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Fonix proudly introduces DECtalk version 5.01

1. 32 Tone Table 62 trademarks ke ke ee Ee Ee ke es 4 U US English Abbreviations 79 V Voice Definitions 38 Voice Quality Changing 42
2. o to On em n t Oy UI pa UI N atin 1 glottal atin small letter Tesh digraph O1 YS UI UI atin small letter Dezh digraph B UN MU m EE EN EN BE gt a BE 9 EN LU m w 50 Reference tables 51 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide Phonetic symbols Castilian Spanish Ascii Rounded dipthong MMA menn mama IA D n EE man Gma EE 15 EE E EE EE Ua a pp pas menn A menn EE rr WA 52 Reference tables 53 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide Phonetic symbols Latin American Spanish Ascii DT Index DT Internal Example ee 7 MEME o MEME s MEME Te N w N HS SS 2 Ba EH En EH WM B EH 54 Reference tables 25 LA_D Dama d O e LA Y Haya fricitive LA Q n offglide m 55 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide Stress and syntactic symbols The following tables display the stress and syntactic symbols supported by DECtalk Phoneme interpretation must be turned on for the stress and syntactic symbols to work See Phoneme Interpretation phoneme for more information Stress symbols ol e mm omm Grave accent secondary U 60 Seuss Quotation mark emphatic 22 Sera
3. 66 Reference tables Homograph phonetics D H decoy aja o fect l NE ehk t Gl V a legate me Ze d ehlli decrease gl abode ae V Gy el V sik e is d cl LI liberate gl ane dlo aaeain Ql adaa JOLY ee designate diens ie n Gl V eia ae av alone al Li detail d iyt eyll Gl se Y Ey d devia DIETU diges disga disch disco dove D e desolate ehs ax lliht el MU eks as dE eye o yt effeminate ihf ehm axn iht ihf ehm axn eyt se el amie yu Gl alat US yuz E Ad ela Ms d ayjhehs t 5 OF el ns Ik aard Gl Y las k aas cl arge Gl als cim aat sin Gl Y es Cheie lm d LI document d aak yxaxm axn t d aak yxaxm ehn t el hi U maa sale e ajo iys e te iyv iy evt gl V ayy ayain s e H ejaculate iyjh aek yu 1l eyt Lyra ale ao dL ll al late elaborate simili eie ase aye ihll aeb axr eyt H H H E E essay D hs ey EE ino zm aas jo wie al Y ehs ey Lf mw V alias ge anii zm oes o realite Er 2 Q EC IE U iuis ego e ambe Y o te E excommunicate ehk s k axm yun ihk ehk s k axm yun ihk e iht expatriate aak amp Je Y Gye se Ay ate emasculate aL aes k yxax 11 eyt Low mex Is os ARE Wie m D hk sp eyt r iy eyt experiment dak amp p ehr axm axn t ehk s p ehr axm ehn t excuse alle S le yuz Lak k V sms fe
4. Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide Pitch pitch Description Modifies the frequency of uppercase letters spoken in typing mode using the typing table spoken one letter at a time The default difference between upper and lowercase letters is 35 Hz The frequency difference enables users to distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters You can return the pitch increment for uppercase letters to the default value by specifying the command pitch 35 or by restarting Speak DECtalk adds the value of the argument DD in Hertz as a pitch increment to the uppercase letters in the next phoneme string it processes However the Pitch command is asynchronous Place a Sync sync command in the character stream after the Pitch command to ensure that the Pitch command is processed before the letters that follow it in the buffer pitch DD gt A Ce Lema e pitch 60 bBcCdD pitch 35 eEfFgGhH 20 In line commande Pronounce pronounce Description Determines the type of pronunciation for the word immediately following this command This command is synchronous Use the pronounce alternate command to obtain an alternative pronunciation for a word See the Homograph tables for examples of primary and alternate pronunciations of words Using the word wind as an example the primary pronunciation is w ihn d as in the wind is blowing The alternate pronunciation denoted by pronounce alternate wind is
5. Backslash pitch fall 5C Syntactic symbols ENE ENE EE 2D Hyphen svi lable U boundary x Asterisk morpheme SCH boundary Open beginning of 28 parenthesis prepositional phrase Close beginning of a parenthesis EE E zi point point E MEE EE a Comma clause l Ze boundaries Ee 56 Reference tables English phonemes in unicode sequence De DT DT Word space boundary Unicode Barcode Character Name 20 Space eck Exclamation point Quotation mark Number sign Apostrophe Left parenthesis Right parenthesis Asterisk ls iere Comma Hyphen LI sizo a olidus Question mark E A Si D e Sq EE Eu O H Moe rd Ges letter R Reverse solidus Low line ES WET U 28A EER U 64 Latin small US letter D combining inverted breve below U 64 Latin small letter D WiDth O N ik 57 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide SS letter I modifier letter small turned R ticall iine below tin small letter L atin small letter M tin small US burdeN E B ste combining vertical line below Lati lett EL letter T Latin letter glos sop 58 Reference tables legea Alpine gr modifier letter sma
6. Latin small letter I modifier letter small turned R il n E letter rned R N 1 w 1 Latin smal letter op modifier small Latin sm lett modifier small tu Latin sm letter U Eu m atin small letter W a ER U 6A atin smal letter J Urb atin capital letter R U 6C atin sma letter L U 68 U 6D U 6E atin small letter H U 279 D KH U atin sm letter t with hoo atin sm letter I middle t al 14B lde atin small letter M atin small letter N atin small letter Eng mall ata S letter combining vertical below Iy 35 US DZ wiDth dz U 64 U 32F Latin small letter D 49 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide combining inverted breve below UOD Ut329 Latin smal letter N 4 combining vertical 1 below atin small letter F atin small letter V Greek small letter Theta W Oy W Ww oo w VO let atin small letter Eth atin small letter S atin small letter 2 atin small letter Esh atin small letter Ezh atin small letter P atin small letter B atin small letter T atin small letter D atin small letter K atin small letter G Internal use Ur 74 uga Latin small letter T t Latin letter glottal Soja HS e a w Ds N Se t p HS LA LE e i NI S
7. pitch number gt Parameters Tone duration in milliseconds pitch Pitch number from number phoneme arpabet speak on hxae lt 300 10 gt piy lt 300 10 gt brr lt 600 12 gt th lt 100 gt dey lt 600 1 tuw lt 600 15 gt yu lt 1200 14 gt _ lt 120 gt hxae lt 300 10 gt piy lt 300 10 gt brr lt 600 12 gt th lt 100 gt dey lt 600 1 tuw lt 600 17 gt yu lt 1200 15 gt _ lt 120 gt hxae lt 300 10 gt piy lt 300 10 gt brr lt 600 22 gt th lt 100 gt dey lt 600 1 dih lt 600 15 gt r deh lt 600 14 gt ktao lt 600 12 gt k_ lt 120 gt _ lt 120 gt hxae lt 300 20 gt piy lt 300 20 gt brr lt 600 19 gt th lt 100 gt dey lt 600 1 tuw lt 600 17 gt yu lt 1200 15 gt See Also Tone Table 61 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide L de E o I gt n o Dn amp d Ki pa d U O gt G U p H Ay o9 p O a GH Uoc D n Ay a 62 Reference tables 63 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide Homographs Homographs are two or more words that have the same spelling but different pronunciations For example the word permit as a noun stresses the first syllable Permit as a verb stresses the second syllable The distinction is important for DECtalk when speaking homographs in connected discourse The default pronunciation
8. Betty are replaced by the alternate command nb rate 150 nb Hello How are you Begin every command with a colon The Design Voice dv and Name name commands are used in the following example dv ap 160 pr 50 save nv Hello 4 Two or more in line commands can be placed in a row Each command must be enclosed by its own set of brackets The Name name and Rate Selection rate commands are used in the following example name Paul rate 100 This is Paul speaking slowly Separate command names options and or parameters with a space or a tab a valid word boundary marker The following example uses a space dv ap 160 pr 50 save nv Hello Command name dv Options ap and pr Parameters 160 and 50 Include multiple options and or parameters within the same set of command brackets The Design Voice dv command is used in the following example dv ap 160 pr 50 save nv Hello Avoid using conflicting commands If a conflict exists the last command is used Paul s voice would be used in the following example where two Name name commands are used without intervening text name Betty name Paul Hello If you enable phoneme interpretation by using the phoneme arpabet speak on command you can include phonetic spelling for text to speech synthesis The phonetic spelling replaces the actual spelling and is enclosed within brackets In this example the phonetic spelling of th
9. DECtalk see the two parts of the compound Example The slide show host Replace the text version by a phonemic string Use the commands and phonemic symbols and make sure to place the lexical stress pattern correctly After words are pronounced correctly listen to the sentence rhythm and accent pattern If it is not right follow some of these suggestions o If a short pause is needed where one is not provided insert a comma between the words If the wrong word is emphasized emphasize the correct word with a stress symbol 29 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide Example The younger man is the trouble maker not the older one Use the stress symbols slash backslash 1 and slash and backslash to make final adjustments Related topic See Stress and Syntactic Symbols for a complete list of stress symbols 30 Using in line commands Period and comma pause durations At the default speaking rate of 200 WPM DECtalk pauses about half a second after a period and about a sixth of a second after a comma When the speaking rate changes pause durations are automatically adjusted To change the pause after a period or a comma and not change the speaking rate use the Period Pause period and or Comma Pause comma in line commands For example reading a word list with an extended pause after each word allows a listener to copy the words as they are spoken period 4500 apple banana s
