Change text-to-speech pronunciation

I use a combinationof vtml tags and the output from The CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Obviously, this does not work with Loquendo voices.

For example, the word route is, by default, pronounced like root, but I prefer the othe pronounciation, so I use:

<vtml_phoneme alphabet="x-cmu" ph="R AW1 T">route</vtml_phoneme>

I have a bunch of these words stored in a text file.

I have found the dictionary editor to be unreliable, so I just handle the situation for each word that doesn't quite get pronounced correctly.

Another option, for some words, is to use the vtml_partofsp tag, for example:

<vtml_partofsp part="noun">Import</vtml_partofsp>

I find it easier to just use the vtml_phoneme tag every time.

I get my phonemes from http://www.speech.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/cmudict?in=handy&stress=-s

Word of warning - Captivate and the TTS generator do not handle the symbols for pauses correctly. If you include a period (.) in the phoneme, the entire tag is ignored. It should insert a pause, but it doesn't.

Jay,

I have been searching for the same and finally found the info.  Check out the posting dated 4/27/09 titled VTML tags in Text to Speech.  This blog contains a hyperlink to a VoiceText programmers guide doc. Appendix C contains the tags that can be added in the text to change the pronunciations etc.  I have applied this information successfully to solve my problems.  Hopefully this will help you as well.

Marie