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Re: defining dictionary entries


I would realy like to be able to have the dictionary words pronounced
as defined without any special voicing.  I would find a toggle for
that very useful.  After all, as the user, I need to create the
dictonary entry anyway, then I need to load it when I start the file
that uses it. I am therefore aware of the fact that I have modified
the way the unit pronounces that name, but at 480 words per minute it
is a lot nicer not to hear the voice change.  

With the multivoice I used to down load to it's internal dictionary a
list of words.  Once there, there was no distinction when they were
spoken, I guess I was looking for that kind of funcionality because
that is what I was used to.

I have very strong memories of going into a Philosophy of Religion
class where the name of the person we had 350 pages of reading on was
consistently misprounced on the tape (from RFB).  I KNEW how it was
supossed to be prounced, but I had spent a lot of time hearing it the
wrong way (ove and over again) and so of course I said it wrong in
class...  I would have loved the opportunity to correct the
pronunciation.

I do understand your point about wanting to know the unit is doing
something non standard with that word.  Could a tone be used?  It
would have to be different from the one used for capitalization.  I
would not find that as disruptive as the separate voice.

I could see a time when I would want to share dictionaries, for
example, I could post my dictionary for the Gutenburgh etext of "Moby
Dick," if it gets more than one entry in it.  Or I could see sharing a
a list of names in the news, so we would get better pronunciations of
place and people names than the dectalk usually gives (when reading
Nando or the Times).  Under those conditions (useing another persons
pronunciations) I would want to know that I am hearing a "modified"
pronuciation.  I still think I would prefer a tone signal over a voice
change.

Of course since the dictionary is saved as lisp code it could be a
security risk to share dictionaries, so if we were going to do that I
would like to see a way that a dictinaly could be generated from a
list of words (tab or colon separated?) and also, could spit out a
list for exchange or review.  

Let's see, emacspeack-pronounce-convert-list-to-dictionary and
emacspeak-pronounce-generate-list-from-dictionary? We would need
shorter names!

Have I just turned a comment into a request for you to write more code?
(Don't you hate it when that happens?)

What do you think?

Greg