Title :
A rule-based grapheme-to-phone converter for tts systems in european portuguese
Author :
Braga, Daniela ; Coelho, Luís ; Resende, Fernando Gil Vianna, Jr.
Author_Institution :
Fac. of Arts of Univ. of La Coruna, La Coruna
Abstract :
In this paper, a linguistically rule-based grapheme-to-phone (G2P) transcription algorithm is described for European Portuguese. A complete set of phonological and phonetic transcription rules regarding the European Portuguese standard variety is presented. This algorithm was implemented and tested by using online newspaper articles. The obtained experimental results gave rise to 98.80% of accuracy rate. Future developments in order to increase this value are foreseen. Our purpose with this work is to develop a module/ tool that can improve synthetic speech naturalness in European Portuguese. Other applications of this system can be expected like language teaching/learning. These results, together with our perspectives of future improvements, have proved the dramatic importance of linguistic knowledge on the development of Text-to-Speech systems (TTS).
Keywords :
computational linguistics; knowledge based systems; natural languages; speech synthesis; text analysis; European Portuguese; linguistic knowledge; linguistic rule-based grapheme-to-phone converter; online newspaper article; phonological-phonetic transcription rules; speech synthesis; text-to-speech system; Dictionaries; Error analysis; Gas insulated transmission lines; Natural languages; Speech synthesis; Stability; Synthesizers; Testing; Transducers; Writing; Grapheme-to-phone converter; phonological rules; speech processing; text-to-speech systems;
Conference_Titel :
Telecommunications Symposium, 2006 International
Conference_Location :
Fortaleza, Ceara
Print_ISBN :
978-85-89748-04-9
Electronic_ISBN :
978-85-89748-04-9
DOI :
10.1109/ITS.2006.4433293