10. User Guide 82 Abbreviations 83 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide 84 Software examples Email mode example The in line command mode email on activates e mail parsing rules that determine what to speak and what to ignore The following words identify header information and initiate line by line processing From Return Path Message ID e The following words identify text to be saved for preprocessing Sent Date Subject Re Subject From To cet or CO AS Forwarded Message A pause is added to the end of each line of text saved for preprocessing DECtalk begins processing text when it encounters an empty line line that contains only a return code e DECtalk continues processing text until it encounters more header or footer information which it ignores 2 mode email off ends e mail processing mode Example The following example removes e mail header information Only the date subject and sender are spoken The footer is also removed Abbreviations are expanded E S T is spoken Eastern Standard Time St James St is spoken Saint James Street mode email on From John Doe Wed Aug 7 18 07 28 EST Return Path lt john node com gt Received from home node com 127 0 0 1 by smtp node com Message ID lt 32FB6581 581A smtp node com gt Date Wed 7 Aug 1996 18 07 28 EST From john node com John Doe Reply To john node com Organization Fonix Co
11. arpabet speak on itis possible to enter phonemic mode unintentionally gt If the text being spoken contains an unexpected left bracket all text after the left bracket is interpreted as phoneme text In the following example apple banana strawberry is interpreted as phoneme text phoneme arpabet speak on Here is the list apple banana strawberry If the right bracket is missing after the Phoneme Interpretation phoneme in line command all text after the missing right bracket is interpreted as phoneme text In the following example Ladies and Gentlemen is interpreted as phoneme text phoneme arpabet speak on Ladies and Gentlemen Customizing DECtalk voices Introduction Customizing DECtalk voices DECtalk comes with nine built in voices The voices can be modified but the modifications cannot be saved Approximating all the variations that characterize a person s voice sex age head size and shape larynx size and behavior pitch range pitch and timing habits dialect and emotional state can be very time consuming The following topics provide information on speech production acoustics and perception The information is technical but examples show how to modify options and listen to results Topics Voice Definitions amp Changing Gender and Head Size w Changing Voice Quality Changing Pitch and Intonation Changing Relative Gains and Avoiding Overl
12. at 115 Hz All rule governed dynamic swings in fundamental freguency are computed with respect to the reference baseline Some speakers begin a sentence at a higher fundamental freguency which gradually falls as the sentence progresses This falling baseline behavior can be simulated by setting the bf option to the desired fall in Hz For example setting the bf option to 20 Hz causes a sentence s fundamental freguency pattern to begin at 125 Hz 115 Hz plus half of bf It fails at a rate of 16 Hz per second until it reaches 105 Hz 115 Hz minus half of bf The baseline remains at the lower value until it is reset automatically before the beginning of the next full sentence after a period guestion mark or exclamation point The rate of fall 16 Hz per second is fixed regardless of the extent of the fall Whenever a syntactic symbol is included in the text indicates the beginning of a paragraph the baseline is automatically set to begin slightly higher for the first sentence of the paragraph The baseline fall differs among speakers and is not a good cue for differentiating among them As long as the fall is not excessive its presence or absence is hardly noticeable See Stress and Syntactic Symbols for a complete list of symbols Hat Rise hr The hr and sr options determine aspects of a sentence s dynamic fundamental freguency contour To modify these values selectively it is necessary to understand that the fundamental
13. eee see LL m 57 Pitch and duration of tones eie ee ee tett ate ee RR aaa ee memes emnes 61 A 38e a eee state nement nee entame etant 62 uo Ln 10 10 ee EE 64 Homograph phonetics A LY LL LY YL YL RL eme esee e me mense nne e nennen 65 Homograph phonetics BC 66 Homograph phonetics DH 67 Homograph phonetics IL 69 Homograph phonetics MP 70 Homograph phonetics Rue ie EES ne NEEN de EE ER a a a Ee ka 72 Homograph phonetics GAN 73 Preprocessor parsing rules eg ER ENNEN ER eee ee NENNEN DW FR HD i tite e ND Fn dA wdn 74 ig go to ie dle er 74 Punctuation parsing rules sisi 75 General parsing rules sise 77 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide elle Ee Le EEN 79 US English abbreviations ese aasa a kaa kata KAG mI Ime me menses 79 SES sasawa Re aaa sise 85 die AR LED 89 Fonix DECtalk software Welcome to DECtalk DECtalk converts ASCII text into speech without special or proprietary hardware The most important features of DECtalk text to speech TTS technology are described below High Quality Speech Represents the latest in speech synthesis technology Requires only a standard sound card for audio output Provides three different voices Programmatically controls voice pitch rate of speech and word phrase emphasis Word Pronunciation Accuracy Comes with a built in dictionary for accurate pronunciation of individual words enhances rhythmic naturalness Accurately reads ASCII
14. five hundred fifty five Use mode spell on to produce the same results A slower speaking rate rate 120 and the silence phonemes of specified duration s3005 500 _ lt 900 gt were selected to allow enough time for the listener to write down the entire number Silence phonemes were positioned after the commas _ lt 300 gt 1 800 500 to maintain appropriate intonation 34 Using in line commands If the application speaks sums of money bank balances or item costs write the text to say Your balance is 244 05 That is 2 4 4 _ lt 400 gt point O 5 _ lt 400 gt dollars e When spelling an item an application may need to distinguish letter case Consider using the Pitch pitch command or different voices to distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters nf Maynard nf M nbla y na rd nf Maynard 35 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide Avoiding common errors 36 After changing the voice see Name name all text uses the currently selected voice The default Error error setting is on Turn off to avoid reporting detected errors Enter a right bracket at the beginning of text when using the Phoneme Interpretation phoneme command Beginning with SAPI Version 5 DECtalk in line commande can be used in SAPI text buffers In line commands are ignored in previous versions If Phoneme Interpretation phoneme is set to allow phonemic input phoneme
15. formant frequencies that are scaled down by a factor of about 85 percent use the following command 40 Customizing DECtalk voices np dv hs 115 Do I sound bigger this way The head size option hs can be used to make dramatic voice changes Paul s head size is 100 average Harry s deep voice is caused in part by a head size change to 115 Decreasing head size produces a higher voice nh dv hs 135 Do I have a swelled head nk I am about 10 years old nk dv hs 65 Do I sound like a six year old NOTE Extreme changes in head size can cause overloads as well as difficulties in understanding speech The modification of certain options such as f4 f5 and g1 can help correct this problem Higher Formants f4 f5 b4 and b5 The male voice typically has five prominent resonant peaks in the spectrum over the range from O to 5 kHz The female voice typically has only four because of a smaller head size and a child has three If the fourth and fifth formant resonances exist for a specific voice they are fixed in frequency and bandwidth characteristics These characteristics are specified in Hz by options f4 f5 b4 and b5 If a higher formant does not exist the frequency and bandwidth of the speaker definition are set to special values that cause the resonance to disappear To make a resonance disappear the frequency is set to above 5500 Hz and the bandwidth is set to 5500 Hz disables the formant filter T
16. is the more frequent form When an alternate pronunciation is needed select the correct phonetics from the homograph index below Use the pronounce alternate in line command before a word to pronounce an alternate pronunciation Example Bass guitar uses the primary pronunciation to speak the name of the instrument b eys guitar The alternate pronunciation speaks the name of the fish b aes For example I caught a pronounce alternate bass when I went fishing Related topic See Optimizing Spoken Text for more information 64 Reference tables Homograph phonetics A Primary Alternate z Ke Ke Ka layd ax II quel ici SE vae ren eyes animate aen axm eyt aen axm iht SS Aao MA eye aar te ik ya Ant 65 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide Homograph phonetics B C a Li y dla n compliment k aam p llaxm axn t k aam compound k aam p awn d compress k axm pr ehs k aam n Y conflict E aan f llihk t k axn f 11 ihk t LI LI T 3 contaminate IS am t aem axn kab te Y csm cdo alle LI Y cont HASIE Taane ES E ls eidol e te Y ces le LI k k ae e k Y NG eyt j eyt coordinate k ow aor d axn eyt k ow aor d axn iht copulate Ik aap vas 1 eye IS Y eem yes Line correlate k aci ese LI eye IS V age ec Lin countermand k awn t rrm aen d kant 7m acm d
17. other than its physical media Fonix reserves all rights not specifically granted in this Agreement USE AND RESTRICTIONS You may operate the Software on only in a development environment You may make only one copy of the Software retaining the Fonix CD or other media for storage and back up purposes The Software does not include updates maintenance or support which may be separately available Any commercialization of the Software and or Product is strictly prohibited unless a separate written agreed is signed between you and Fonix or an authorized sublicensor You may not modify adapt translate rent lease loan resell for profit distribute network or create derivative works based on any part of the Software You may not reverse engineer decompile or disassemble the Software LIMITED WARRANTY Fonix warrants that the Product s physical media will be under normal use free from defects in material and workmanship for 30 days from the date you purchased it Fonix s entire liability and your exclusive remedy under this warranty will be replacement of the defective media without charge EXCEPT FOR THIS LIMITED WARRANTY FONIX MAKES NO WARRANTIES EXPRESS OR IMPLIED AND DISCLAIMS ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE Fonix does not warrant that the Product is entirely error free including but not limited to either technical or editorial errors or omissions FONIX S TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM
