Geometric Representations of African Languages: A Regional Semantic Hub and Cultural Steering

arXiv:2609.36205v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: We study how Gemma 4 31B represents African languages and responds to cultural steering. The first study compares nine African languages and three controls using probes, contrast directions, and measures of representation similarity. Transfer from English varies across languages and layers. Directions representing an Africa versus West contrast are more aligned among the African languages than between these languages and the controls at several layers. The comparison across language families passes the reported Holm threshold at five of twelve layers, although dependence between language pairs limits the statistical interpretation. Within Nigeria, Yoruba and Igbo are more aligned than the average of their pairs with Hausa at eleven of twelve layers. The second study uses separate English data to construct directions for Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa. Under union scoring at the selected strengths, estimated differences in attribution rates from random directions range from 0.63 to 0.81. Most outputs pass the automated structural coherence screen. Comparisons with Aya Expanse 32B show that results depend on the representation measure. Together, the studies document regional and family patterns in the sampled representations and country steering in English.

Abstract:We study how Gemma 4 31B represents African languages and responds to cultural steering. The first study compares nine African languages and three controls using probes, contrast directions, and measures of representation similarity. Transfer from English varies across languages and layers. Directions representing an Africa versus West contrast are more aligned among the African languages than between these languages and the controls at several layers. The comparison across language families passes the reported Holm threshold at five of twelve layers, although dependence between language pairs limits the statistical interpretation. Within Nigeria, Yoruba and Igbo are more aligned than the average of their pairs with Hausa at eleven of twelve layers. The second study uses separate English data to construct directions for Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa. Under union scoring at the selected strengths, estimated differences in attribution rates from random directions range from 0.63 to 0.81. Most outputs pass the automated structural coherence screen. Comparisons with Aya Expanse 32B show that results depend on the representation measure. Together, the studies document regional and family patterns in the sampled representations and country steering in English.

Computation and Language (cs.CL)

arXiv:2609.36205 [cs.CL]

(or arXiv:2609.36205v1 [cs.CL] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2609.36205 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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Geometric Representations of African Languages: A Regional Semantic Hub and Cultural Steering

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