How to add stress to a syllable

[Terry@nz]

How do I add stress to a syllable?
e.g. Mike pronounces Klingon with an unstressed second syllable. It should have two roughly equally-stressed syllables.
Sorry: this is probably a very basic issue, but I did look and couldn't find the answer.

Terry

[PHenry1026]

Greetings:

You can do this by using AT&T Natural Voices phoneme editor available at

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

The phoneme for Klingon, if you are using AT&T phoneme editor would be

k l ih ng 1 aa n 0

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


P.S. be sure exit TA3 before testing.

The correct pronunciation does not stress the second syllable, see

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Klingon

or from the Oxford English Dictionary:

Klingon, n. and adj.
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈklɪŋɒn/ , U.S. /ˈklɪŋɑn/
Etymology: An arbitrary formation.
Science Fiction.

Percy
RC Dictionaries

[jack Schmidling]

Greetings:

You can do this by using AT&T Natural Voices phoneme editor available at

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

That takes me to Mike or Crystal but no editor that I can see.

>The phoneme for Klingon, if you are using AT&T phoneme editor would be

k l ih ng 1 aa n 0

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

That looks like it would do the trick but where is all this explained?

Is this string placed in the dictionary as a global fix?

js

[PHenry1026]

Sound like you reached the right directory. Double click on the file en_us (should be red).

Percy
RC Dictionaries

[jack Schmidling]

Sound like you reached the right directory. Double click on the file en_us (should be red).

Percy Henry

I found it in the bin folder.

Unfortunately, I can't seem to make it work even using the example in the help file.

Swapping the 1 and 0 does not move the accent on the word browser.

Assuming we get over that, what is the relationship between this dictionary and the one under tools?

Does this modify that one or is it maintained separately?

js

[PHenry1026]

For most words flipping 0, 1 or 2 on the stress syllable(s) will not be noticeable to the novice. As you get more practice you will hear the subtle differences especially when the text is being read. However, for some words the placement of 0, 1 or 2 in the stress or unstressed syllable makes a big difference which you can hear right away. This is especially true for words that you are unfamiliar with such as the names of people or places.

We as humans also interpolate sounds of words that are familiar to us to sound like how we expect them to sound. For example using Liv as a proxy for live is a different sound from the correct sound of live but it is close enough for us to trick our minds that it is correct.

You should start learning how to use the dictionary to enter words correctly in AT&T NV dictionary with the correct stress. Dictionary.com (http://dictionary.reference.com/) is excellent for learning how to use phonemes.

The dictionary in the tools section of TA also has basically the same phoneme dictionary as AT&T NV and can also be used with non-A&T voices. It supersedes AT&T NV Dictionary (that is, if the same word is defined in both, TA's pronunciation will be used). AT&T NV dictionary is superior in many ways because the pronunciation is not hard-wired and it also allows easy case-sensitive entries - for example you can specify different pronunciations for MIA and Mia).

Percy
RC Dictionaries

[jack Schmidling]

For most words flipping 0, 1 or 2 on the stress syllable(s) will not be noticeable to the novice. As you get more practice you will hear the subtle differences especially when the text is being read.

I am not sure in what sense I am a novice. I am only interested in listening to books and have almost 70 years experience listening to the English language.

There is nothing subtle about the way Mike and Crystal pronounce the word "misery". It is a perfect local dialect for the state of Missouri. The accent is on the wrong syllable and nothing I have tried fixes it.

I will ponder the information you have provided but if you could just tell me how to fix this specific problem, I would have something concrete to work on.

Thanks,

js

[PHenry1026]

Greetings Jack,

Did not mean to offend you by calling you a novice.

Using AT&T NV dictionary enter the following phoneme for misery:

m ih z 1 ax 0 r iy 0

after entering the phoneme in AT&T NV, you have to exit TA for the changes to take effect.

If you want to enter the phoneme in TA3 use the following phoneme for misery:

m ih z 1 ax - r iy -

You won't have to exit TA if you use TA's phoneme editor; however I recommend you use the AT&T NV Dictionary.

Also see http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/misery
Pronunciation Key: http://dictionary1.classic.reference.co ... n_key.html

Percy
RC Dictionaries

P.S. There is an alternative pronunciation that you may prefer:

m ih z 1 r iy 0

see http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/misery.
Pronunciation Key: http://www.merriam-webster.com/pronsymbols.html

[jack Schmidling]

Greetings Jack,

Did not mean to offend you by calling you a novice.

No offense taken. I just want to make sure you understand what I am trying to do and it seems like getting misery right is so basic that it shouldn't have gotten past the beta testing. Turns out there is the same problem with incident and accident.

>Using AT&T NV dictionary enter the following phoneme for misery:

>If you want to enter the phoneme in TA3 use the following phoneme for misery:

I don't understand the distinction between the two instructions. The first one is easy but how do I inter it in TA3?

>P.S. There is an alternative pronunciation that you may prefer:

So, having tried all 3 in the NV dictionary, nothing has changed and I did reload the program each time I tried it.

Here is a string I came up with for testing and it seems like there is no consistency. The first one might be close but the last one is old Missouri again.

misery is not the state of missouri but is misery anyway
misery misery misery

All the phonemes you suggest sound the same.

js

[PHenry1026]

Can't understand why you are still having this problem. A long time ago I had the same problem with misery being pronounced as Missouri but since I entered the phoneme I recommended to you in AT&T NV, I have had no problems with the pronunciation. I was also having problems with the pronunciation of miseries, but since I entered the following phoneme for miseries (m ih z 1 ax r iy z 0) I have no problems with either of these words.

Percy
RC Dictionaries

P.S. The exact phoneme that I have in my own AT&T NV for misery is m ih 1 z ax 0 r iy 0

m ih 1 z ax 0 r iy 0 is slightly different from the two I gave you above.

See the following post on how to use TA3's Phoneme Dictionary: http://www.nextup.com/phpBB2/viewtopic. ... 5bf#p14226 (Not recommended for this simple fix to misery).

[jack Schmidling]

Can't understand why you are still having this problem. A long time ago I had the same problem with misery being pronounced as Missouri but since I entered the phoneme I recommended to you in AT&T NV, I have had no problems with the pronunciation.

I guess I have to give it up as nothing works for me. It simply ignores the changes.

For the record, I do not understand why one can not just move the accent without dealing with the phoneme stuff.

It grossly over complicates what should be very simple. It should require no more that an apostrophe in the dictionary at the right location.

Jack