18. text from a variety of sources including electronic mail and word processors Letter Word and Clause Modes Provides normal clause buffering for natural speech Speaks letters words phrases clauses paragraphs and even whole documents w Speaks single characters immediately doesn t have to buffer an entire clause a Can terminate speech immediately buffered text doesn t have to complete processing Pronunciation Heuristics Recognizes and pronounces non word sequences including sequences with uppercase initials e g FBI and AAA and sequences without vowels e g CBS and NBC Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide Conventions enter Press the Enter key mouse Refers to any pointing device such as a mouse a puck ora stylus MB1 Identifies the left mouse button click Press and release MB1 double click Press and release MB1 twice in rapid succession without moving the mouse drag Press and hold MB1 move the mouse then release MB1 when the pointer is in the desired position Menu 5 command The right arrow key is an abbreviated instruction for choosing a command from a menu For example File 5 Exit means click the File menu move the pointer to the Exit command and release MB1 Courier type face Often used for program and program type examples XX YY and XXn YYn In DECtalk in line command syntax XX refers to options and YY refers to parameters When more than one choi
19. value of O shows little or no assertion Quickness qu The qu option as a percentage controls the response time to a change in pitch request All hat rises hat falls and stress rises can be thought of as suddenly applied commands to a change in pitch The larynx responds gradually to such commands A smaller larynx is usually a little quicker Harry larger larynx has a quickness value of 10 while Kit smaller larynx has a quickness value of 50 45 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide In engineering terms a value of 10 implies a time constant of about 100 ms the time to get to 70 percent of a suddenly applied step target A value of 90 corresponds to a time constant of about 50 ms Lower quickness values may mean that the fundamental frequency never reaches the target value before a new command changes the target Average Pitch ap and Pitch Range pr The ap option in Hz and the pr option as a percentage of the normal range modify the computed fundamental frequency values using the following formula fO ap f0 120 pr 100 Ifthe ap option is set to 120 Hz and the pr option to 100 percent no change occurs to the normal fundamental frequency contour computed for a typical male voice The effect of a change in the ap option is simply to raise or lower the entire pitch contour independently by a constant number of Hz whereas the effect of the pr option is to expand or contract the pitch swings about 120 Hz
20. ECtalk is speaking paragraphs of text See Stress and Syntactic Symbols for a complete list of syntactic symbols Create a user dictionary for words that have an application specific pronunciation Use one of the available options if DECtalk is connected to a database containing names gt Add the Pronounce pronounce in line command before the database word to force language specific rules on the name Example pronounce name lt name gt Replace the database word with its phoneme text For this option turn Phoneme Interpretation phoneme on Scan the text for strings of numbers in a format the application understands but DECtalk does not gt To extract the time format from an electronic mail message add code to an application to expand it to the o clock form gt In many applications the listener may want to write down numbers such as prices or telephone numbers An application can scan for numbers and send them to DECtalk with pauses at critical locations For example The number is 1 800 5 5 5 12 3 4 rate 120 That is s3005 1 800 _ lt 500 gt 5 5 5 _ lt 900 gt 12 3 4 rate 180 gt See Phonetic Symbols multiple languages for a complete list of phoneme symbols including the silent underscore symbol See Pitch and Duration of Tones to add duration and pitch to phoneme text gt The spaces between the numbers ensure that five five five is spoken rather than
21. FONIX DEC talk 5 01 El User Guide fonix freedom of speech Fonix proudly introduces DECtalk version 5 01 E1 the world s most intelligible text to speech TTS synthesizer now with a more natural sounding voice DECtalk has the smallest memory footprint in the industry for a full featured multi language voice synthesizer DECtalk s small footprint allows it to be used in devices where a TTS engine usually wouldn t be viable DECtalk 5 01 E1 supports three languages U S English Castilian 6 Latin American Spanish It also offers two voices Paul and Wendy DECtalk comes with an easy to use API as well as Microsoft s Speech API so you can give your application the power of speech DECtalk has more than 1 400 letter to sound rules as well as extensive text preprocessing so it correctly speaks monetary text like 51 25 or clock times 12 31 pm or dates Jan 1 2004 and even phone numbers 800 297 4863 Fonix DECtalk Hear it for yourself Table Of Contents Fonix DECtalk SoftWare s ai wa sgt ated wo kin OU Mee Donk n cee De os ria 1 Welcome to DECtalK i i 0r 2 RE SR an Sarda er a dene dna tad ede ta SE nee 1 CONVENTION Em 2 Copyrights and trademarks 4 LicensiT g RA MEETS 6 Getting started ueu EE lee 7 IMEFOGUCTION ek a EE EE EE EE DE ES 7 In line commande 8 Mo de ad de de en a E E R 8 Comma bausefcommal LL em LL LL CGC LL YY Y nn 11 Design voice BR AVA RR RR RF EFE EFE GR ee REN ED RY Re NN 12 Mod
22. LY qx bss owv rr WIVES aenx wd 2 H owv rr O owv rr p owv rr se alan owv rr s axp 11 ay OWV rr Y ee alle e ER yum h TIE LE p p jo EE CF ar 2 o D n aL jo wiew V p aa llihsh jp Bem id blas ades p aas chax 11 eyt yt D de ase ilyea z aas ehs foj K Alternate in ee se U ank vase Jm aby ol abalone LI m m aan yxaxm Sin ic aam axn iht n axb jh ehk t le LI y h im m LI LI el W W W a Ji ai a Lista alone O a a b M owv rrihjh u x x ic v owv rr p aes n ic m p i aas eng S e LI LI LI yd LI E aap a LI ay owv rr ow OWV EE aenx ow ah men yu LI y EE iy e E IS ie i IS de awt fr iych i d iE E h Yo AD ER IO H Reference tables predicate pr ehd ihk eyt jo is V emel sal ee predominate p r ihd aam axn eyt jp as ad V aan asa mac prefab pa Gyw E gt ace jo w gyw te Y aas preset EE p c yy e ems project jp se asada te Jp 3 amp cial En ic Protest jp i or ens E D ase ENS tt 71 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide Homograph phonetics R _ EE EE reincarnate i y la k Y ask m eye EE alon le aar m aloe llaep s ie As ll aep s o ls aa E i aly ja se dia e Er amp romance owm aen s owm aen
23. Normally a smaller larynx simultaneously produces fundamental frequency values that are higher in average pitch and in pitch range by about the same factor the whole fundamental frequency contour is multiplied by a constant factor Compare the values assigned to the ap and pr options for each DECtalk voice The voices rank in average pitch from low Harry to high Kit Rankings for the pr option are similar Frank however has a flat pitch range compared to his average pitch The best way to determine a good pitch range for a new voice is by trial and error Setting the pitch range to 0 creates a monotone voice To make Harry speak in a monotone voice at exactly 90 Hz use the following command nh dv ap 90 pr 0 I ama robot Reducing the pitch range reduces the dynamics of the voice and produces emotions such as sadness in the speaker Increasing the pitch range but leaving the average pitch the same or slightly higher suggests excitement Due to constraints in the pitch synchronous updating of other dynamically changing options the fundamental frequency contour computed by the preceding formula is checked for values outside 500 maximum and 50 minimum Hz Any value outside this range is adjusted accordingly The Design Voice command automatically adjusts pitch options to fall within specified limits before execution 46 Reference tables Index Topics Reference tables Phonetic symbols NOTE see Phoneme notificatio
24. OR DAMAGE ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE SHALL BE LIMITED TO DIRECT DAMAGES WHICH SHALL NOT EXCEED THE LICENSE FEE YOU PAID IN NO EVENT SHALL FONIX BE LIABLE FOR LOST PROFITS LOST DATA INTERRUPTIONS OF BUSINESS OR ANY INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE REGARDLESS OF WHETHER FONIX HAS NOTICE OF THE POTENTIAL FOR SUCH LOSS OR DAMAGE The above limitations may be superseded by law in some jurisdictions U S GOVERNMENT RESTRICTED RIGHTS The Software and any accompanying materials are provided with Restricted Rights Use duplications or disclosure by the Government is subject to restrictions as set forth in subparagraph A 1 ii of The Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software clause at DFARS 252 227 7013 or subparagraphs c 1 and 2 of the Commercial Computer Software Restricted Rights at 48 CFR 52 227 19 as applicable Contractor manufacturer is Fonix Corporation at 9350 South 150 East Suite 700 Sandy Utah 84070 4 Fonix DECtalk software GENERAL If any term of this Agreement is found void or unenforceable all other terms shall remain in full force and effect This Agreement shall be governed by the internal laws of Utah If you breach any term of this Agreement Fonix may terminate this license and you must return all copies of the Product to Fonix Copyright 2007 Fonix Corporation Inc All rights reserved Trademarks The Fo
25. Some of these differences are under the control of a single option sx sex of the speaker Paul is male sx 1 Wendy is female sx 0 Setting the sx option to male or female causes DECtalk to access a different table of target values formant frequencies bandwidths and source amplitudes The male and female tables are patterned after two individuals who were judged to have pleasant intelligible voices The built in voices of DECtalk are simply scaled transformations of Paul and Betty You can change the sex of any DECtalk voice by making the voice current and by modifying the sx option The following example gives Paul some of the speaking characteristics of a woman The sx option does not change the average pitch or breathiness thus a peculiar combination of simultaneous male and female traits is the result of this sx change np dv sx 0 Am I a man or woman NOTE If you change the sex of the voice some phonemes might cause DECtalk s filters to overload which produces a sguawk like sound The modification of certain options such as f4 f5 and g1 can help to correct this problem Head Size hs Head size hs set to 100 percent represents the average size for an adult man sx 1 or an adult woman sx 0 Head size has a strong influence on a person s voice Humans with large heads tend to have low resonant voices To make Paul sound like a man with a vocal tract fifteen percent longer than the average man and
