Te reo Māori, Malay, and Singlish, all play central roles in the culture and identity of the Māori and Singaporean communities. By revitalising and promoting the understanding of these languages, we can preserve and provide access to the vast indigenous and local knowledge they express.

Recent advances in data science and deep learning for natural language processing (NLP) have opened up exciting new possibilities in major languages such as English and Chinese. However, there is no software system that can systematically integrate listening to, speaking, and reading in less widely used languages such as te reo Māori, Malay, or Singlish.

This project will develop novel speech processing and NLP techniques for machine translation and Q&A to create an intelligent conversational Q&A system in te reo Māori, Malay, and Singlish. The multi-lingual Q&A system integrates listening to, speaking, and reading te reo Māori/Malay/Singlish to benefit learners and users. It will explore ways in which data science and AI systems can help gain knowledge expressed in these languages effectively, thereby broadening both the preservation and impact of our cultural heritage with technology.

This collaboration is funded by Singapore’s National Research Foundation and Singapore Data Science Consortium, and the Catalyst: Strategic – New Zealand-Singapore Data Science Research Programme of New Zealand’s Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (MBIE), under the Government-wide New Zealand-Singapore Enhanced Partnership.