How Inzwi works
Voice AI for Shona is built one contribution at a time. Here's how you add yours.
Read aloud
Read a short Shona sentence aloud, on WhatsApp or here — or a story, a paragraph at a time.
Talk freely
Answer an everyday question in your own words, the way you would say it to a friend.
Review
Listen to other contributors' clips and say whether each one is clear and matches its text.
Transcribe
Write down what was said in a free-talk answer, so it can be used for training.
Read aloud
You are shown a short sentence in Shona and read it aloud. The sentence becomes the transcript, so every clip arrives already labelled. On WhatsApp the bot sends one sentence at a time and you reply with a voice note. On this site you can also read a story, one paragraph at a time.
- Read at a normal pace, in your own accent
- Somewhere quiet, phone close to your mouth
- Re-record before sending if you stumble
- Works on WhatsApp or in the browser
Read aloud:
"Ndiri kufara chaizvo nhasi"
Talk freely
You are asked an everyday question and answer in your own words for fifteen to thirty seconds. This is how people really speak, which reading cannot capture.
- Answer as you would to a friend
- Mixing in English words is fine — that is real speech
- Aim for 15 to 35 seconds
Question:
"Pakati pa Winky D na Jah Prayzah, ndeupi muimbi waunofarira?"
Your answer:
Review recordings
Listen to clips other contributors have read and decide whether each one is usable. A clip is accepted or rejected only when two reviewers agree, and a rejection always says why.
- Is the speech clear and loud enough?
- Does it match the sentence on screen?
- Pick a reason when you reject, so the speaker can improve
- If you share the speaker's dialect, you may be asked whether they sound like it
Should say:
"Ndiri kushanda kubasa nhasi"
Transcribe free talk
Free-talk answers have no text to go with them. Listen to one and type exactly what was said, in Shona, so the answer can be used to train speech recognition.
- Write what you hear, not what you think they meant
- Keep English words in English
- Say how confident you are
You type:
"Ini hangu ndinofarira..."
How quality is kept
Nothing goes into the corpus on one person's word.
Two reviewers agree
Every read-aloud clip needs two matching verdicts from other contributors before it is accepted or rejected.
Audio checks
Each upload is checked for silence, clipping and duplicates before a person ever hears it.
Dialect confirmed
Speakers of the same dialect confirm whether a contributor sounds like the dialect they declared.