26. ances for male voices The range of the breathiness br option is from O dB no breathiness to 70 dB strong breathiness To turn Paul into a breathy whispering speaker try the following np dv br 55 gv 56 Do I sound more like Dennis now This voice is not as loud as the others because of the simultaneous decrease in the gain gv but is intelligible and human sounding Lax Breathiness Ix The br option creates simultaneous breathiness whenever voicing is turned on Another type of breathiness occurs at the end of a sentence and when going from voiced to voiceless sounds This type of breathiness is controlled by the Ix option A non breathy tense voice has the Ix option set to 0 A maximally breathy lax voice has the Ix options set to 100 The difference between the two is not great Smoothness sm The sm option affects vocal fold vibrations The vocal folds meet at the midline as they do in normal voicing They do not however slam together forcefully to create a sudden cessation of airflow DECtalk uses a variable cutoff gradual low pass filter to model changes to smoothness The sm range is 0 least smooth and most brilliant to 100 percent most smooth and least brilliant The voicing source spectrum is tilted so that energy at higher frequencies is attenuated by as much as 30 dB when smoothness is set to the maximum It is not attenuated at all when smoothness is set to O 42 Customizing DECtalk voic
27. ar Being a mama bear is hard work nk I m baby bear and I have trouble relating to all the demands of older bears np One day the thr bears left their condominium to search for honey While they were gone a beautiful young lady sneaked into the bedroom through an open window nw My name is Wendy My purpose in entering this building should be clear I am planning to steal any jewels I can find np Hot on her trail was the famous police detective Frank Dogood nf Have you seen a lady carrying a laundry bag over her shoulder Add commas to increase pause length and phrasing np A woman kneeling with her left ear firmly placed against a large rock responded If the selected language supports pitch rise and fall symbols 1 and emphatic stress symbols use them to add pitch control and emphatic stress nu No No one passed this way I ve been listening for earthquakes all morning I did see bears searching for honey 33 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide Electronic mail reading example DECtalk supplies an email parser for Windows and UNIX but not for MS DOS See Mode mode for additional information To write an electronic mail preprocessor use the following text conversions before sending the text to DECtalk e Parse the header boilerplate to remove extraneous information Add the new paragraph symbol to blank lines between paragraphs if D
28. ause part of the hat fall occurs on the very last unstressed syllable of the clause DECtalk may break a long clause into two hat patterns by finding the boundary between the noun phrase and the verb phrase If DECtalk is in phoneme input mode and the pitch rise and pitch fall X symbols are used the hr option determines the actual rise and fall in Hz See Stress and Syntactic Symbols for a complete list of symbols Stress Rise sr The sr option indicates the nominal height in Hz of a local pitch rise and fall on each stressed syllable This rise fall is added to any present hat rise or fall For example Paul has the sr option set to 32 Hz resulting in an fundamental frequency rise fall gesture of 32 Hz over a span of about 150 ms located on the first and succeeding stressed syllables However DECtalk rules reduce the actual height of successive stress rise and falls in each clause and cause the last stress pulse to occur early so there is time for the hat fall during the vowel If the sr option is set too low speech sounds monotone within long phrases Great changes to the hr and sr options are not usually necessary Assertiveness as The as option as a percentage indicates the degree to which a voice tends to end a statement with a conclusive final fall Assertive voices are characterized by a dramatic fall in pitch Neutral voices often end a sentence with a slight rise in pitch A value of 100 is very assertive A
29. ause word or letter is spoken as it is queued In word and letter mode DECtalk does not need to wait for a clause terminator to begin speaking Word mode is similar to letter mod xcept text is spoken a word at a time A space after a character or string of characters causes that string to be spoken This mode interacts with the Rate Selection command to increase or decrease the rate at which the text is spoken In clause mode speaking starts when DECtalk is sent a clause terminator period comma exclamation point or question mark followed by a space There is no time out limit This is the normal mode where text is spoken a phrase clause or sentence at a time 24 Skip ski In line commands Description Skips a selected part of text preprocessing which remains in effect until another Skip command is encountered Syntax Alternate Range Options Parameters Default Notes skip XX punct rule all none 1 3 Turns off punctuation rules punctuation is spoken Turns off rules for processing items like phone numbers Skip all preprocessing Turns off the language parser for US English This parameter has no effect on other languages Returns processing to the default state Skip code page translation Do not skip anything Synchronous le ly one option can be in effect at a time For skip cpg overrides skip all See Preprocessor Parsin
30. ave trouble relating to all the demands of older bears np One day the thr bears left their condominium to search for honey While they were gone a beautiful young lady sneaked into the bedroom through an open window nw My name is Wendy My purpose in entering this building should be clear I am planning to steal any jewels I can find np Hot on her trail was the famous police detective Frank Dogood nf Have you seen a lady carrying a laundry bag over her shoulder np A woman kneeling with her left ear firmly placed against a large rock responded nu No No one passed this way I ve been listening for earthquakes all morning I did s thr bears searching for honey Revised Version Text is enhanced with DECtalk in line commands Phoneme interpretation is tuned stress and syntactic symbols are translated See Phoneme Interpretation phoneme for more information Turn on phoneme interpretation phoneme arpabet speak on 32 Using in line commands Add periods to include brief pauses after the title and author np A California Shaggy Bear Tale for Seven DECtalk Software Voices By Dennis Klatt np Once upon a time there were thr bears They lived in a great forest and tried to adjust to modern times Add commas to increase pause length and quotation marks for emphatic stress nh I m papa bear I love my family but I love honey best nb I m mama be
31. ce of options and or parameters exists the symbol XXn or YYn n is replaced by a number refers to individual options and or parameters in symbolic representations For example phoneme XX1 XX2 YY NOTE The number of characters in the symbolic representation does NOT represent the number of characters allowed in the option or parameter name DD and DDn Fonix DECtalk software In DECtalk in line command syntax DD indicates a decimal base 10 value When more than one decimal values are allowed the symbol DDn n is replaced by a number represents possible values For example volume XX DD1 DD2 NOTE The number of characters in the symbolic representation does NOT represent the number of characters allowed in the decimal value Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide Copyrights and trademarks IMPORTANT READ THIS LICENSE AGREEMENT BY USING THE SOFTWARE YOU INDICATE YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THE ENTIRE AGREEMENT SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT This Agreement is a legal agreement between you and Fonix Corporation Fonix but may be superseded by a separate license agreement that you and Fonix have signed The software Software and its media and documentation collectively the Product are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws and international treaties This Product is proprietary to and embodies confidential information and technology of Fonix Corporation You have no title to or ownership of the Product
32. cific speaker names as listed below 16 In line commands Period Pause period Description Increases or decreases the length of the period pause in milliseconds pp 0 resets the period pause to its default state 640 ms Period Pause can be increased by 30 000 ms and decreased by 420 ms 420 Pause length is set by adding the parameter value to the default value All values outside the legal range default to the nearest legal values Changes the duration of all future pauses Inserts a pause when the command is processed period DD pp DD and pp 0 Min 420 Max 30000 Parameters Pause time in milliseconds Default 640 ms Notes 1 Asynchronous 2 See Adjusting Period and Comma Pause Durations period 250 17 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide Phoneme Interpretation phoneme Description When phoneme interpretation is set to on the Phoneme Interpretation command allows everything within brackets to be interpreted as phonemic text All phoneme interpretation of text can be silenced by using the phoneme silent on command By default the text is spoken without phoneme interpretation When you phonemicize text put valid phoneme strings in brackets See Reference Tables for a list of valid phonemic symbols Phoneme interpretation allows you to specify the preferred pronunciation of a word or phrase It is important to note that this command sets the left bra
