Speech synthesis with foreign fragments

A system for synthesizing speech from a textual input, the system comprising:

• an input for receiving the textual input, the textual input including native words in a native language and foreign words in a foreign language;
• and
• one or more processors configured to process the textual input to determine a phonetic representation of the textual input, the processing including:
• determining a native phonetic representation of the of the native words, and
• determining a nativized phonetic representation of the foreign words, determining the nativized phonetic representation including:
• forming a foreign phonetic representation of the foreign words using a foreign phoneme set, and
• mapping the foreign phonetic representation to the nativized phonetic representation according to a model of a native speaker's pronunciation of foreign words.

Software stored in a non-transitory form on a computer-readable medium, the software including instructions for causing a computing system to synthesize speech from a textual input including:

• receive the textual input, the textual input including native words in a native language and foreign words in a foreign language;
• and
• process the textual input to determine a phonetic representation of the textual input, the processing including:
• determining a native phonetic representation of the of the native words, and
• determining a nativized phonetic representation of the foreign words, determining the nativized phonetic representation including:
• forming a foreign phonetic representation of the foreign words using a foreign phoneme set, and
• mapping the foreign phonetic representation to the nativized phonetic representation according to a model of a native speaker's pronunciation of foreign words.