Word or collocation emphasizing voice synthesizer

A voice synthesizer, comprising:

• a pattern element analyzing unit for analyzing a pattern element of a sentence and outputting an intermediate language with a rhythm mark to a character row of the sentence;
• an emphasis degree deciding unit for extracting a word or a collocation to be emphasized from among respective words or respective collocations on the basis of an extracting reference with respect to the each word or the each collocation included in a sentence and deciding an emphasis degree of the extracted word or the extracted collocation;
• a waveform dictionary for storing second voice waveform data, the phoneme position data indicating what phoneme a part of the voice belongs, and the pitch period data indicating a period of oscillation of a voice cord;
• a parameter generating unit for generating a voice synthetic parameter including at least the phoneme position data and the pitch period data with respect to each word or each collocation that is decided by the emphasis degree deciding unit in the intermediate language that is outputted by the pattern element analyzing unit;
• and
• a pitch clipping and superimposing unit for superimposing and adding processed voice waveform data obtained by processing first voice waveform data at intervals indicated by the voice synthetic parameter generated by the parameter generating unit and a part of second voice waveform data belonging to a waveform section at the preceding and succeeding sides of this processed voice waveform data to synthesize the voice having the emphasis degree provided to the word or the collocation to be emphasized.

A voice synthesizing method, comprising the steps of:

• counting a reference value with respect to extraction of each word or each collocation by an emphasis degree deciding unit for extracting a word or a collocation to be emphasized from among respective words or respective collocations, from which one or more non-emphasis words or one or more non-emphasis collocations that are stored in a dictionary, and which are not necessarily emphasized among the each word or the each collocation, are excluded, on the basis of an extracting reference with respect to the each word or the each collocation included in a sentence and deciding an emphasis degree of the extracted word or the extracted collocation;
• holding the reference values counted by the counting step and the each word or the each collocation with relation to each other;
• extracting a word or a collocation with a high reference value that is held in the holding step;
• deciding the emphasis degree with respect to the extracted word or the extracted collocation by the extracting step;
• and
• generating the voice having the emphasis degree that is decided in the word deciding step provided to the word or the collocation to be emphasized.

A voice synthesizing system for synthesizing a voice with respect to an inputted sentence and outputting the voice, comprising:

• a pattern element analyzing unit for analyzing a pattern element of the sentence and outputting an intermediate language with a rhythm mark to a character row of the sentence;
• an emphasis degree deciding unit for extracting a word or a collocation to be emphasized from among respective words or respective collocations on the basis of an extracting reference with respect to the each word or the each collocation included in a sentence and deciding an emphasis degree of the extracted word or the extracted collocation;
• a waveform dictionary for storing second voice waveform data, the phoneme position data indicating what phoneme a part of the voice belongs, and the pitch period data indicating a period of oscillation of a voice cord;
• a parameter generating unit for generating a voice synthetic parameter including at least the phoneme position data and the pitch period data with respect to each word or each collocation that is decided by the emphasis degree deciding unit in the intermediate language that is outputted by the pattern element analyzing unit;
• and
• a pitch clipping and superimposing unit for superimposing and adding processed voice waveform data obtained by processing first voice waveform data at intervals indicated by the voice synthetic parameter generated by the parameter generating unit and a part of second voice waveform data belonging to a waveform section at the preceding and succeeding sides of this processed voice waveform data to synthesize the voice having the emphasis degree provided to the word or the collocation to be emphasized.