Construction of an automaton compiling grapheme/phoneme transcription rules for a phoneticizer

An automaton construction computer system for constructing an automaton for compiling grapheme/phoneme transcription rules, said system including:

• a database in which is stored an initial transcription corpus comprising pairs of chains, each of the pairs having a graphic chain including graphic elements and a phonetic chain including phonetic elements,
• a module for deriving and storing transcription rules in said database on the basis of an analysis of left-hand and right-hand correspondences of each grapheme/phoneme correspondence in each pair of graphic and phonetic chains, all the correspondences being determined by an alignment module for aligning graphic elements of said graphic chains with phonetic elements of said phonetic chains in grapheme/phoneme correspondences stored in said database, and
• a module for constructing said automaton and storing it in the form of a file in said database, said automaton including states and state transitions derived from the registered transcription rules, each state being a link between two consecutive grapheme/phoneme correspondences in a pair of graphic and phonetic chains, and each transition chaining two states having a correspondence in common.

A method of causing a computer to construct a phoneticizer from a corpus stored in a database and including pairs of chains, each pair having a graphic chain including graphic elements and a phonetic chain including phonetic elements, said method including the steps of:

• constructing and storing in said database an automaton for compiling transcription rules resulting from an analysis of grapheme/phoneme correspondences in pairs of chains read in said corpus, said automaton including states and state transitions derived from transcription rules, each state being a link between two consecutive grapheme/phoneme correspondences in a pair of graphic and phonetic chains, and each transition chaining two states having a grapheme/phoneme correspondence in common, said transitions relating to the transcription of a graphic chain into a phonetic chain forming a path of transitions in said automaton, and
• determining and storing in said database probabilities of the transitions at the output of nodes of the automaton situating the grapheme/phoneme correspondences common to said transitions, in order to construct said phoneticizer by combining said automaton and the determined transition probabilities.

A computer system for constructing a phoneticizer from a corpus stored in a database and pairs of chains, each pair including a graphic chain including graphic elements and a phonetic chain including phonetic elements, said computer system including:

• a module for constructing and storing in said database an automaton for compiling transcription rules resulting from an analysis of grapheme/phoneme correspondences in the pairs of chains read in said corpus, said automaton including states and state transitions derived from transcription rules, each state being a link between two consecutive grapheme/phoneme correspondences in a pair of graphic and phonetic chains, and each transition chaining two states having a grapheme/phoneme correspondence in common, the transitions relating to the transcription of a graphic chain into a phonetic chain forming a path of transitions in said automaton, and
• a module for determining and storing in said database probabilities of the transitions at an output of nodes of said automaton situating the grapheme/phoneme correspondences common to said transitions, in order to construct said phoneticizer by combining said automaton and the determined transition probabilities.