Original fp32 MarianMT translation model for Cameroonian languages, part of the Lingo / NativeAI language-preservation project (first released September 2024).

Translation runs through French as a pivot (e.g. Ghomálá' → français → Ewondo), so each language only needs an X→français and a français→X model. The models were trained on a corpus we compiled by hand — scripture as the aligned backbone plus gathered books, pamphlets and other written material — normalised under the AGLC alphabet (Alphabet Général des Langues Camerounaises). Background: the research log.

For deployment we serve int8 CTranslate2 conversions (~3.8× smaller, ~6× faster on CPU), bundled at flagship-ai/cameroon-int8. These fp32 weights are the originals / reference.

Trained on a small, formal-leaning corpus, so it is strongest on everyday/simple sentences and weaker on modern or technical vocabulary. It is an early, open baseline — an ongoing voice-data collection project aims to broaden coverage with real spoken contributions.

— Open models for Cameroonian languages · lingo.cm