33. cket and right bracket characters as phoneme delimiters When the user has the phoneme interpretation turned on phoneme on all text and characters that appear between brackets are interpreted as phonemic text and is pronounced as such For example to say the word associate simply embed the phonemic string axs owshiyeyt in the text string Note that the pronunciation of the phonemic string is different depending on whether phoneme interpretation is on or off When phoneme interpretation is on additional attributes can be associated with the phoneme text See Pitch and Duration of Tones Reference Tables for information on how to code a phoneme sequence to produce musical sounds See Stress and Syntactic Symbols for a complete list of symbols used with phoneme text NOTE 1 Arpabet mode is a 2 character system All single character symbols must be followed by a space so that faulty translations do not occur Consider the phonemic representation of whitehorse w ayt hxowr s The letter t in this phonemic representation must be followed by a space so that it is not interpreted as part of the phonemic symbol th in the representation of whitehorse NOTE 2 Some older versions of DECtalk supported single characters in arpabet mode Application programs written for use with those versions may fail to function correctly when used with DECtalk V4 6 or higher Syntax phoneme XXI XX2 YY or phoneme arpabet speak o
34. d varies To simulate this behavior set the ri option to 100 and adjust the nf option to the desired open phase duration The shortest possible open phase is 10 1 ms and the longest is three guarters of the period duration about 70 for a male voice Laryngealization la Many speakers turn voicing on and off irregularly at the beginnings and ends of sentences which gives a guerulous tone to the voice This departure from perfect periodicity is called laryngealization It produces creaky voice guality The la option controls the amount of laryngealization in the voice A value of O results in no laryngealized irregularity A value of 100 the maximum produces laryngealization at all times To make Betty moderately laryngealized use the following command nb dv la 20 The la option creates a noticeable difference in the voice The change is not always pleasant 43 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide Changing Pitch and I ntonation Options Seven speaker definition options control aspects of the fundamental freguency fO voice contour Baseline fall in Hz Nominal hat rise in Hz Nominal stress rise in Hz Ouickness in Average pitch in Hz Pitch range in Baseline Fall bf as Assertiveness in The bf option determines one aspect of the dynamic fundamental freguency contour for a sentence If the bf option is O the reference baseline fundamental freguency of a sentence begins and ends
35. der and Head Size Changing 40 H Homograph Phonetics A 65 BRE roses EE a Eva W 66 BS EE AE AE 67 Ba RE 69 EE EE kak EE tha 70 R72 ER EE EN 73 Homographs 64 65 66 67 69 70 72 73 In line Commands 11 14 16 17 18 20 21 22 23 24 25 In line Commands Using 29 31 32 34 36 L Licensing 6 M Math mode example 87 Mode Optimizing Spoken Text 29 P Parsing Rules General videl ENEE dr t 71 Preprocessor 74 Punctuation 75 Period Pause period wii ka ena kan Yw SE m a SEE deck 17 31 Phoneme Interpretation 89 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide phoneme 18 Phonetic Symbols Castilian Spanish EA N RES 52 Phonetic Symbols Latin American Spanish irure cede Reread tee ki Eg 54 Phonetic Symbols US English 48 Pitch PECH ot ja ER O NR O edes ars 20 Pitch and Duration of Tones 61 Pitch and Intonation Changing 44 Pronounce pronounce 21 Punctuation eist eg 22 Punctuation Parsing Rules 75 R Rate Selection 90 rate EE AA aa 23 S Say AR a EE AP 24 Skip SKID namban kaka TR WY 25 Stress and Syntactic Symbols 56 Syntactic Symbols 56 T Text TUNING
36. e mode ESE ED a REENEN EAR RRERY IdAW e DA 4 LAN PA Yay WERE GAA TD nanan 14 Name nare ie Ee ra YO Y OH a AA ee as REN a ex va bes s Oca Faden e ep saaa 16 Period Pause ll period uei aia ww kon n di ia di du dE ay a nn FAR en 17 Phoneme Interpretation phoneme ll tett tett teat RA saaa teat tate RR RAF mene 18 Pitch Hol ie id 54245882 a EE lk ai a a EE NE 20 Pronounce pronounce 21 Punctuation pun Clinica 22 Rate Selection rate viii NAA ade 23 Say SY lia A A ee eee ka OE LG e 24 Skip ESKI JO kt to ka RE EE e ok EE 25 Using in line commande 26 FEN OU WE NOM EE fk ep ER RE a a ed EE ES 26 Rules and BAG ee nae 27 Optimizing spoken Text 29 Period and comma pause durations nnns 31 SOSA 32 Table Of Contents Electronic mail reading example 34 Avoiding common errors eie ese Y tt taka ee ee EL EL LEE ee EL ELE ee n rennes 36 Customizing DECtalk voices ss 37 Wale eege eM 37 Voice Definitions E 38 Tt Changing Gender and Head Size 40 4 Changing Voice Quality EE ee 42 Tt Changing Pitch and Intonation eiu uu Y LL LL LL enn 44 Reference tables si EE EE A t N IR Ge PRE AN ea 47 ale EE 47 Phonetic symbols US English 48 Phonetic symbols Castilian Spanish 52 Phonetic symbols Latin American Spanish 54 Stress and syntactic symbols iese Ed Rd LY eee de esee emen eee nens 56 English phonemes in unicode sequence ie see Rd eee eke
37. e word really r iyl iy is included Now I m dv ap 90 pr 130 r iyl iy thrilled Additional In line Command Rules 27 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide 28 If an option value is too high or too low the maximum or minimum value is used See Design Voice dv and Rate Selection rate commands The placement of an in line command affects all subsequent text until overridden by another command The following example uses the Rate Selection rate in line command The first sentence is spoken slower than the second The final rate 200 command sets the speaking rate to normal for all subsequent text not shown in this example or until another Rate Selection command is encountered rate 75 I can speak slower rate 350 I can speak faster rate 200 Invalid commands are ignored Setting the Error error in line command to error speak causes an audible invalid command warning for every error Do not put arpabet parameters within the brackets for another command DECtalk interprets text between brackets as phonemes only after the phoneme arpabet speak on command is sent to the application If phoneme arpabet speak on has not been sent DECtalk interprets the brackets and characters between them literally The phoneme arpabet speak off command must be sent with literal characters if you want to insert brackets in normal text If the command phoneme arpabet speak on is set and you forget
38. ead size int o or nn o FAA o sm smoothness ina o E Breathiness in decibels dB Fourth formant resonance frequency in Hz ol Fifth formant resonance frequency in Hz BR H Hat rise in Hz Head size in Laryngealization in Lax breathiness in Number of fixed samples of open glottis Pitch range in Quickness in H Richness in u B Smoothness in Sie SEress rise slim Hz x Sex 1 male or 0 female a save Save the current speaker definition options as Va ode Parameters See the options above for valid parameter values See Voice Definitions for default parameter values Default Notes Example npl dv ap 100 Changes Paul s average pitch to be 100 12 In line commands Related topic Customizing DECtalk voices 13 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide Mode mode Description Changes the mode for all text processed after this command which remains in effect until the next Mode command or the engine is reset SES Alternate B th Change interpretation of selected symbols see example below europe Select European cardinal pronunciation see example below spell Spell all words Pronounce all uppercase verbs as proper nouns see Pronounce pronounce example below words without vowel reduction lesia table n Turns off the specified mode option Parameters u 0 ct Turns on the specified mode o
39. eferences lt 9608071721 AA16334 node com gt Content Type text plain charset us ascii Content Transfer Encoding 7bit oe oe oe oe oe oe oe oo oe oe oe ra mode email off Related topic Mode mode 86 Software examples Math mode example When mode math is set to mode math on certain symbols are pronounced with mathematical meanings according to the following table Symbol Name lon DECtalk says off DECtalk says ee ees Ca CC SCS period point no space functions as period XXE XX spelled scientific notation spelled Scientific notation example The following example speaks seven times 10 to the power minus fifty five With math mode turned off it would speak seven e dash fifty five mode math on 7E 55 Related topic Mode mode 87 Index A Abbreviations 79 Adjusting Period and Comma Pause Durations 31 C Comma Pause comma l Y ee ee 11 31 Common Errors 36 Conventions 2 Copyrights iese de ir ini eee ee 4 Customizing DECtalk Voices 37 D Design Voice ed kana EE EER 12 E Electronic Mail 34 Email mode example 85 English Phonemes in Unicode SOQUeNCl RY nnn 57 Errors Avoiding Common 36 G Gen
40. elligent are treated as intelligent w Hours and minutes are not altered Example 2 43 pm is spoken two forty three P M Numerals and decimal numbers are not altered Example 3 52 is spoken minus three point five two Currency values are spoken as expected 75 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide 76 Example 43 65 is spoken minus forty three dollars and sixty five cents 123 21 is spoken plus one hundred and twenty three dollars and twenty one cents Uppercase single letters followed by periods are interpreted as single letters Example U S A is spoken U S A and P M and p m are spoken P M Doubled clause boundary symbols are reduced to the first clause boundary Example boom is spoken boom Commas and hyphens not followed by spaces are spoken with spaces Example look look is spoken look look Preprocessor parsing rules General parsing rules Parsing rules vary according to language Affected items are presented below English US Dates amp Hours and minutes e Street avenue and drive Numbered street names Example 29 42 Street is spoken twenty nine forty second street w Phone numbers are spoken as digits with appropriate pauses Dr is spoken doctor St is spoken saint w Two letter state names are pronounced in full Example MA 01749 is spoken Massachusetts zero one seven four nine Postal Zip codes are spoken one digit at a time a URL addresses are spok
