[Robert D. Crawford] Re: espeak question and heads-up

["Robert D. Crawford" <rdc1x@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Chris Brannon <cmbrannon@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> Here are some proposed solutions.  Can you specify custom pronunciations
> within ESpeak itself?  

Actually easier than one might believe.  

1.  Create a file in the dictsource directory called en_extra
    The file needs to be UTF-8 and should contain the following 
    lines:

    // cut here //
    // compile with 
    // dictsource$ ../speak --compile=en

    _(	'lEftpe@xxxxxxxxxxx
    _)	'raItpe@xxxxxxxxxxx
    //cut here //

    It is very important that the characters in the above are
    transcribed exactly or the phonemes will not be correct. 

2. Save the file and compile the dictionary files with the command:

   ../speak --compile=en

   this needs to be done in the dictsource directory.

3.  Compile and install.  If this is a new version, don't forget to 
    run ldconfig and build the server in the servers/linux-espeak
    directory.  

This process can also be used with other languages.  Replace en_extra
with xx_extra where xx is your language code.  Also replace en in the
command line to compile the dictionary files.

> If so, then tell it to pronounce ( and ) as "left paren" and "right
> paren".  If that can't be done right now, then we might consider
> asking the author of ESpeak for such a feature.  A second possibility
> is to escape parentheses.  This could be done in one of two places:
> dtk-fix-brackets, or the "clean" procedure from servers/espeak.

These might be better solutions in the end.  My solution requires source
installation.  How does this work in other languages?  Do German
speakers have to hear "Left Bracket" while everything else is in German?  

> PS. I can't really test the ESpeak server these days, as I just switched
> distributions.  I don't have a usable tclx package.  So I'm back to
> using the trusty eflite server.  Thanks very much to Mike Gorse, Lukas
> Loehrer, and anyone else who has worked on eflite.

I am planning an upgrade tomorrow.  If that pans out, I'll let you know
what I had to patch to get the server built.  Last time there were some
patches that still needed to be applied.

Thanks,
rdc
-- 
Robert D. Crawford                                      rdc1x@xxxxxxxxxxx

"It's curtains for you, Mighty Mouse!  This gun is so futuristic that even
*I* don't know how it works!"
		-- from Ralph Bakshi's Mighty Mouse

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