptions: The time aligned transcriptions

Example

{
  "audio": {
    "filename": "T-18045.MT-f71e95d5295341ae943d49cf97817136.MTA-cbdfb4b08d5643dab84b318ca7a00e05.A-562950054523611.W-131474.K-user_recording.R-84aa12b7ef391e6d.wav",
    "duration_sec": 559.919501,
    "sample_rate_hz": 44100,
    "bit_depth": 16,
    "channels": 1
  },
  "metadata": {
    "speaker2_gender": "male",
    "user_topic": "[\"બચતની આદતો\"]",
    "speaker2_pincode": 396040,
    "workerid_gender": "male",
    "val_id": "aa7c37bfff7b44b79624244cec4c7db0"
  },
  "transcriptions": [
    {
      "utt_id": "T-18045.MT-f71e95d5295341ae943d49cf97817136.MTA-cbdfb4b08d5643dab84b318ca7a00e05.A-562950054523611.W-131474.K-user_recording.R-84aa12b7ef391e6d_0001",
      "speaker": "SPEAKER1",
      "start_time": 0.15,
      "end_time": 3.27,
      "text": " જત ની આદતોની વાતચીત મારા મિત્ર સાથે. "
    },
    {
      "utt_id": "T-18045.MT-f71e95d5295341ae943d49cf97817136.MTA-cbdfb4b08d5643dab84b318ca7a00e05.A-562950054523611.W-131474.K-user_recording.R-84aa12b7ef391e6d_0002",
      "speaker": "SPEAKER2",
      "start_time": 3.64,
      "end_time": 15.46,
      "text": " હાં, બચત કરવી એ ખૂબ જરૂરી છે, અમારા પરિવારમાં પણ ઘણા લોકો ખુબ જ બચત કરે અને હું પણ બચત કરું, bank માં અને આદિ માં. તમારે કેવુંક છે? "
    },

Translated Examples

1: એ એક યોગ્ય બાબત છે. બચત એ આપણા જીવનનું ખૂબ જ મહત્વનું ભાગ છે, અને બચત કરવી એ ખૂબ જ જરૂરી ગણાય છે.

• That is a good thing. Saving is a very important part of our lives, and saving money is considered very necessary.

2: હા અમે પણ અમારી ઘરે બચત કરીએ છીએ. અને હું પણ મારી personal બચત કરું છું. બચત કરવી એ ખૂબ સારી બાબત છે. ઘણા લોકો બચત કરતા નથી જેથી એ લોકોને પૈસાની જરૂર પડે ત્યારે ઓછીના અને ઉધાર માંગે છે અથવા loan લે છે. પરંતુ પૈસા બચાવવા જોઈએ જેથી આપણને ભવિષ્યમાં ખૂબ જ કામ લાગે છે.

• Yes, we also save money at our home. And I also do my personal savings. Saving money is a very good thing. Many people do not save, so when they need money, they ask for it from others and borrow it, or they take a loan. But we should save money so that it is very useful for us in the future.

3: હા આપણને ભવિષ્યમાં કશું કામ કરવું હોય અથવા કોઈ નવા પ્રસંગ કરવો હોય અથવા કઈ નવી વસ્તુ લેવી હોય તો આપણે જે બચત કરેલા હોય તે પૈસા કામ લાગે જ છે.

• Yes, if we want to do something in the future or if we want to have a new occasion, or if we want to buy something new, then the money that we have saved does come in handy.