S0075 : Welsh SpeechDat(II) FDB-2000

The Welsh SpeechDat(II) FDB-2000 database contains the recordings of 2,000 Welsh speakers (918 male speakers et 1,082 speakers) recorded over the British fixed telephone network. The FDB-2000 database is partitioned into 10 CDs, which comprise 200 speakers sessions each.

Speech samples are stored as sequences of 8-bit 8 kHz A-law. Each prompted utterance is stored in a separate file. Each signal file is accompanied by an ASCII SAM label file which contains the relevant descriptive information.

This database was validated by SPEX (the Netherlands) to assess its compliance with the SpeechDat format and content specifications.

Each speaker uttered the following items:

• 6 application words
• 1 sequence of 10 isolated digits
• 4 connected digits (1 sheet number –5 digits, 1 telephone number –9/11 digits, 1 credit card number –14/16 digits, 1 PIN code -6 digits)
• 3 dates (1 spontaneous e.g. birthday, 1 word style prompted date, 1 relative and general date expression)
• 1 word spotting phrase using an embedded application word
• 1 isolated digit
• 3 spelled word (1 spontaneous e.g. own forename, 1 city name, 1 real/artificial for coverage)
• 1 currency money amount
• 1 natural number
• 5 directory assistance names (1 spontaneous e.g. own forename, 1 city of birth/growing up, 1 most frequent city name out of a set of 500, 1 common forename and surname)
• 2 yes/no questions (1 predominantly "yes" question, 1 predominantly "no" question)
• 9 phonetically rich sentences
• 2 time phrases (1 spontaneous time of day, 1 word style time phrase)
• 4 phonetically rich words

The following age distribution has been obtained: 509 speakers are between 16 and 30, 645 speakers are between 31 and 45, 565 speakers are between 46 and 60 and 281 speakers are over 60.

A pronunciation lexicon with a phonemic transcription in SAMPA is also included.