AI Applications

De Nordwand and d’Sonn is the beginning of the Luxembourgish translation of one of Aesop’s fables, taken from a collection of prose fables attributed to the Greek writer Aesop.

Aesop’s fables consist of hundreds of texts and all kinds of stories that were passed down orally in ancient Greece and have inspired many authors such as Phaedrus, Marie de France, and Jean de La Fontaine. The Aesop fable De Norwand an d’Sonn is very short; its moral lies in the lesson that persuasion, although slower, proves to be more effective than violence. This fable has been translated into hundreds of world and regional languages. The texts of this fable are regularly used by linguists in research projects on natural language processing (NLP).

In May 2025, HeyGen announced the launch of a new AI Text-to-Speech system with the support of additional languages, including Luxembourgish. I used the Luxembourgish version of Aesops fable, reproduced below, to test the performance of 4 public HeyGen avatars during the generation of videos, using the speech synthesis of our national language.

An der Zäit hunn sech den Nordwand an d’Sonn gestridden, wie vun hinnen zwee wuel méi staark wier, wéi e Wanderer, deen an ee waarme Mantel agepak war, iwwert de Wee koum. Si goufen sech eens, datt deejéinege fir dee Stäerkste gëlle sollt, deen de Wanderer forcéiere géif, säi Mantel auszedoen. Den Nordwand huet mat aller Force geblosen, awer wat e méi geblosen huet, wat de Wanderer sech méi a säi Mantel agewéckelt huet. Um Enn huet den Nordwand säi Kampf opginn. Dunn huet d’Sonn d’Loft mat hire frëndleche Strale gewiermt, a schonn no kuerzer Zäit huet de Wanderer säi Mantel ausgedoen. Do huet den Nordwand missen zouginn, datt d’Sonn vun hinnen zwee dee Stäerkste wier.

Which of the five avatars shown in the next pages — Annie, Lisa, Sophie, Masha or Gala — has the best mastery?