Prosody generating device, prosody generating method, and program

A prosody generation method by which phonological information and linguistic information are inputted so as to generate prosody, comprising the steps of:

• setting a prosody changing point according to at least any one of the inputted phonological information and linguistic information;
• estimating a variation of prosody at the prosody changing point according to a variation estimation rule predetermined beforehand according to attributes concerning phonology or attributes concerning linguistic information of the prosody changing point of speech data, based on the inputted phonological information and linguistic information;
• estimating an absolute value of the prosody at the prosody changing point according to an absolute value estimation rule predetermined beforehand according to attributes concerning the phonology or the linguistic information of the prosody changing point of the speech data, based on the inputted phonological information and the linguistic information;
• and
• generating prosody for a prosody changing point by shifting the estimated variation so as to correspond to the estimated absolute value and generating prosody for a portion other than prosody changing points by carrying out interpolation between the thus generated prosody for prosody changing points.

A computer program stored in a computer-readable medium that has a computer conduct a procedure of receiving phonological information and linguistic information so as to generate prosody, the computer referring to (a) a variation estimation rule storage unit that stores a variation estimation rule of prosody at prosody changing points, the variation estimation rule being predetermined beforehand according to attributes concerning phonology or attributes concerning linguistic information of the prosody changing points of speech data;

• and (b) an absolute value estimation rule storage unit that stores an absolute value estimation rule of the prosody at the prosody changing points, the absolute value estimation rule being predetermined beforehand according to attributes concerning the phonology or the linguistic information of the prosody changing points of the speech data;
• the program having the computer conduct the steps of:
• setting a prosody changing point according to at least any one of the received phonological information and the linguistic information;
• estimating a variation of the prosody at the prosody changing point according to the estimation rule stored in the variation estimation rule storage unit, based on the received phonological information and the linguistic information;
• estimating an absolute value of prosody at the prosody changing point according to the absolute value estimation rule stored in the absolute value estimation rule storage unit, based on the received phonological information and the linguistic information;
• and
• generating prosody for a prosody changing point by shifting the variation estimated by the variation estimation unit so as to correspond to the absolute value obtained by the absolute value estimation unit and generating prosody for a portion other than prosody changing points by carrying out interpolation between the thus generated prosody for prosody changing points.