@inproceedings{strickland-etal-2026-transfer,
title = "Transfer Learning for Creole {TTS}: A Pilot Study on Whether Substrate Phonologies or Lexifier Vocabularies Matter More",
author = "Strickland, Emmett and
Evrard, Marc and
Fedchenko, Valentina",
editor = "Ojha, Atul Kr. and
Sakti, Sakriani and
Soria, Claudia and
Melero, Maite and
McCrae, John P. and
Lignos, Constantine and
Liu, Chao-Hong and
Claramunt, German Rigau and
Rehm, Georg",
booktitle = "Proceedings of the {SIGUL} 2026 Joint Workshop with {ELE}, {EURALI}, and {DCLRL}: Towards Inclusivity and Equality: Language Resources and Technologies for Under-Resourced and Endangered Languages",
month = may,
year = "2026",
address = "Palma, Mallorca, Spain",
publisher = "ELRA Language Resources Association (ELRA)",
url = "https://aclanthology.org/2026.sigul-1.11/",
doi = "10.63317/5d5qjmokuvmc",
pages = "101--106",
abstract = "In this early-stage study, we investigate whether transfer learning from lexifier or substrate languages can improve text-to-speech (TTS) performance for low-resource creoles. We conducted a controlled experiment using two creoles of distinct lexical origins: Nigerian Pidgin (English-based) and Guadeloupean Creole (French-based). Single-speaker TTS datasets of approximately 30 minutes each were recorded and used to fine-tune pretrained models for English, French, and Yoruba. Objective metrics and informal subjective evaluations were employed to assess synthesis quality. Though partially inconclusive, our results suggest that the French-based models outperform others for both creoles, while Yoruba-based models yield weaker performance. These findings may suggest that lexical similarity or historic influences alone do not fully predict transfer learning effectiveness, and that phonotactic compatibility and orthographic depth may also be relevant factors. Our work provides insight into TTS model development for creoles and other low-resource languages, and highlights avenues for further research on leveraging relevant linguistic and orthographic features for model development."
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<abstract>In this early-stage study, we investigate whether transfer learning from lexifier or substrate languages can improve text-to-speech (TTS) performance for low-resource creoles. We conducted a controlled experiment using two creoles of distinct lexical origins: Nigerian Pidgin (English-based) and Guadeloupean Creole (French-based). Single-speaker TTS datasets of approximately 30 minutes each were recorded and used to fine-tune pretrained models for English, French, and Yoruba. Objective metrics and informal subjective evaluations were employed to assess synthesis quality. Though partially inconclusive, our results suggest that the French-based models outperform others for both creoles, while Yoruba-based models yield weaker performance. These findings may suggest that lexical similarity or historic influences alone do not fully predict transfer learning effectiveness, and that phonotactic compatibility and orthographic depth may also be relevant factors. Our work provides insight into TTS model development for creoles and other low-resource languages, and highlights avenues for further research on leveraging relevant linguistic and orthographic features for model development.</abstract>
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%0 Conference Proceedings
%T Transfer Learning for Creole TTS: A Pilot Study on Whether Substrate Phonologies or Lexifier Vocabularies Matter More
%A Strickland, Emmett
%A Evrard, Marc
%A Fedchenko, Valentina
%Y Ojha, Atul Kr.
%Y Sakti, Sakriani
%Y Soria, Claudia
%Y Melero, Maite
%Y McCrae, John P.
%Y Lignos, Constantine
%Y Liu, Chao-Hong
%Y Claramunt, German Rigau
%Y Rehm, Georg
%S Proceedings of the SIGUL 2026 Joint Workshop with ELE, EURALI, and DCLRL: Towards Inclusivity and Equality: Language Resources and Technologies for Under-Resourced and Endangered Languages
%D 2026
%8 May
%I ELRA Language Resources Association (ELRA)
%C Palma, Mallorca, Spain
%F strickland-etal-2026-transfer
%X In this early-stage study, we investigate whether transfer learning from lexifier or substrate languages can improve text-to-speech (TTS) performance for low-resource creoles. We conducted a controlled experiment using two creoles of distinct lexical origins: Nigerian Pidgin (English-based) and Guadeloupean Creole (French-based). Single-speaker TTS datasets of approximately 30 minutes each were recorded and used to fine-tune pretrained models for English, French, and Yoruba. Objective metrics and informal subjective evaluations were employed to assess synthesis quality. Though partially inconclusive, our results suggest that the French-based models outperform others for both creoles, while Yoruba-based models yield weaker performance. These findings may suggest that lexical similarity or historic influences alone do not fully predict transfer learning effectiveness, and that phonotactic compatibility and orthographic depth may also be relevant factors. Our work provides insight into TTS model development for creoles and other low-resource languages, and highlights avenues for further research on leveraging relevant linguistic and orthographic features for model development.
%R 10.63317/5d5qjmokuvmc
%U https://aclanthology.org/2026.sigul-1.11/
%U https://doi.org/10.63317/5d5qjmokuvmc
%P 101-106
Markdown (Informal)
[Transfer Learning for Creole TTS: A Pilot Study on Whether Substrate Phonologies or Lexifier Vocabularies Matter More](https://aclanthology.org/2026.sigul-1.11/) (Strickland et al., SIGUL-EURALI-DCLRL 2026)
ACL