Phonemes to speak
A reader sent me this question:
Is there simple way to speak phonemes rather than text? I mean in order to TTS I have to do: SpVoice Voice = new SpVoice(); Voice.Speak(text, flags); Is there way to pass phonemes instead of text?
SpeechLead's answer is that our new managed API is implementing this. And Jay reminds me that you can find more info in the SSML spec.
Robert Brown adds the following:
Looks like a SAPI 5.1 automation customer. What Philipp and Jay wrote are both true. But if he really just wants to stay with the platform he has, it's quite easy to do.
He'll need to write the pronunciation in a SAPI XML file. This whitepaper tells him how:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/SAPI51sr/Whitepapers/WP_XML_TTS_Tutorial.asp).
Then do something like this:
Voice.Speak XMLFileName, SVSFIsFilename + SVSFlagsAsync
The phone set he chooses depends on the language he wants to use (Philipp's and Jay's solutions are much better since they just use IPA).
US English:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/SAPI51sr/html/English_Phoneme.asp?frame=true
Chinese:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/SAPI51sr/html/TTS_Chinese_Phonemes.asp?frame=true
Japanese:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/SAPI51sr/html/TTS_Japanese_Phonemes.asp?frame=true