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ISCApad Archive » 2025 » ISCApad #322 » Events » Other Events » (2025-08-27) Blizzard Challenge, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands (updated) |
ISCApad #322 |
| Monday, April 07, 2025 by Chris Wellekens |
3-3-22 (2025-08-27) Blizzard Challenge, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands (updated)
We have now released updated version of the Bildts dataset and the lexicon. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the release of the lexicon was delayed, so we have updated the schedule of the challenge which is now[1].
The lexicon is now available at <https://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/blizzard/2025/> and the dataset is available on zenodo: <https://zenodo.org/records/14995211> Finally, as the challenge moves to its next stage, all discussion will now happen on the blizzard discuss group (<https://groups.google.com/g/blizzard-challenge-discuss/> ). Kind regards, Sébastien Le Maguer for the Blizzard Challenge organising committee [1] *Mar 21 2025 – team registration closes* Apr 04 2025 – test sentences released to participants *Apr 11 2025 – deadline for participants to submit synthetic speech (23:59 AoE)* Apr 14 2025 – last date for payment of the entry fee (more details will be sent soon) Apr 30 2025 – evaluation systems go live Jun 20 2025 – end of the evaluation period Jun 27 2025 – release of results ***************************************************************
We are delighted to announce the 2025 edition of the Blizzard Challenge, which will be co-located with the Speech Synthesis Workshop 2025 (SSW13).
The theme of this edition of SSW is 'Scaling down: sustainable synthesis for language diversity'. In line with this theme, the challenge focuses on synthesizing speech for Bildts, a unique language variety from the Netherlands.
The information about the challenge is available (and will be updated) here: https://blogs.helsinki.fi/ssw13-2025/the-blizzard-challenge-2025/
About Bildts
Bildts (Indo-European > West Germanic) is spoken in Het Bildt, a region in the Dutch province of Friesland. With approximately 10,000 first and second language speakers, it represents a vibrant example of European linguistic diversity. The language variety has been systematically through grammatical descriptions, dictionaries with pronunciation information, literary works, media productions (weekly radio broadcasts, theater performances), and regular newspaper columns.
For the Blizzard Challenge 2025, we have curated a dataset of high-quality audio recordings with corresponding linguistic resources. This choice of Bildts aligns with our theme of 'sustainable synthesis for language diversity' - it presents participants with the real-world challenge of developing synthesis capabilities for a well-documented but data-limited language variety, representative of the thousands of smaller languages that could benefit from speech technology. The challenge is composed of two tasks:
Data download
The training data is available here: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14792457
A pronunciation dictionary for Bildts will be made available to participants in February 2025. This will include phonetic transcriptions that can be used for training text-to-speech systems. Participants will be notified when this resource becomes available.
Timeline
This is a preliminary timeline and is subject to change.
Any questions?
Please contact blizzard-challenge-organisers@googlegroups.com if you have any questions.
Please feel free to distribute this announcement.
The Blizzard Challenge 2025 Organising team |
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