N'Ko as an Extensible Phonemic Substrate for Governed Low-Resource Speech
Low-resource speech systems fail when they lack both data and a measurement substrate that preserves phonemic structure. This paper evaluates N'Ko as an extensible sound-code, then connects the representation result to governed ASR correction experiments where ungoverned proposals poison the transcript and AGP prevents most damage.
Paper workspace
Live draft structure
Artifacts
Editable Markdown manuscript
The current manuscript is source-first. A public PDF render should be produced after release review.
source-only
Related split paper: phonemic evaluation
Related final split-paper render for N'Ko phonemic evaluation.
Open artifactEditable source
Markdown source exists. The representation result is concrete, while the acoustic/FAC bridge remains a next proof gate.
Source anchors
nko-brain-scanner/paper/current/nko_phonemic_substrate_paper.md
NKo/nko/phonemic_extensions.py
NKo/scripts/evaluate_phoneme_coverage.py
NKo/tests/test_phonemic_extensions.py
Method tags
Ingest intersections
Status
Drafted; strong representation result, correction loop still requires acoustic evidence.
Key claims
01
Baseline N'Ko covers Manding completely and can be mechanically extended for other inventories.
02
Representation coverage is not equivalent to recognition accuracy.
03
Self-improving correction must be governed by acoustic evidence.
Public reading note
Readable summary public; full draft needs release review.
Standard skeleton
What this paper must keep proving
problem
Low-resource speech systems need a label substrate that preserves phonemic distinctions before recognition and correction can be governed.
method
Evaluate baseline, Unicode-extension, and bounded compositional N'Ko mappings over Manding, French, and English phoneme inventories.
implementation
Coverage evaluator, phonemic extension rules, regression tests, and AGP correction experiment comparison.
data
Finite phoneme inventories plus governed ASR correction rows. Audio recognition remains outside the representation proof.
evaluation
Coverage percentage against a 90 percent gate, regression tests, and correction CER deltas under ungoverned versus governed proposals.
references
Unicode Core Specification for N'Ko, phoneme inventory sources, ASR correction and governance literature.
openQuestions
Whether FAC feature heads can hear the same representational distinctions from audio rather than IPA/text input.
Checkpoints and references
Proof chain
Representation coverage gate
NKo phoneme coverage evaluator
The manuscript records 100 percent coverage under the bounded compositional layer on the tested inventories.
Correction governance boundary
500-row governed correction comparison
Supports the claim that representation alone is not enough; correction still needs governance.
Acoustic feature proof
FAC feature-head/read-speech lane
The paper explicitly separates deterministic representation from the unsolved acoustic hearing problem.