Phonetically enriched labeling in unit selection speech synthesis
AssigneeAT&T Corp.
InventorsMark Beutnagel, Alistair Conkie, Yeon-Jun Kim, Ann K. Syrdal
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Abstract
A system, method and computer-readable media are disclosed for improving speech synthesis. A text-to-speech (TTS) voice database for use in a TTS system is generated by a method comprising labeling a voice database phonemically and applying a pre-/post-vocalic distinction to the phonemic labels to generate a TTS voice database. When a system synthesizes speech using speech units from the TTS voice database, the database provides phonemes for selection using the pre-/post-vocalic distinctions which improve unit selection to render the synthetic speech more natural.
Claims13
A text-to-speech (TTS) voice database for use in a TTS system, the TTS voice database generated by a method comprising:
- labeling a voice database phonemically;
- and
- applying a pre-/post-vocalic distinction to the phonemic labels to generate a TTS voice database, wherein the TTS voice database provides phonemics for selection by a TTS system to generate speech.
A text-to-speech (TTS) system comprising:
- a module configured to distinguish between pre-vocalic and post-vocalic consonants;
- a module configured to perform unit selection based at least in part on the pre-/post-vocalic consonants;
- and
- a module configured to generate speech using the selected units.
A method of performing text-to-speech (TTS) systems, the method comprising:
- receiving text;
- assigning pre-/post-vocalic consonant symbols to the received text;
- selecting units of speech from an inventory of speech units utilizing the pre-/post-vocalic consonant symbols;
- and
- synthesizing speech with the selected units.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.