Tibetan speech technology lab established in Lhasa

An application lab for Tibetan speech technology research was established last week at Tibet University in Lhasa, the capital of the Southwest China's Tibet autonomous region, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The lab aims to create a platform of integrative development and application for ethnic language, phonology, and modern information technology, and to bring convenience in communication for local people in life and at work.

Yang Li, general manager of the Tibetan branch of iFlytek, an artificial intelligence heavyweight, said the company has been working with Tibet University for more than eight years in Tibetan speech technology.

"Our databank stores more than four million bilingual sentence pairs," Yang said.

Zangyitong, an online Tibetan translation app, has been already put in operation, covering daily expressions in fields, such as politics, transport, and culture.

Zhao Qijun, deputy dean of the school of Information Science and Technology at Tibet University, said the data bank has accumulated more than 1,000 hours of linguistic data, covering the Amdo, Kham, and U-tsang Tibetan dialects. Tibetan internet slang is also collected.

"While working on the linguistic database, we encourage more students to participate to improve their technical skills, and they have made great contribution to the work," said Zhao.