Development of isiXhosa text-to-speech modules to support e-Services in marginalized rural areas

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dc.contributor.advisorKogeda, O.Pen
dc.contributor.advisorThinyane, Men
dc.contributor.authorMhlana, Sipheen
dc.date.accessioned2026-08-13T00:07:24Z
dc.date.available2026-08-13T00:07:24Z
dc.date.issued2011en
dc.description.abstractInformation and Communication Technology (ICT) projects are being initiated and deployed in marginalized areas to help improve the standard of living for community members. This has lead to a new field, which is responsible for information processing and knowledge development in rural areas, called Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D). An ICT4D projects has been implemented in a marginalized area called Dwesa; this is a rural area situated in the wild coast of the former homelandof Transkei, in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. In this rural community there are e-Service projects which have been developed and deployed to support the already existent ICT infrastructure. Some of these projects include the e-Commerce platform, e-Judiciary service, e-Health and e-Government portal. Although these projects are deployed in this area, community members face a language and literacy barrier because these services are typically accessed through English textual interfaces. This becomes a challenge because their language of communication is isiXhosa and some of the community members are illiterate. Most of the rural areas consist of illiterate people who cannot read and write isiXhosa but can only speak the language. This problem of illiteracy in rural areas affects both the youth and the elderly. This research seeks to design, develop and implement software modules that can be used to convert isiXhosa text into natural sounding isiXhosa speech. Such an application is called a Text-to-Speech (TTS) system. The main objective of this research is to improve ICT4D eServices’ usability through the development of an isiXhosa Text-to-Speech system. This research is undertaken within the context of Siyakhula Living Lab (SLL), an ICT4D intervention towards improving the lives of rural communities of South Africa in an attempt to bridge the digital divide. Thedeveloped TTS modules were subsequently tested to determine their applicability to improve eServices usability. The results show acceptable levels of usability as having produced audio utterances for the isiXhosa Text-To-Speech system for marginalized areas.en
dc.format136 leaves; 30 cmen
dc.formatpdfen
dc.identifier.citationMhlana, Siphe. 2011en
dc.identifier.othervital:11388en
dc.identifier.otherhttp://hdl.handle.net/10353/495en
dc.identifier.otherXhosa language -- South Africa -- Eastern Capeen
dc.identifier.otherInformation technology -- South Africa -- Eastern Capeen
dc.identifier.otherText processing (Computer science) -- South Africa -- Eastern Capeen
dc.identifier.otherLiteracy -- South Africa -- Eastern Capeen
dc.identifier.otherDigital divide -- South Africa -- Eastern Capeen
dc.identifier.otherMobile communication systems -- South Africa -- Eastern Capeen
dc.identifier.otherTransmission of texts -- Data processingen
dc.identifier.otherElectronic publishing -- South Africa -- Eastern Capeen
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11837/4621
dc.language.isoEnglishen
dc.publisherUniversity of Fort Hareen
dc.publisherFaculty of Science & Agricultureen
dc.rightsUniversity of Fort Hareen
dc.subjectXhosa language -- South Africa -- Eastern Capeen
dc.subjectInformation technology -- South Africa -- Eastern Capeen
dc.subjectText processing (Computer science) -- South Africa -- Eastern Capeen
dc.subjectLiteracy -- South Africa -- Eastern Capeen
dc.subjectDigital divide -- South Africa -- Eastern Capeen
dc.subjectMobile communication systems -- South Africa -- Eastern Capeen
dc.subjectTransmission of texts -- Data processingen
dc.subjectElectronic publishing -- South Africa -- Eastern Capeen
dc.titleDevelopment of isiXhosa text-to-speech modules to support e-Services in marginalized rural areasen
dc.title.alternativeDevelopment of isiXhosa text-to-speech modules to support e-Services in marginalized rural areasen
dc.typeThesisen
dc.typeMastersen
dc.typeMSc (Computer Science)en

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