Yakutia's New AI Can Turn Yakut Text Into Speech
The National Library of Yakutia has launched an online service that converts Yakut-language text into natural-sounding speech using artificial intelligence. The technology helps preserve the authentic sound of the Yakut language while making it more accessible to everyone. It is expected to be especially useful for people learning Yakut on their own.
As Russia marks 2026 as the Year of the Unity of the Peoples of Russia, an increasing number of projects are emerging to support the country's national cultures. The National Library of Yakutia's online service brings new attention to Yakut literature while opening fresh opportunities to study and promote the region's cultural heritage.
How It All Began
The text-to-speech service is the result of several years of groundwork. In 2024, Yakutia launched the Sokhrani rodnoy yazyk (Preserve the Native Language) project. The National Library of the Republic and the Arctic State Institute of Culture and Arts began collecting voice recordings to train AI models. The long-term goal was to create a system capable of recognizing and synthesizing Yakut speech, translating materials and generating content in the Yakut language.
To build the dataset, residents across the republic recorded words, phrases and complete sentences. This crowdsourcing approach allowed the AI to learn directly from native speakers rather than relying on artificially generated speech.
Today, the library's neural network can read virtually any Yakut-language text aloud. It has already produced audio versions of two literary works: Nikolai Luginov's novel Chyngys Khaan Yyaaġynan and Vasily Yakovlev's short story Kytta Kyrdybyt Teŋke Tiit. Both audiobooks are now available on the library's website.
Your Personal Yakut Language Teacher
The new system also serves as a tool for independent language learning. In effect, artificial intelligence takes on many of the functions traditionally performed by a language instructor. Users can listen to narrated texts while reading along, choose either a male or female synthetic voice and save personal notes in their individual accounts.
The National Library of Yakutia continues expanding projects that preserve cultural heritage while actively involving readers in the process.
"It is essential to do everything necessary to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of Russia's regions and protect their unique identities. During the Year of the Unity of the Peoples of Russia, greater attention should be given to literature and the publishing industry, especially in the regions, as well as to authors and translators writing in national languages while remaining part of Russia's shared literary space," Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
Anyone who speaks Yakut can contribute to preserving the language in the digital world. Through the Tekst.Yakt platform, volunteers can review and correct automatically recognized Yakut-language texts. Meanwhile, the Golos.Yakt platform invites speakers to record words, phrases and sentences. Together, these contributions improve speech recognition quality while expanding the datasets used to train future AI services.
Beyond the Library
The AI system could make it faster and less expensive to produce audiobook editions of Yakut fiction, educational materials and regional history publications.
Experts say the technology could also support educational programs in schools, online Yakut-language courses and self-learning applications. Beyond education, it could power Yakut-language news narration, tourist audio guides and digital accessibility tools for people with visual impairments.
The online service represents the latest stage in Yakutia's long-term effort to digitize its native language. Over the past several years, the initiative has progressed from collecting voice recordings and building an electronic dictionary to speech recognition and large-scale AI narration of literary works.
The result is expected to be a growing collection of Yakut-language audiobooks and educational resources. More importantly, the project is creating a dedicated digital foundation for the Yakut language itself. Without that foundation, modern search engines, voice interfaces and generative AI models cannot effectively support national languages. Yakutia's experience could become a blueprint for similar initiatives in other regions of Russia.