41. en one character at a time Filenames are spoken one character at a time w In compound words prefixes may be broken apart from the second word Days of the week Compass directions are spoken in full Example 30 W is spoken thirty west Roman numerals following a name are spoken as ordinal numbers Example John Doe III is spoken John Doe the third Credit card numbers are spoken with intervening pauses Example 6011 4134 3621 4172 is spoken six zero one one four one three four three six two one four one seven two Uppercase letters begin a new word in words with mixed upper and lowercase letters Example TextToSpeech is spoken text to speech 77 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide Combinations of numbers and letters are broken into numbers and individual letters Example two34five is spoken T W O thirty four FI VE XF3020B is spoken X F three hundred and two O B Spanish Castilian and Latin American e Dates Currency Phone numbers a Credit cards 78 Abbreviations US English abbreviations The table below contains abbreviations included in the system dictionary or in the main U S dictionary The following notes also apply Double asterisk note Abbreviations with two asterisks 44 represent more than one word For example Dr has two asterisks because it represents doctor and drive Fonix DECtalk relies on proprietary rules to say the correct word Single asterisk
42. es Trained professional singing voices that sing above an orchestra are usually brilliant while someone who talks softly becomes breathy and smooth To synthesize a breathy voice try setting the sm option to 50 or more Changes to smoothness do not greatly affect perceived voice quality Richness ri The ri option is similar to smoothness and brilliance forcefulness but the spectral change occurs at lower frequencies The spectral change difference is the result of a different physiological mechanism Brilliant rich voices carry well and are more intelligible in noisy environments Smooth soft voices sound more friendly The following command produces a soft smooth version of Paul s voice np dv ri 0 sm 70 Do I sound more mellow The following command produces a maximally rich and brilliant voice np dv ri 90 sm 0 Do I sound more forceful Usually smoothness and richness are negatively correlated when a speaker dynamically changes laryngeal output The sm and ri options have little influence on speaker identity Nopen nf The number of samples in the open part of the glottal cycle is determined by the ri and nf options The nf option represents the number of fixed samples in the open portion of the glottal cycle Most speakers adjust the open phase to be a certain fraction of the period and this fraction is determined by the ri option Other speakers keep the open phase fixed in duration when the overall perio
43. es three licenses are required 2 Multiple text to speech instances running in the same thread One application is running It opens two instances of DECtalk speech and wants concurrent access to DECtalk U S English and or it wants concurrent access to DECtalk U S English and DECtalk Spanish one language in each instance In both cases two licenses are required Linux licensing Put channel license information in etc DECtalk conf Update the file when customers purchase more channels The files locations sh and install sh contain information on installing DECtalk software Getting started Introduction Fonix DECtalk simplified software provides the functionality of Fonix DECtalk without a dictionary file It can be used on platforms not using an OS or are using an OS that is not multi threaded The simplified API set has been designed to reduce the overhead of APIs requiring files The word Simple has been added to the library names to distinguish the simple API set from the standard API set In line commands Introduction In line commande control voice characteristics such as speaking rate and the speaker s voice n line commands can be placed in the text stream that is passed to DECtalk In line Commands 2 See Conventions for an explanation of XX YY and DD in line command options parameters and syntax conventions 2 Commands are not synchronous unless otherwise indicated Use Sync sync to make a command
44. freguency contour is computed as a function of the lexical stress pattern and syntactic structure of a sentence A sentence is broken into clauses punctuation and clause introducing words determine clause boundaries Within each clause the fundamental freguency contour rises on the first stressed syllable It stays at a high level until it reaches the last stressed syllable of the clause where it falls dramatically This rise and 44 Customizing DECtalk voices fall is called the hat pattern by linguists jumping from the brim ofa hat to the top of the hat and back again The hr option indicates the nominal height in Hz of a pitch rise to a plateau on the first stressed syllable A corresponding pitch fall is placed by rule on the last stress of the clause Some speakers use relatively large hat rises and falls while others use a local impulse like rise and fall on each stressed syllable The default hr option value for Paul is 18 Hz indicating that the fundamental freguency contour rises a nominal 18 Hz To simulate a speaker who does not use pitch rise and falls use the command dv hr 0 Other aspects of the hat pattern are important for natural intonation but are not accessible by speaker definition commands For example the hat fall becomes a weaker fall followed by a slight continuation rise if the clause is succeeded by more clauses in the same sentence Also if unstressed syllables follow the last stressed syllable in a cl
45. g Rules skip cpg skip all skip none 25 Using in line commands Introduction This section provides an in depth look at the DECtalk in line commande which can be used within a DECtalk text file or application The in line command Design Voice dv requires its own section See Design voice command for more information on this command Topics Changing Rhythm Stress and Intonation DECtalk uses stress and syntactic symbols to control rhythm stress and intonation patterns within a spoken text file These symbols include punctuation marks such as commas periods and parentheses Punctuation marks are recognized by DECtalk as indicating special phrasing requirements See Stress and syntactic symbols for a list of these symbols Also study the examples in the topics below e Rules and syntax Optimizing spoken text w Period and comma pause durations amp Text tuning example Electronic mail reading example Avoiding common errors 26 Using in line commands Rules and syntax Including In line Commands in a Text File 1 Enclose every command within brackets The Rate Selection rate and Name name commands are used in the following example A space does not need to follow a command One is used here and below for visual clarity rate 150 name Betty Hello How are you Some commands provide an alternate form to simplify input The name command and its argument
46. his was done to the fourth and fifth formants of Kit s voice The permitted values for the f4 and f5 options have fairly complicated restrictions Violating these restrictions can cause overloads and squawks The following restrictions apply to cases where a higher formant exists The f5 option must be at least 300 Hz higher than f4 Ifsxis 1 male f4 must be at least 3250 Hz If sx is O female f4 must be at least 3700 Hz Ifhs is not 100 the preceding values should be multiplied by hs 100 These higher formants produce peaks in the spectrum that become more prominent if the b4 and b5 options are smaller and if the f4 and f5 options are closer together The limits placed on the b4 and b5 options should ensure that no problems occur However smaller values for bandwidths may produce an overload in the synthesizer You can correct these overloads by increasing the bandwidths or by changing the gain control g1 41 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide Changing Voice Quality Options Six speaker definition options control larynx output voice quality Breathiness in decibels dB Number of fixed samples of open glottis Laryngealization in 3 Breathiness br Richness in 3 Some voices can be characterized as breathy the vocal folds vibrate to generate voicing and breath noise simultaneously Breathiness is a characteristic of many female voices but it is also common under certain circumst
47. ing is turned O The pass option is useful in proofreading as well as in applications where special characters are encountered such as in a computer program See Preprocessor Parsing Rules for more information on preprocessor parsing for treatment of punctuation Synchronous unct none Punctuation Parsing Rules 22 In line commands Rate Selection rate Description Sets DECtalk speaking rate Syntax rate DD Alternate E Range Min 75 Max 600 Options Speaking rate DD EE LL 0 Default 200 words per minute Notes 1 Asynchronous 2 All values outside the range 75 to 600 default to the nearest legal value For example if you select a speaking rate of rate 880 or 880 words per minute DECtalk defaults to 600 words per minute 3 See Speaking Rate Example srate 400 23 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide Say say Description Specifies when speaking begins Alternate Range Options Parameters Default Notes say XX CET M Speak on end of clause Speak on end of word 9E Speak on end of letter NOTE In letter mode the left bracket is spoken only after the next character is entered because DECtalk needs to know if this is the beginning of a new command filtered Speak on end of letter ignoring letter control characters e g vertical tab and line feed line am S on end of line A 1 Synchronous 2 In DECtalk each cl
48. ll turned R tin small ter Alpha r E J Lati letter modifier letter small turned R Ebor Smal letter Schwa with hook atin small leceer cem 12 Latin small Letter oyen modifier letter small turned R tin small ter I with stroke Latin small letter Capital I atin small letter J with middle tilde Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide Va is EE Internal use only Internal use onl 60 kan CU ep ES Ur28cc U 3B8 Greek small US EH TB letter Theta Latin small letter turned R with hook Latin small letter Esh Latin small letter Upsilon t modifier letter small U 28A let Fa 1 ned R Eat siel Upsilon mall ett Ezh Latin letter clle stop digraph Modifier let in small ter Dez digraph tin small tter Tesh vertical line Modifier let low vertical line SEX fiRe PX a i Hn n a m EM a AHH Ka Reference tables Pitch and duration of tones DECtalk can be used to sing songs and or make musical tones The table below contains the command syntax for Happy Birthday It provides the pitch numbers associated notes and frequencies needed to code musical sounds with a phonemic sequence See US English phonemic symbols to decode the symbols used in the example below Syntax phoneme lt duration
