Fact · Transcription
The language table in Whisper's source code includes Shona, Yoruba, Somali and Afrikaans, each with its own language code.
Checked against its source on October 17, 2026
In the source's own words
“"sn": "shona", "yo": "yoruba", "so": "somali", "af": "afrikaans",”
whisper/tokenizer.py: the LANGUAGES table (openai/whisper), OpenAI, GitHub, openai/whisper, 2026, LANGUAGES dictionary in tokenizer.py.
Open the original- What it measures
- Whisper's model was trained on these languages and the tool accepts their codes. The same table also includes Swahili. Zulu and Xhosa do not appear anywhere in the table.