Marito: Structuring and Building Open Multilingual Terminologies for South African NLP

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2508.03529v1
• Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2025 15:00:02 GMT
• Title: Marito: Structuring and Building Open Multilingual Terminologies for South African NLP
• Authors: Vukosi Marivate, Isheanesu Dzingirai, Fiskani Banda, Richard Lastrucci, Thapelo Sindane, Keabetswe Madumo, Kayode Olaleye, Abiodun Modupe, Unarine Netshifhefhe, Herkulaas Combrink, Mohlatlego Nakeng, Matome Ledwaba,
• Abstract summary: Lack of structured terminological data for South Africa's official languages hampers progress in multilingual NLP.<n>We introduce the foundational emphMarito dataset, released under the equitable, Africa-centered NOODL framework.<n>Experiments show substantial improvements in the accuracy and domain-specific consistency of English-to-Tshivenda machine translation.
• Score: 0.9273919298354661
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Abstract: The critical lack of structured terminological data for South Africa's official languages hampers progress in multilingual NLP, despite the existence of numerous government and academic terminology lists. These valuable assets remain fragmented and locked in non-machine-readable formats, rendering them unusable for computational research and development. \emph{Marito} addresses this challenge by systematically aggregating, cleaning, and standardising these scattered resources into open, interoperable datasets. We introduce the foundational \emph{Marito} dataset, released under the equitable, Africa-centered NOODL framework. To demonstrate its immediate utility, we integrate the terminology into a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipeline. Experiments show substantial improvements in the accuracy and domain-specific consistency of English-to-Tshivenda machine translation for large language models. \emph{Marito} provides a scalable foundation for developing robust and equitable NLP technologies, ensuring South Africa's rich linguistic diversity is represented in the digital age.

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