49. n Alternate Range Options arpabet Set phonetic interpretation to arpabet alphabet Currently this option is the only alphabet allowed speak If phoneme interpretation is on speak encountered phonemes The speak option is ignored if phoneme interpretation tS Off If phoneme interpretation is on do 18 In line commands not speak encountered phonemes The silent option is ignored if phoneme interpretation is off Parameters on turn phoneme interpretation on turn phoneme interpretation off Default off Notes 1 Asynchronous 2 Make sure you use a right bracket to end the phonemic symbols If you do not any normal text appearing after the phonemic symbols sounds garbled One right bracket is sufficient to close phonemic mode It is sometimes useful to begin a text file with a right bracket to ensure that text is not interpreted phonemically A command sequence consisting of a left bracket followed by a colon is always interpreted as the beginning of a command Examples phoneme arpabet speak on axs owshiyeyt associate phoneme speak on axs owshiyeyt associate phoneme on axs owshiyeyt associate phoneme speak off axs owshiyeyt pronounced as axsociate phoneme off axs owshiyeyt pronounced as axsociate phoneme silent off axs owshiyeyt pronounced as axsociate phoneme silent on axs owshiyeyt associate not spoken 19
50. n line commands Comma Pause comma Description Changes the length of the comma pause in milliseconds Changes the duration of all future pauses Inserts a pause when the command is processed Set the length of the pause by adding the command value to the default value Can be increased by 30 000 ms and decreased by 280 ms 280 All values outside the legal range default to the nearest legal values cp 0 resets the comma pause to its default state approximately 280 ms comma DD eco DD ame 269 0 Min 280 Max 30000 Pause time in milliseconds ms Default 280 ms Notes 1 Asynchronous 2 DD indicates a decimal base 10 value See Range 3 See Adjusting Period and Comma Pause Durations comme 250 11 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide Design voice dv Description Customizes DECtalk voices by introducing voice options and parameters that can be entered as a string or one at a time DECtalk s nine built in voices are distinguished by a large set of voice speaker definition options The voices can be modified but the modifications cannot be saved See Customizing DECtalk voices for detailed information on how to use this in line command Syntax Alternate Range Options ap Average pitch in Hz ba Fourth formant bandwidth in Hz b4 195 Fifth formant bandwidth in Hz b b dv XX YY Baseline fall in Hz f Baseline fall in Hz FAA hs H
51. nix logo and DECtalk are trademarks of Fonix Corporation Compad is a registered trademark of Compaq Computer Corporation Intel is a trademark of ntel Corporation Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds Microsoft Windows Windows 95 Windows 98 Windows ME Windows NT Windows 2000 Windows XP and Windows CE are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation Motif is a registered trademark of the Open Software Foundation Inc Red Hat is a registered trademark of Red Hat Software Inc SoundBlaster is a registered trademark of Creative Labs Inc Solaris is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems Inc Sparc is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems Inc Other product names mentioned in Product documentation may be trademarks and or registered trademarks of their respective companies Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide Licensing A license is required to concurrently use two or more DECtalk languages For more information about licenses contact Fonix Corporation about its OEM SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT Fonix Corporation 9350 South 150 East Suite 700 Sandy UT 84070 801 553 6600 Licensing examples 1 Multiple threads running Three applications are running on a server All three applications want to access DECtalk U S English at the same time and or all three applications want to individually access DECtalk U S English DECtalk Castillian Spanish and DECtalk Latin Spanish at the same time In both cas
52. note Abbreviations with one asterisk might be confused with whole words if the period is omitted or if the abbreviation is the last word in a sentence For example fig is a word and an abbreviation for another word figure Fonix DECtalk relies on proprietary rules to say the correct word Single plus note Abbreviations with one plus are system abbreviations Capitalization Abbreviations that begin with an uppercase letter are case sensitive Abbreviations that begin with a lowercase letter are not case sensitive Abbreviations representing multiple words Abbreviations can represent different words For example dr can represent doctor or drive Fonix DECtalk relies on proprietary rules to say the correct word Single and plural forms Single and plural forms are not affected by the period The abbreviation in says inch or inches depending on the number preceding it A space between the number and the abbreviation is not required The period is required however because in without a period is not in the abbreviation dictionary Periods in abbreviations The abbreviations mtn and mtn say mountain because both appear in the abbreviation dictionary account See account EISE s 79 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide a des Dept poy Go dom ex ee Dm Gi Q 0 X ie L x koj lt 80 Abbreviations 81 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1
53. ns US English Castilian Spanish Latin American Spanish Stress and syntactic symbols Tables Phonemes in unicode sequence English Tones Pitch and Duration e Table Homographs Homograph Phonetics A Homograph Phonetics B C Homograph Phonetics D H w Homograph Phonetics I L Homograph Phonetics M P e Homograph Phonetics R a Homograph Phonetics S W Abbreviations e US English A7 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide Phonetic symbols US English Ascii Example Arpabet Unicode m a Character ES SH atin a letter I atin small letter Capital I atin small letter E atin small letter open E atin small letter AE atin small letter be atin small letter turned V U 6F U 28A atin small letter O Latin small letter Upsilon U 254 U 26A atin small letter op atin small letter capital I U 28A atin small letter Up VES atin sma letter U ka es Wi AV Uso R2 5 atin sm qr Schw 48 VO Ox N N NO Es a Ee N Oy N N VO W o W ES N N W US M W G 33 US_NX A h Yank W R L H fiRe until y at ad ad d Ma 1h 1 Ep EN Es el Reference tables Letter T with stroke
54. oads NOTE Of the 28 options only a few cause dramatic changes in the voice The greatest effects result from changes to the hs head size ap average pitch pr pitch range and sx male female options Moderate changes occur modifying the la laryngealization and br breathiness options See Also Design Voice dv 37 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide Voice Definitions See Design Voice dv for option descriptions Example ap average pitch in Hz NOTE With DECtalk 4 6 4 options g1 through gv were removed from Design voice dv In previous versions these options were tuned manually they were constant Now they are auto tuned mathematically they change and don t have a default value Default Values Ed MEN EE EE EE AGE Sa m lh m m DE 38 Customizing DECtalk voices 39 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide Changing Gender and Head Size Options Six speaker definition options control the size and shape of the head sx Sex 1 male or 0 female Fourth formant resonance frequency in Hz Fifth formant resonance frequency in Hz b4 Fourth formant bandwidth in Hz b5 Fifth formant bandwidth in Hz Gender sx Male and female voices differ in many ways stemming from differences in head size pharynx length larynx mass and speaking habits such as degree of breathiness liveliness of pitch choice of articulatory target values and speed of articulation
55. oice dv XX YY Customizes a DECtalk voice by selecting and setting speaker definition options Dial Tones dial YY Dials telephone numbers e Error error XX Sets the error mode for a module a Loadv loadv DD YYn Loads up to ten in line command sets for insertion into a text buffer Mode mode XX YY Allows words and symbols to be interpreted for special use w Name name XX or XXn Selects the name of the DECtalk voice e Period Pause period DD or pp DD Inserts a pause equivalent to a period in a sentence into spoken text Phoneme Interpretation phoneme XX1 XX2 YY Allows everything within brackets to be interpreted as phonemic text Pitch pitch DD Modifies the frequency difference between spoken upper and lowercase letters Pronounce pronounce XX Speaks alternate primary or proper noun pronunciation of a word Punctuation punct XX Turns punctuation on and off Rate Selection rate DD Selects the speed at which text is spoken amp Say say XX Allows DECtalk to speak words before they are queued Setv setv DD Inserts one of ten in line command sets into a text buffer Skip skip XX Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide Allows users to skip specified parts of the text preprocessing Tone tone DD DD Creates tones of a specified length and frequency Volume volume XX DD or volume XX DD1 DD2 Sets the volume 10 I
56. ption while turning off all other mode options All mode options are turned off Notes Asynchronous See Sync sync for information on making this command synchronous Example mode spell on Mode examples mode europe on A comma separates the integer and fraction part of a number A period separates 3 digit blocks 1 255 United States 1 255 Europe 125 873 United States 125 873 Europe mode name on 14 In line commands Uppercase words that do not begin a sentence are pronounced as proper names Only use when pronouncing lists of names Set to off when finished w Math mode example 15 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide Name name Description Changes the current speaking voice to one of the DECtalk voices Alternate Sie uses l rrer et meame gt options Te eam default male vere Parameters 2 A user can change any of the voice characteristics of the current speaker by using the Design Voice dv in line command These changes are active only while the current speaker remains current To save the voice changes use the save option of the Design Voice command which saves the changes as the voice of Val For information on the individual characteristics of a speaker or details on how to change a voice using the Design Voice dv command see the information under Design voice command name Paul or np The Speak applet displays language spe
