Stopping NextUp from reading Mon as Monday etc.

[evilhippo]

Is there some way to stop NextUp from speaking "mon" as "Monday" and likewise other things it assumes are abbreviations? I would like it to read what is actually written, not what it thinks is being written

[Jim Bretti]

There is no code in TextAloud to perform automatic translations like this. If you're seeing text like "mon" pronounced as Monday the translations are happening at the voice engine level. Its also possible the problem could be related to TextAloud pronunciation dictionaries, if you have created any.

Can you post a short paragraph of text, and let me know which voice you're seeing the problem with?

[evilhippo]

"Listen up, mon, I jus' blew in from de isles to do some business in Belmopan, den I gone, understand?" he shrugged, flicking his cigar into the other man's drink. "Unless you want to sell me a truck, get lost."

The voice is Acapela Rachel22 (UK English)

[Jim Bretti]

I verified here that Acapela Rachel is pronouncing mon as Monday.

One way to handle this would be to use Acapela's pronunciation dictionary utility to create a phoneme pronunciation for the word "mon".

In your Acapela install directory (normally C:\Program Files (x86)\NextUp-Acapela Multimedia) run the program PronunciationEditor.exe, and do this:

1. Set the Voice Group dropdown to English (United Kingdom)
2. Click the Add Word button on the bottom left of the dialog

Then in the right side of the dialog:

3. In the Original Word field, type mon
4. In the New Pronunciation field, phoneme pronunciations start with the # character. Individual phonemes are separated by spaces. As a starting point, try entering this for the pronunciation:

#m O: n

5. Click the update button to update the list
6. Click File -> Save to save your changes

Click the "Show Phoneme List" button at the bottom right of the dialog to show available phonemes to use.

Also in the doc folder in your Acapela install directory you'll see a manual for using the PronunciationEditor utility along with manuals for each language.

[evilhippo]

That is great, thank you!