correcting pronunciation?

[LarryLaser]

A couple of questions

Is it possible to correct the pronunciations of words in the Acapela dictionary?
"for instance"

• inhabiteth
  changeth
  Blessed
  possessed
  . . .

These words and many other are miss pronounced constantly in sentences, but Individually, some are proper pronounced. As you can see, some of these words are older language in english (both of UK and US).
Also, how can I make a "Pause" for the "..." or ". . . ", instead of "-"dot dot dot ".

2nd- why does your search engine "ignore" some words?? (in the forum).

Thanks
Larry

[Jim Bretti]

For the pronunciations, have you tried the TextAloud pronunciation editor (Tools -> Pronunciation Dictionary Maintenance)? If not, give that a try and let me know if you need help.

You can also use the pronunciation editor to replace strings like "..." and ". . ." with pause tags. The idea here is to 'respell' these text strings using a pause tag, like {{pause=2}} for a 2 second pause.

I'm not following the question about the search engine ignoring some words ... would you explain that one a little or give me an example? Thanks.

[LarryLaser]

For the pronunciations, have you tried the TextAloud pronunciation editor (Tools -> Pronunciation Dictionary Maintenance)? If not, give that a try and let me know if you need help.

You can also use the pronunciation editor to replace strings like "..." and ". . ." with pause tags. The idea here is to 'respell' these text strings using a pause tag, like {{pause=2}} for a 2 second pause.

I'm not following the question about the search engine ignoring some words ... would you explain that one a little or give me an example? Thanks.

Hey Jim
Thanks for the response.
I have tried the "Pronunciation Dictionary Maintenance" editor and as I stated, many of the words in the doc's I am working on have many language levels, new and older english. I am talking about Many pronunciation editing, right now in the Heather22 voice. Do you by chance have editing tool for the voice Dictionaries?
As for the Search bug (or settings you might control), the search data I was trying to find was "correcting pronunciation", and the search engine ignored; "pronunciation".

Thanks Jim
Larry

[Jim Bretti]

Pronunciation Dictionary Maintenance is the only tool we currently have available for managing pronunciation dictionaries. If you post some examples of the kinds of pronunciation problems you're trying to correct it is possible that someone will be able to offer some suggestions. If some of the pronunciation problems are similar, it may be that coming up with some regular expressions / pattern matches may help.

I don't have any ideas on the search problem you reported, we do not have any control over how the search engine works.

[LarryLaser]

As I stated

Is it possible to correct the pronunciations of words in the Acapela dictionary?
"for instance"

inhabiteth
changeth
Blessed
possessed
. . .

These words and many other are miss pronounced constantly in sentences, but Individually, some are proper pronounced.As you can see, some of these words are older language in english (both of UK and US).

Language age has changed over many years, If you don't believe me, look up an older dictionary, like from the 60's.

As for the search engine, try the search I stated and you will see what I said.( "correcting pronunciation" pronunciation is ignored.) "ignored: pronunciation"

[Jim Bretti]

The idea of using regular expressions / pattern matching to reduce your work will work only if you're able to come with some general 'rules'. For example, in the four sample words you gave, maybe there is some general rule you want to apply for all words ending with "eth".

If you're able to come up with some rules like this, it may be possible to handle lots of corrections with just a few regular expressions. The only other alternative is to handle words individually.

[LarryLaser]

Ok Jim,
It still does not stay correct.
I have 3 different Additional Voices and none of them will maintain the pronunciations correctly all the time.

Using the "Pronunciation Dictionary Maintenance" for creating the proper pronunciation, works on the individual word, BUT, wen playing the sentence it still miss's proper pronunciation, the corrected word, the only time it pronounces is just playing the individually word. Its not on every correction, just some,
Example;

"A glorious high throne from the beginning," was the place of His sanctuary "a scepter of righteousness," the scepter of His kingdom. "Honor and majesty are before Him: strength and beauty are in His sanctuary."

The Voices are "Heather22k" ,"Crystal16", "Mike16".
Why, and How can I figure it out and fix it????

You try it and see what I mean.
Larry

[PHenry1026]

Greetings Larry:

I have AT&T's Mike and Crystal and both had no problem pronouncing sanctuary correctly with the example you gave.

To pronounce sanctuary correctly you should use a Phoneme Editor: If you are using TA3 do the following:

1. Enter the Pronunciation Dictionary Maintenance

2. Choose a Dictionary for the entry (Language English must be enabled for this entry)

3. Select New Entry

4. Choose Text Matching [Simple Text]: sanctuary

5. Choose Pronounce Using: Phonemes and enter s ae ng k 1 ch uw - eh r 2 iy -
as the phoneme.

6. Click OK and exit from the Pronunciation Dictionary Maintenance

Since you have AT&T Natural Voice, it may be more efficient for you to set up this pronunciation edit using AT&T Natural Voices phoneme editor available at

C:\Program Files\ATTNaturalVoices\TTS1.4\Desktop\data\en_us.dict

The phoneme if you are using AT&T phoneme editor would be s ae ng k 1 ch uw 0 eh r 2 iy 0

0 = syllable not stressed
1 = syllable has primary stress
2 = syllable has seconday stress

My advise to first try correcting using the AT&T Natural Voices phoneme editor.

P.S. to be sure exit TA3 before testing. If you are still having problems pronouncing sanctuary correctly place the entry as the first entry in your first dictionary as discussed in steps 1-6.

Percy Henry

[LarryLaser]

Hello "PHenry1026"

Thanks for the reply,
But.
It does not work as you stated,

5. Choose Pronounce Using: Phonemes and enter s ae ng k 1 ch uw - eh r 2 iy -
as the phoneme.

It does not pronounce it, it spells it out. This is only in the individual word. After closing the "Pronunciation Dictionary Maintenance" and re running the Speak in the doc, it ignores the word sanctuary. The regular pronunciation of "sanctuary" is "sanch ury". If you ever use a dictionary, like online type ( http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sanctuary ), you will see the spelling of the pronounce like this "sangk-choo-er-ee", of coarse, It is not proper in the NextUp "Pronunciation Dictionary Maintenance".
I have not learned enough about "Phonemes", yet.

The "AT&T Natural Voice's" kinda suck, I have tried them for many times in many doc TTS conversions and they are not close-enough to reality voices yet.
The closest that I have tried and found is the "Acapela - Heather22k", and it so-far is the one I use the most, I have tried quite a few TTS programs and the NextUp is "By FAR the greatest I have used. That is why I have bought it, and I had to re buy, the other voices to run-in-it.

Is there any data (in the forum or other documents) on the pronunciation process to control how it works?? I have read the .chm (Help) file and never found any detailed info on controlling the pronunciations in the sentence operations, only in the individual word control.

I don't know if this makes any difference but;
My System is
Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.
Quad Core Intel
8 Gig Mem.

Thanks

[PHenry1026]

Larry,

The only reason you are having problems is because you have a bad attitude. If you take time to follow the instructions I outlined, it would solve whatever problem you are having.


Percy Henry.

[LarryLaser]

Percy Henry

Are you nuts??

The only reason you are having problems is because you have a bad attitude. If you take time to follow the instructions I outlined, it would solve whatever problem you are having.

How do I have a "bad attitude", I have run the instruction exactly as you outlined and it did just like I said.

My problem is still learning how to use the proper coding for all the settings needed to do my doc's.

Your attitude is not correct, use common sense in answering questions, not bad attitude.

[PHenry1026]

Since you are still learning the basics, you need to humble yourself; that is the only way you can learn.

Percy Henry