Fact · Languages and accents
86.10 to 93.06percent word error rate
In a 2025 study of traditional Emirati Arabic, zero-shot Whisper Small had a word error rate of 93.06 percent and Whisper Medium had one of 86.10 percent.
Checked against its source on October 17, 2026
In the source's own words
“with Whisper Small reaching 93.06% WER and 81.02% CER, and Whisper Medium slightly better at 86.10% WER and 75.01% CER”
ASR Models for Traditional Emirati Arabic: Challenges, Adaptations, and Performance Evaluation, Maha AlBlooki et al., ACL Anthology (ICNLSP 2025 workshop paper), 2025, Section 6 (Results), zero-shot baseline.
Open the original- What it measures
- The authors tested the models on their own traditional Emirati Arabic corpus, with no training on that dialect. Zero-shot means the model was used as released.
- What it does not show
- One dialect, one small corpus built from heritage broadcasts and literary sources, not everyday phone or meeting speech. Newer Whisper and commercial models were not tested, so the figures are not a forecast for current products.