AI tools for the
Manx language

About This Project

Gaelg AI is a collection of AI-powered tools for Manx Gaelic, developed as part of ongoing doctoral research into low-resource and endangered language speech technology at the University of Sheffield. The tools include a text-to-speech synthesiser, automatic speech recognition, and translation tools, all of which have been trained on Manx language resources.

Note: These tools are experimental. Output may contain errors and should be treated as approximate rather than authoritative.

Why it matters

Manx is critically endangered. Language technology for Manx can support:

Language preservation:

• Supports the digitisation of Manx resources.
• Makes existing speech resources searchable by text, enabling research and greater accessibility for community members.

Assistive technologies:

• Screen reading for the visually impaired.
• Live captioning for the deaf.
• Dictation for those with mobility impairments.

Education:

• Grammar and pronunciation checkers.
• Generation of new learning content (w/ human verification).
• Interactive chatbots for practising conversations.

Future work

• Translating this website into Manx (help needed).
• A Gaelg AI app.
• Improving the technologies (more natural voices, better recognition and translation).
• Collecting more Manx speech and text data to train on.
• Applying the tools to real uses such as those mentioned above.

Contribute

These tools are only as good as the data behind them, and Manx is a low-resource language. Ways to help:

• Provide data collections, or help run data collection campaigns.
• Share general feedback on the tools and their output.
• Offer help with particular applications, for example education or health.

Publications

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