From rob@twcny.rr.com Sun Jan 06 17:47:15 2002 Return-Path: X-Sender: rob@twcny.rr.com X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-8_0_1_3); 7 Jan 2002 01:47:16 -0000 Received: (qmail 5690 invoked from network); 7 Jan 2002 01:47:16 -0000 Received: from unknown (216.115.97.172) by m11.grp.snv.yahoo.com with QMQP; 7 Jan 2002 01:47:16 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO mailout6-0.nyroc.rr.com) (24.92.226.177) by mta2.grp.snv.yahoo.com with SMTP; 7 Jan 2002 01:47:14 -0000 Received: from mail1.twcny.rr.com (mail1-0 [24.92.226.74]) by mailout6-0.nyroc.rr.com (8.11.6/Road Runner 1.12) with ESMTP id g071lDu15036 for ; Sun, 6 Jan 2002 20:47:13 -0500 (EST) Received: from riff ([24.92.246.4]) by mail1.twcny.rr.com (Post.Office MTA v3.5.3 release 223 ID# 0-59787U250000L250000S0V35) with ESMTP id com for ; Sun, 6 Jan 2002 20:47:11 -0500 Received: from rob by riff with local (Exim 3.33 #1 (Debian)) id 16NOsb-0000KO-00 for ; Sun, 06 Jan 2002 20:47:13 -0500 Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2002 20:47:12 -0500 To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [lojban] Re: Lojban Text to Speech Message-ID: <20020107014712.GA1037@twcny.rr.com> References: <0201041639453B.20067@neofelis> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.24i X-Is-It-Not-Nifty: www.sluggy.com From: Rob Speer Reply-To: rob@twcny.rr.com X-Yahoo-Group-Post: member; u=2572649 X-Yahoo-Profile: squeekybobo On Fri, Jan 04, 2002 at 10:13:48PM -0000, buzzwyrd wrote: > --- In lojban@y..., Pierre Abbat wrote: > > http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~lenzo/areas/papers/festvox/festvox_toc.html I've looked at this now - it's pretty informative. For those who don't have the time to read it, I'll summarize some of the points I picked up. * Text-to-speech is a process that has a whole lot of steps involving various levels of language. Fortunately, Lojban makes many of these steps unnecessary. * Anyone who plans to record a diphone set is going to need some fairly good recording equipment, such as a head-mounted mic and a good sound card. Background noise will be quite a problem, so record in a quiet place and don't let the mic pick up the computer fan. * Recording the diphones involves saying a list of nonsense words like 'tababa', 'tacaca', 'tadada', etc. in a monotone voice, and then the appropriate diphones are picked out from the middle syllable of each word. (So 'tababa' would yield 'ba' and 'ab'.) * Sorting out the diphones from the recorded words is a job which requires about 20 hours of time, but is so repetitive that it can only realistically be done for an hour at a time. Given how they define 'diphone', I believe that, including the trivial silent diphone they call 'pau-pau', there are exactly 500 diphones in Lojban. (Quite a neat coincidence!) While other languages require recording bizarre consonant combinations because they might come up between words, we don't have to worry about that in Lojban. So making a speaker should be significantly easier than they describe it for other languages, but it's still going to take some time. Here's the 500 diphones, given in Lojban spelling: .. .a ba ca da fa ga ja ka la ma na pa ra sa ta va xa za 'a .e be ce de fe ge je ke le me ne pe re se te ve xe ze 'e .i bi ci di fi gi ji ki li mi ni pi ri si ti vi xi zi 'i .o bo co do fo go jo ko lo mo no po ro so to vo xo zo 'o .u bu cu du fu gu ju ku lu mu nu pu ru su tu vu xu zu 'u .y by cy dy fy gy jy ky ly my ny py ry sy ty vy xy zy 'y b. c. d. f. g. j. k. l. m. n. p. r. s. t. v. x. z. a. ab ac ad af ag aj ak al am an ap ar as at av ax az a' e. eb ec ed ef eg ej ek el em en ep er es et ev ex ez e' i. ib ic id if ig ij ik il im in ip ir is it iv ix iz i' o. ob oc od of og oj ok ol om on op or os ot ov ox oz o' u. ub uc ud uf ug uj uk ul um un up ur us ut uv ux uz u' y. yb yc yd yf yg yj yk yl ym yn yp yr ys yt yv yx yz y' .b .c .d .f .g .j .k .l .m .n .p .r .s .t .v .x .z ai au ei ia ie ii io iu iy oi ua ue ui uo uu uy a,e a,i a,o a,u a,y e,a e,i e,o e,u e,y i,a i,e i,o i,u i,y o,a o,e o,i o,u o,y u,a u,e u,i u,o u,y y,a y,e y,i y,o y,u bd bg bj bv bz db dg dj dv dz gb gd gj gv gz jb jd jg jv vb vd vg vj vz zb zd zg zv cf ck cp ct fc fk fp fs ft fx kc kf kp ks kt pc pf pk ps pt px sf sk sp st sx tc tf tk tp ts tx xf xp xs xt bl cl dl fl gl jl kl ml nl pl rl sl tl vl xl zl bm cm dm fm gm jm km lm nm pm rm sm tm vm xm zm bn cn dn fn gn jn kn ln mn pn rn sn tn vn xn zn br cr dr fr gr jr kr lr mr nr pr sr tr vr xr zr lb lc ld lf lg lj lk lm ln lp lr ls lt lv lx lz mb mc md mf mg mj mk ml mn mp mr ms mt mv mx nb nc nd nf ng nj nk nl nm np nr ns nt nv nx nz rb rc rd rf rg rj rk rl rm rn rp rs rt rv rx rz -- Rob Speer