57. rment firem ehnm E ihm yE eviscerate ihv alloys 1218 jie TE wae E e e exploit dink e p Jl oye elle s p lloye e 67 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide forearm f owr aar m f owr aar m EKSUSHE se ayn Wy eem E i ie ai ti lam e geminate jh ehm axn iht jh ehm axn eyt graduate gr aejhuw eyt g r aejhuwiht guesstimate g ehs t axm eyt cj V Glas 1 ass dine guestimate g eyt G Y Glas ic ass dane 68 Reference tables Homograph phonetics I L inebriate a YO ayo xe al Eve silan Y syo je Mater lacerate l aes axr eyt li iyd Da PSA ab obi owp s 69 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 H E1 User Guide omograph phonetics M P Spelling matriculate erchandise inute isconduct iscount SP 0E 1suse oderate onument nominate te i te m m m m m m m m 70 Primary mm Ese G M ENE ale waa JILL Wn bied ay eyt excelsa cl m zum E S k aem cel EIRE E SAA S pee m ays y m ih awn t lol TS m Y a xn Y adm uy alm 0 amp E Bae asw mie aan yum axn t y y E aam axn e E uwm axr aab jhihk t aab llihg e h e vas er e 4 D o O Hh a iyaxt jel aa y i o xe x ey ala D A H a owp awt awt awt awt a o a owv rr OF P OWN n l ayv M i LI
58. rporation X Mailer ELM 85 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide MIME Version 1 0 To jane node com Subject DECtalk Parsing Content Type text plain charset us ascii Content Transfer Encoding 7bit X Mozilla Status 0001 Hi Jane At 11 52 EST on Wed Aug 7 I found a great web site from Fonix Corporation The site contains information about DECtalk products Take a look at URL http www fonix com products dectalk Let me know what you think E mail address john aol node com Snail mail address John Doe 4321 St James St Mt View CA 12345 6789 phone 123 297 4863 Alternative snail mail address Dr John Doe 10 42nd St Boston MA 01234 phone 617 546 2345 See ya John Internet headers and postmarks see DECWRL GATEWAY DOC Received from smtp node com by node com 5 65 rmc 22feb94 id AA17792 Wed 7 Aug 96 22 47 37 0400 Received from node com by node com 8 7 5 UNX 1 2 1 0 WV id WAA13939 Wed 7 Aug 1996 22 35 28 0400 EDT Received from node com smtp node com 127 0 0 1 by worldaccess com 8 6 10 8 6 10 with SMTP id TAA10463 for jane node com gt Wed 7 Aug 1996 19 33 57 0700 Message Id lt 32094F06 4045 node com gt Date Wed 07 Aug 1996 19 20 54 0700 From john Doe lt John node com gt Organization Fonix Corporation X Mailer ELM Mime Version 1 0 To Jane Smith jane node com Subject Re DECtalk Parsing R
59. rules Introduction The preprocessor parses text to ensure that DECtalk pronounces the text correctly Use Skip skip to suppress the parsing action Use Punctuation punct to modify it Three sets of rules apply to the parsing process listed below Topics Punctuation parsing rules Email parsing rules General parsing rules 74 Preprocessor parsing rules Punctuation parsing rules Unless an in line command is used the preprocessor uses punctuation to speak text correctly see Punctuation punct and Skip skip Recognized punctuation a period 2 comma semi colon colon question mark exclamation mark All other punctuation marks are ignored I nterpreting punctuation as words The punct a11 in line command causes the preprocessor to interpret punctuation marks as words to be spoken The symbol is spoken tilde and the symbol is spoken comma Thein line commands punct none punct pass and skip all cause the preprocessor to interpret punctuation marks as symbols that modify how text is spoken Interpreting punctuation as punctuation The preprocessor applies the following rules to the punct some command Multiple instances of identical punctuation marks are reduced to a single symbol Example becomes and becomes Double encapsulations are treated as single encapsulations Example intelligent and int
60. sS 72 Homograph phonetics S W Reference tables Spelling satiate saturate sediment segment separate Se ade shanghai sojourn SOW subject 0 Gs subl sublimate subordinate supplement survey susp ec syndicate tabulate Tear COrment transfer transform transplant transport transpose twofold underage underestimate undulate map sei upstart upsurge upturn use wind wound Primary n eyshiy eyt n aechaxr eyt ehd axm axn t n n eie mm Ebi qu n ehp axr eyt a ehr eyt shaenxhx ay n Wc lansan ow ahb jhihk t 1 hie a D y ZR o Dm ahb K D x B eyt aor d eniht n o Pag ES x a also L even E a eer Sy ahs p ehk t Y slam gl sin alae aeb yxax 11 eyt ag w Y m D or H t owr m ehn t ees sen ss ar et adem a V Ouve m tr aens pense EC an sr ow E 1 2 Cc e W jo Y On uw f owlld Pom d rri ct ke kb ar mun el sexe WU E e gum Cl Vee MI eye amp Y Slaic st aar t o En IO o D IO s V regle ki H H Bi a si ke a N Alternate 00 S ehd axm ehn t iE V aas vese Jane U ehs t axm aima el re Mens we ev IRE U ala Gl wese IL dL a lae 73 Preprocessor parsing
61. synchronous e Beginning with SAPI Version 5 DECtalk can be used in SAPI text buffers as in line commands This feature is not supported in earlier SAPI versions Design Voice dv modifies the characteristics of a voice See Design voice command for information on modifying a DECtalk voice Phoneme Interpretation phoneme can be used to control intonation and stress and to create special effects e g singing Several commands used together may interact with each other to affect the output If incorrect syntax is used in a command the right bracket is ignored because it might be considered part of an illegal string To avoid this situation insert an extra right bracket in the command Abbreviations All in line commands accept first match abbreviations For example Comma Pause works equally well as comma Or c Since no other in line command begins with the letter c no conflict exists Volume works equally well as vol ve Or iv Six in line commands begin with the letter p Using p resolves to the first in line p command which is Period Pause As a result use pi for Pitch pu for Punctuation and so on NOTE Alternate in line commands exist for all double word commands such as Comma Pause and Period Pause See individual in line commands for alternates Ouick list 2 Comma Pause comma DD or cp DD Inserts a comma pause into spoken text In line commands Design V
62. the right bracket DECtalk attempts to interpret all text following the ASCII text as phonemes skipping over illegal letter combinations The resulting text sounds garbled Enter a right bracket to fix this problem Phonetic spellings of words can be included also Phonetic spellings are enclosed within a set of square brackets For example r iyl iy for really Note if you want to use phonetic spellings you must use the phoneme arpabet speak on command to turn on recognition of phonetic spellings Using in line commands Optimizing spoken text Homograph Discussion DECtalk chooses correct pronunciations for similar words Example o He produced a lot of refuse She refused the produce She inserts five inserts per minute o He deliberated deliberately a long time a DECtalk also pronounces homographs correctly see Homograph tables Example o o o He will refuse the refuse Her conduct was not acceptable today She will conduct herself better tomorrow He lead the troops into battle The lead ball missed its mark Occasionally a special technique may be necessary to pronounce a homograph correctly Example o o Replace the correct spelling of the word with a clever misspelling 1 red yesterday that Spell the word phonetically 1 r ehd yesterday that Optimization Techniques f necessary use a hyphenated spelling for compound words to help
63. trawberry Adds a period pause of 4 500 ms 4 5 seconds to the default half second pause The range for a period pause is 420 to 30 000 ms A negative value shortens the default period pause comma 4800 apple banana strawberry Adds a comma pause of 4 800 ms 4 8 seconds to the default sixth of a second pause The range for a comma pause is 280 to 30 000 ms A negative value shortens the normal comma pause pp 0 cp 0 Resets the period pause and the comma pause to their default values 31 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide Text tuning example Although DECtalk allows for natural text to speech synthesis the quality of speech can sometimes be enhanced by giving it a more natural flow Much of this tuning involves strategic placement of commas and periods which pause the spoken text Spoken language and spoken text are different in that spoken text generally does not contain pause information The examples that follow are presented twice The revised version adds phonemic and textual changes See Stress and Syntactic Symbols for a complete list of symbols Original Version np A California Shaggy Bear Tale for Seven DECtalk Software Voices by Dennis Klatt np Once upon a time there were thr bears They lived in a great forest and tried to adjust to modern times nh I m papa bear I love my family but I love honey best nb I m mama bear Being a mama bear is hard work nk I m baby bear and I h
64. w ayn d asin wind up the top Use the pronounce name command to pronounce a word as a proper name First names last names street names and place names are all examples of proper names Alternate Range Options alternate Pronounce the next word with the less common alternate homograph pronunciation primary Pronounce the next word with the most common primary homograph pronunciation Pronounce the next word as if it was a name according to the special name and address rules Pronounce the noun version of the homograph that follows adjective Pronounce the adjective version of the homograph that follows verb Pronounce the verb version of the homograph that follows Default uses the primary pronunciation Example terry Pronounce namel Dovestre pleyeo spxeeiuoumce primaryl bass in the band 21 Fonix DECtalk 5 01 E1 User Guide Punctuation punct Description Determines how DECtalk treats punctuation marks Alternate Range Options Parameters Default Related topic punct XX Punctuation and some other symbols are not pronounced Exceptions dollar and percentage signs Punctuation symbols are treated as text breaks Text is read normally clause boundary punctuation is not spoken but all symbols such as S are spoken as words 11 punctuation symbols and other symbols are spoken as words 11 special punctuation process

Fonix proudly introduces DECtalk version 5.01

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