README.md

---
license: apache-2.0
base_model: DataoceanAI/dolphin-cn-dialect-base
pipeline_tag: automatic-speech-recognition
library_name: openasr
tags:
  - automatic-speech-recognition
  - speech-to-text
  - openasr
  - oasr
  - dolphin-cn-dialect-base
---

<div align="center">

# Dolphin CN-Dialect Base · OpenASR

**Chinese multi-dialect speech recognition, base tier -- a compact 140M WeNet E-Branchformer (CTC + attention) for Sichuan and 22 regional dialects**

[![License](https://img.shields.io/badge/license-Apache--2.0-2563eb.svg)](https://huggingface.co/DataoceanAI/dolphin-cn-dialect-base/blob/main/README.md)
[![Format](https://img.shields.io/badge/format-.oasr-7c3aed.svg)](https://github.com/QuintinShaw/openasr)
[![Runtime](https://img.shields.io/badge/runtime-OpenASR-111827.svg)](https://openasr.org)
[![Base model](https://img.shields.io/badge/base-dolphin--cn--dialect--base-f59e0b.svg)](https://huggingface.co/DataoceanAI/dolphin-cn-dialect-base)

Native speech-to-text in the **[OpenASR](https://github.com/QuintinShaw/openasr)** runtime —
engineered for peak performance on CPU & GPU, **no Python at inference time**.

</div>

---

## ✨ Highlights

- 🀄 **22 Chinese dialects, base tier** — the same WeNet E-Branchformer dialect coverage as Dolphin CN-Dialect Small (Sichuan/川话, Wu, Cantonese, Minnan, Shanghainese and more), at a fraction of the size
- 🪶 **140M parameters** — roughly a third the width of the `small.cn` checkpoint (512 vs 768 d_model, 6 vs 12 layers), for tighter RAM and faster CPU decode when the small tier is overkill
- 🧩 **Joint CTC + attention** — the same E-Branchformer encoder + Transformer decoder recipe with CTC/attention rescoring, verified against a shape-derived runtime contract shared with the rest of the Dolphin family
- 🐬 **Chinese-focused, mixed char/BPE vocab** — a character vocabulary for Chinese with SentencePiece word-piece tokens for code-switched English, purpose-built for zh audio including heavy accents
- 🦀 **Native in OpenASR** — `.oasr` packs run with no Python at inference, engineered for peak performance on CPU & GPU

## 🚀 Quickstart

```bash
# 1. Install the OpenASR CLI  ·  https://openasr.org
# 2. Pull a build (pick a quant — see the table below)
openasr pull dolphin-cn-dialect-base:fp16

# 3. Transcribe
openasr transcribe audio.wav --model dolphin-cn-dialect-base
```

All builds for this model:

```bash
openasr pull dolphin-cn-dialect-base:fp16
openasr pull dolphin-cn-dialect-base:q8
openasr pull dolphin-cn-dialect-base:q4
```

## 📦 Available builds

| Quant | File (`.oasr`) | Size | RAM peak | RTF · M1 CPU | RTF · M1 GPU | ΔWER vs fp16 |
|:------|:---------------|-----:|---------:|-------------:|-------------:|-----------------:|
| fp16 | `dolphin-cn-dialect-base-fp16.oasr` | 224 MB | 1.04 GB | 0.13× | 0.05× | 0.0% |
| q8_0 | `dolphin-cn-dialect-base-q8_0.oasr` | 127 MB | 1.06 GB | 0.09× | 0.05× | 4.5% |
| q4_k | `dolphin-cn-dialect-base-q4_k.oasr` | 75 MB | 1.00 GB | 0.09× | 0.05× | 9.1% |

<sub>RTF = real-time factor on the shared 11s JFK clip (out-of-distribution English, drift signal only) plus an in-language Mandarin sanity clip (**lower is faster**); RAM peak measured per pack
in an isolated subprocess. ΔWER compares each quantized build's JFK + zh sanity clip transcript to this model's
fp16 JFK + zh sanity clip transcript, so it measures quantization drift rather than absolute recognition accuracy.
**fp16** is the recommended default — near-reference quality at a fraction of the
footprint.</sub>

## 🧠 About Dolphin CN-Dialect Base

Dolphin CN-Dialect Base is the **140M "base" tier** of DataoceanAI's **Chinese multi-dialect**
speech-recognition line, built on the same **Dolphin / WeNet** recipe as the larger
**Dolphin CN-Dialect Small**: an **E-Branchformer encoder + Transformer decoder** trained with a
**joint CTC + attention** objective over a mixed character/BPE vocabulary. It covers the same
**Sichuan (川话)**-forward set of 22 Chinese dialects (Wu, Cantonese, Minnan, Shanghainese and
more) as its `small.cn` sibling, but at roughly a third of the encoder/decoder width (512 vs 768
d_model, 6 vs 12 layers) -- a smaller RAM/CPU footprint for deployments where the small tier's
accuracy headroom is not needed. Unlike `small.cn`, this `base.cn` checkpoint does not ship a
trained hotword deep-biasing module. This OpenASR repo repackages the weights as `.oasr` packs
that run natively in the OpenASR runtime -- no Python at inference, all decoding local. It ships
in **fp16** (maximum fidelity, recommended), **q8_0**, and **q4_k** builds.

**Note:** this model does not emit punctuation. Its upstream training corpus is transcribed
without punctuation marks, so the decoder never predicts a punctuation token -- there is no
setting to enable it. Transcripts are plain, unpunctuated text by design.

## ⚙️ How these packs were made

Converted from [DataoceanAI/dolphin-cn-dialect-base](https://huggingface.co/DataoceanAI/dolphin-cn-dialect-base) with the OpenASR importer:

```bash
openasr model-pack import dolphin <src> <out>.oasr \
  --package-id dolphin-cn-dialect-base --quantization {fp16,q8-0,q4-k}
```

The `.oasr` container is GGUF-backed; packs use zero-copy mmap weight binding and graph
buffer reuse to keep peak memory low.

## ⚖️ License

These packs **inherit the upstream model's license: Apache-2.0**
([source](https://huggingface.co/DataoceanAI/dolphin-cn-dialect-base/blob/main/README.md)). OpenASR packaging retains the upstream copyright and
NOTICE; the only modifications are format conversion and quantization.

## 🙏 Acknowledgements

This pack is a redistribution of **Dolphin CN-Dialect Base** (`base.cn`), created and
open-sourced by **DataoceanAI**
([DataoceanAI/dolphin-cn-dialect-base](https://huggingface.co/DataoceanAI/dolphin-cn-dialect-base)).
All credit for the original architecture, training, and weights belongs to the authors; the
license is inherited from and identical to the upstream model (Apache-2.0). The model builds on
the **Dolphin** multilingual ASR project and the **WeNet** E-Branchformer / joint CTC-attention
recipe -- thank you to the Dolphin and WeNet teams and to DataoceanAI for releasing their work
openly. OpenASR only performs format conversion, quantization, runtime verification, and
local-inference adaptation.

## 🔗 Links

- 🦀 **OpenASR** — <https://github.com/QuintinShaw/openasr>
- 🌐 **Website** — <https://openasr.org>
- 🤗 **Upstream model** — [DataoceanAI/dolphin-cn-dialect-base](https://huggingface.co/DataoceanAI/dolphin-cn-dialect-base)