Machine Learning for Feature Extraction and Classification of English-language Accents in Ireland

Nolan, Peter (2024) Machine Learning for Feature Extraction and Classification of English-language Accents in Ireland. Masters thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland.

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Abstract

Pronunciation in the English language in Ireland is of strong interest to the Irish public and the research community, both as a marker of identity and in considering interactions with modern automated speech processing tools. Qualitative linguistic research has consistently shown that the pronunciation within Ireland of the English language has shown significant differences by geographic origin and between Irish mother-tongue speakers and accents in India, Australia and elsewhere. Recent data analysis reinforces the distinctness of Irish-English from forms of English spoken in mainland Britain. Using speech samples from the wide survey published in Hickey’s (2004) ‘Sound Atlas of Irish English’, we attempt to build models to classify the Belfast and Dublin regional accents of Irish English using logistic regression, neural networks, convolutional neural network and large audio models. Evaluation by accuracy, confusion matrix and ROC curve methods showed strong classification ability for these regression and neural network models. However, performance using recent transformer-based large audio models was poor. Overall, this research points to continued future data-gathering and more modelling work while preserving privacy as promising avenues for future research, leading to greater socio-linguistic self-understanding and to reduced bias impacting consumers in Ireland.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Supervisors:	Name Email Basilio, Jorge UNSPECIFIED
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Accent Classification; Socio-linguistics; Ireland
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics P Language and Literature > PE English Q Science > QA Mathematics > Electronic computers. Computer science T Technology > T Technology (General) > Information Technology > Electronic computers. Computer science D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain > Ireland Q Science > Q Science (General) > Self-organizing systems. Conscious automata > Machine learning
Divisions:	School of Computing > Master of Science in Data Analytics
Depositing User:	Ciara O'Brien
Date Deposited:	25 Aug 2025 08:25
Last Modified:	25 Aug 2025 08:25
URI:	https://norma.ncirl.ie/id/eprint/8600

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