# Transcription for language research and corpora

> Create first-pass transcripts for fieldwork, interviews and corpora in 100 languages, with word-level timestamps and speaker turns in JSON that you can convert for your annotation tools.

Last updated: 2026-10-08 · HTML: https://console.kolwrite.com/use-cases/researchers

## Why researchers use it

- 100 language codes, including lower-resource languages such as Yiddish (`yi`), Amharic (`am`), Swahili (`sw`), Yoruba (`yo`), Māori (`mi`) and Hawaiian (`haw`). See the [full list](https://console.kolwrite.com/languages/).
- Word-level start and end times for alignment work.
- Speaker labels (`include_diarization`) for interview turns, or physical-channel labels for multi-microphone recordings.
- Translation of the transcript into a working language on the Oracle models, for teams that do not all read the source language.

## A request for an interview recording

```json
{
  "audio_url": "https://example.org/corpus/session-014.wav",
  "model": "oracle",
  "language": "yi",
  "word_timestamps": true,
  "include_diarization": true,
  "num_speakers": 2,
  "output_format": "json"
}
```

The JSON result gives `segments[]` with `start`, `end`, `speaker`, `text` and `words[]`. Converting that to ELAN, Praat TextGrid or CSV is a short script on your side; the API does not export those formats directly.

## Check the output before you analyze it

- Machine transcripts are a first pass. Plan human correction for anything you publish or annotate.
- Accuracy varies by language, dialect, recording quality and domain, and is lower for languages with little training audio. Measure word error rate on a sample from your own corpus before you transcribe all of it.
- Set `language` explicitly for code-switched recordings; auto-detection picks one language per file.
- Normalize orthography (diacritics, spelling conventions) on both sides before computing error rates.

## Budget

A 100-hour corpus costs US$48 on `base` or US$144 on `oracle`, metered per second. Research groups that need invoicing or volume terms can contact [KolWrite Enterprise](https://enterprise.kolwrite.com/).

## Questions and answers

### Does KolWrite export Praat or ELAN files?

No. It returns JSON with segment and word times, which converts easily to TextGrid, EAF or CSV.

### Can I trust transcripts of lower-resource languages?

Treat them as drafts. Test a sample, measure error rates, and plan review.

### Is my research audio used to train models?

KolWrite states on its models page that audio submitted through the API is not used to train its models.

## Related pages

- [Universities & students](https://console.kolwrite.com/use-cases/education)
- [Media, podcasts & subtitles](https://console.kolwrite.com/use-cases/media)
- [AI agents & vibe coding](https://console.kolwrite.com/use-cases/ai-agents)
- [Supported languages](https://console.kolwrite.com/languages/)

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Get an API key: https://console.kolwrite.com/auth · API documentation: https://console.kolwrite.com/public_api_docs · llms.txt: https://console.kolwrite.com/llms.txt