Yanesha' Speech to Text: Preserving a Language Through AI

Yanesha' (also known as Amuesha) is an Arawakan language spoken primarily in the central jungle of Peru, in the regions of Pasco, Junín, and Huánuco. With an estimated 4,000 to 10,000 speakers, it is classified as endangered. The language uses a Latin-based orthography with diacritics to represent glottal stops and vowel length. Accurate speech-to-text technology for Yanesha' is not just a convenience; it is a vital tool for language preservation, education, and cultural continuity.

Why Accurate Transcription Matters

For Yanesha' communities, oral traditions remain the primary vehicle for transmitting knowledge. Stories, songs, and rituals are passed down verbally. Without written records, these elements risk fading away. Speech-to-text for Yanesha' allows elders to record their voices and have them automatically transcribed into the native script. This creates a permanent, searchable archive that can be used in schools, museums, and language revitalization programs.

Moreover, with the rise of digital media, Yanesha' speakers are creating video content, podcasts, and radio shows. Subtitling this content in Yanesha' and Spanish helps reach a broader audience and reinforces literacy. Tools like Speechyou's Yanesha' subtitle generator make this process effortless.

Challenges in Transcribing Yanesha'

Transcribing Yanesha' is not trivial. The language features:

• Glottal stops that change word meaning (e.g., 'aate' vs. 'aate')
• Vowel length distinctions (short vs. long vowels)
• Pitch variations that may carry lexical or grammatical functions
• Low resource availability — very few transcribed audio datasets exist

Generic ASR systems like Google Speech-to-Text or Whisper do not support Yanesha' at all. Even when they do, they struggle with the acoustic nuances. Speechyou's Yanesha' model is specifically trained on community recordings and field data, achieving over 95% accuracy on clear speech. The model also handles common background noise and varying speaking rates.

Use Cases Beyond Preservation

• Education: Teachers can transcribe Yanesha' lessons and create bilingual worksheets.
• Podcasting: Yanesha' podcasters can generate episode transcripts for SEO and accessibility.
• Research: Linguists can quickly process interviews without manual transcription.
• Accessibility: Deaf or hard-of-hearing Yanesha' speakers can read captions on videos.
• Media: Local news stations can subtitle Yanesha' broadcasts for wider dissemination.

How Speechyou Helps

Speechyou provides a dedicated Yanesha' speech-to-text pipeline. Users upload audio or video files, and the system returns a transcript with timestamps. The output can be exported as SRT or VTT subtitles, plain text, or JSON. Because the model is trained on Yanesha' data, it respects the orthography and punctuation conventions used by native speakers. The platform also supports real-time transcription for live events, making it useful for conferences and workshops.

The Future of Yanesha' Language Technology

As AI continues to evolve, the gap between high-resource and low-resource languages can narrow. Speechyou's commitment to languages like Yanesha' demonstrates that with targeted data collection and model tuning, endangered languages can benefit from modern tools. The next step is to integrate machine translation from Yanesha' to Spanish, which would further support bilingual education and community engagement.

In summary, Yanesha' speech to text is more than a technical feat; it is a means of cultural preservation. By enabling accurate transcription and subtitling, Speechyou empowers the Yanesha' community to document, teach, and share their language for generations to come.