README.md

metadata

language:
  - luo
  - bxk
  - lri
  - rag
  - swa
license: cc-by-4.0
task_categories:
  - translation
tags:
  - kenyan-languages
  - dholuo
  - lubukusu
  - lumarachi
  - lulogooli
  - swahili
  - low-resource-languages
  - african-languages
pretty_name: KenTrans
size_categories:
  - 10K<n<100K
configs:
  - config_name: dho
    data_files: dho/*.parquet
  - config_name: lbk
    data_files: lbk/*.parquet
  - config_name: lch
    data_files: lch/*.parquet
  - config_name: llg
    data_files: llg/*.parquet

KenTrans: Kenyan Languages to Swahili Translation Dataset

Dataset Structure

KenTrans is a parallel corpus between Swahili and three Kenyan languages (with multiple Luhya dialects). The dataset contains 11,795 sentence pairs translated into Swahili:

• Dholuo → Swahili: 4,222 pairs
• Luhya → Swahili (total): 7,573 pairs across three dialects
  • Lumarachi (lch): 2,475 pairs
  • Lulogooli (llg): 3,692 pairs
  • Lubukusu (lbk): 1,406 pairs

The dataset is provided in Parquet format, which is compatible with Hugging Face datasets library version 4.0.0 and above.

Each example contains parallel text with the following fields:

• source: Original sentence in the source language
• target: Translation in Swahili

Example

{
  'source': 'OSIEPE MA KENDE',
  'target': 'MARAFIKI WA DHATI'
}

Languages & Codes

Language / Dialect	Code	Family / Notes
Dholuo (Luo)	dho	Nilotic (western Kenya)
Lubukusu (Bukusu)	lbk	Bantu, Luhya dialect
Lumarachi (Marachi)	lch	Bantu, Luhya dialect
Lulogooli (Logooli)	llg	Bantu, Luhya dialect
Swahili	swa	Target language for all pairs

---

Usage

Loading with 🤗 Datasets

Compatible with datasets 4.0.0+ (No trust_remote_code needed!)

from datasets import load_dataset

# Load Dholuo → Swahili
dho = load_dataset("Kencorpus/KenTrans", "dho")

# Load Lubukusu → Swahili
lbk = load_dataset("Kencorpus/KenTrans", "lbk")

# Load Lumarachi → Swahili
lch = load_dataset("Kencorpus/KenTrans", "lch")

# Load Lulogooli → Swahili
llg = load_dataset("Kencorpus/KenTrans", "llg")

# Access the data
print(dho['train'][0])
# Output: {'id': 'dho_dho_combined.txt_0', 'source': '6AM DALA FM NEWS...', 'target': 'VIDOKEZI VYA HABARI...', ...}

---

Dataset Format

The dataset is stored in Parquet format with the following structure:

• Each language pair has its own Parquet file (e.g., dho-train.parquet)
• Each row represents a parallel sentence pair
• All metadata is included in the Parquet schema

Dataset Format

The dataset is distributed as Parquet files for optimal performance and compatibility:

• Format: Apache Parquet (columnar storage)
• Encoding: UTF-8
• File naming: {language}-train.parquet (e.g., dho-train.parquet)
• Compatibility: Works with datasets 4.0.0+ without custom loading scripts

---

Data Fields (Programmatic View)

When parsed into records, each example can be represented with:

• id: Unique identifier (e.g., dho_0773_dho_tr.txt_0)
• source: Source language sentence
• target: Target Swahili sentence
• src_lang: One of dho, lbk, lch, llg
• tgt_lang: Always swa
• pair: Language pair as "{src}-{tgt}" (e.g., dho-swa)
• filename: Source filename (e.g., 0773_dho_tr.txt)

---

Sources

Translators (Acknowledgements)

Dholuo → Swahili

• Mercy Lavinca Oduoll (Coordinator)
• Bildad Okebe
• Immaculate Ochieng
• Mary Muma.

Luhya (Logooli) → Swahili

• Phillip Lumwamu (Coordinator)
• Kints Mugoha Musungu
• Vivian Alivitsa
• Joseph Ambwere
• Joyline Ingasiani.

Luhya (Bukusu) → Swahili

• Martin Barasa Mulwale (Coordinator)
• Samwel Ralph Nyongesa
• Tobias Shikuku
• Phelisters N Simiyu

Luhya (Marachi) → Swahili

• Judith Awinja (Coordinator)
• Evans Owino
• Belinda Oduor
• Frankline Mwaro

Dataset Curator

• Indede, Florence (Maseno University)
• McOnyango, Owen (Maseno University)
• Wanzare, Lilian D.A. (Maseno University)
• Wanjawa, Barack (University of Nairobi)
• Ombui, Edward (Africa Nazarene University)
• Muchemi, Lawrence (University of Nairobi)

Research Paper

• Wanjawa, B.W., Wanzare, L.D., Indede, F., McOnyango, O., Ombui, E., & Muchemi, L. (2022). Kencorpus: A Kenyan Language Corpus of Swahili, Dholuo and Luhya for Natural Language Processing Tasks. ArXiv, abs/2208.12081. https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.12081

Links

Dataverse: https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/KLCKL5