Annotating phonemes and accents for text-to-speech system

A computer system for processing an input text, the input text comprising an input character string, the computer system comprising at least one processor programmed to:

• identify a first segmentation of the input character string, the first segmentation forming a first candidate sequence of words corresponding to the input character string, wherein the first candidate sequence of words comprises at least one first word having at least one character and a first pronunciation;
• determine, based at least in part on statistical information regarding phonemes and/or accents for pronouncing character strings, a first occurrence probability for the first candidate sequence of words, wherein the statistical information comprises information indicative of a frequency at which the at least one character is associated with the first pronunciation;
• identify a second segmentation of the input character string, the second segmentation being different from the first segmentation and forming a second candidate sequence of words corresponding to the input character string, wherein the second candidate sequence of words comprises at least one second word having the same at least one character as the first word but a second pronunciation that is different from the first pronunciation of the first word;
• determine, based at least in part on the statistical information regarding phonemes and/or accents for pronouncing character strings, a second occurrence probability for the second candidate sequence of words, wherein the statistical information further comprises information indicative of a frequency at which the at least one character is associated with the second pronunciation;
• and
• select, based at least in part on the first and second occurrence probabilities, a selected sequence of words from a plurality of candidate sequences of words comprising the first and second candidate sequences of words.

An article of manufacture comprising a computer-readable storage medium encoded with computer code for execution on at least one processor in a system, the computer code, when executed on the at least one processor, performing a method for processing an input text, the input text comprising an input character string, the method comprising acts of:

• identifying a first segmentation of the input character string, the first segmentation forming a first candidate sequence of words corresponding to the input character string, wherein the first candidate sequence of words comprises at least one first word having at least one character and a first pronunciation;
• determining, based at least in part on statistical information regarding phonemes and/or accents for pronouncing character strings, a first occurrence probability for the first candidate sequence of words, wherein the statistical information comprises information indicative of a frequency at which the at least one character is associated with the first pronunciation;
• identifying a second segmentation of the input character string, the second segmentation different from the first segmentation and forming a second candidate sequence of words corresponding to the input character string, wherein the second candidate sequence of words comprises at least one second word having the same at least one character as the first word but a second pronunciation that is different from the first pronunciation of the first word;
• determining, based at least in part on the statistical information regarding phonemes and/or accents for pronouncing character strings, a second occurrence probability for the second candidate sequence of words, wherein the statistical information further comprises information indicative of a frequency at which the at least one character is associated with the second pronunciation;
• and
• selecting, based at least in part on the first and second occurrence probabilities, a selected sequence of words from a plurality of candidate sequences of words comprising the first and second candidate sequences of words.