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Writing System and Speaker Metadata for 2,800+ Language Varieties

Sebastian Ruder
Clara E. Rivera
Proceedings of the Language Resources and Evaluation Conference, European Language Resources Association, Marseille, France (2022), pp. 5035-5046

Abstract

We describe an open-source dataset providing metadata for about 2,800 language varieties used in the world today. Specifically, the dataset provides the attested writing system(s) for each of these 2,800+ varieties, as well as an estimated speaker count for each variety. This data set was developed through internal research and has been used for analyses around language technologies. This is the largest publicly-available, machine-readable resource with writing system and speaker information for the world's languages. We hope the availability of this data will catalyze research in under-represented languages.