Re: questions on pronunciation and dictionary manager
- From: "Dave Carlson" <dgcarlson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 5 Dec 2009 21:38:40 -0800
Michael,
One trick you could try is to find your Eudora dictionary file (eudora.jdf?)
and rename it eudora.fdj. Then when you use eudora, it will have to use the
default dictionary file. See if that fixes those weird pronunciations. If it
does, then you're done. If not, then you could rename your eudora.fdj back
to the correct filename.
Dave
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Arnowitt" <foodsong@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, December 05, 2009 16:33
Subject: Re: questions on pronunciation and dictionary manager
Thanks Dave and Adrian for the info.
There was just one part of my original question maybe you could
answer as I am still not clear. If Word and Eudora are pronouncing
the same word differently, and in all cases Word is doing as well or
better, ... what is going on?
This is not a great example, but is the only one I can think of off
the top of my head: when the word "does" appears in Word it is always
pronounced as in the verb, but in my Eudora e-mail program it
occasionally tries to get brilliant and says it like the word "doze"
as in the plural of female deer. So is there a way I can get Eudora
to use the same dictionary rules as Word is using, whatever that is ...?
Right now, I am correcting words as they come up here and there in
the default, and then Eudora reads them fine from then on.
Dave, I guess the diphthong trick will get me a long o sound, thanks,
but going the reverse, trying to get a vowel Jaws says as long to be
short, remains a problem, for example words that happen to begin pre
or re it tends to give the long ee sound, not always what you want.
Adrian, I never would have thought of your idea of doubling letters
to give emphasis. That's really creative. Did you ever study Italian,
because my Italian teacher once upon a time said you should emphasize
and linger on any double consonant in Italian such as in the word
pizza. I have to admit it seems strange FS won't just have some
systematic way to indicate different vowel types and syllable stress
in the dialog box. The help info seems to indicate there are no rules
and you have to just do trial and error.
Don't worry, I'm not expecting perfection. Got to be realistic.
I don't know why I'm not hearing the same pause after periods Adrian
is. Maybe the Dect talk synth makes the difference, or maybe I have
the settings wrong somehow. Maybe the punctuation settings matter,
but I did a little digging around and didn't notice anything obvious
I should try different. There is something in the say all that says
you can have your basic unit be line with pauses or line without
pauses, doesn't seem like either of those would be right, I have
sentence checked right now but I don't think this is affecting how
Jaws reads anyway. There isn't an option that says sentence with pauses.
Michael
At 12:30 PM 12/5/2009, you wrote:
>Michael,
>
>Dave's suggestions are, as always, excellent. A few additional
>notes, which I won't number because they don't parallel yours.
>
>First, pronunciation is affected by the interaction between JAWS and
>your selected synthesizer. I use Dectalk Express, and when I
>experimented with your l-y-v-e spelling, JAWS said the one-syllable
>word with a long i.
>
>Second, I find that typing a consonant twice sometimes persuades
>JAWS to change syllable emphasis. Take the word "garage." In
>America, this word is pronounced the French way, with emphasis on
>the second syllable. In the UK, the emphasis is on the first. I use
>JAWS's American English, so my JAWS dictionary speaks the American
>version. I can get the first syllable emphasized by typing
>g-g-a-r-a-g-e. (This creates a new pronunciation defect, but it's
>probably fixable.)
>
>Third, I can sometimes improve pronunciation by separating two or
>more syllables of a word into two or more words. This is rarely
>ideal because it results in the slightest gap between syllables, but
>it can get the right syllable emphasis and so be worth the
>compromise. Dave's suggestion of writing a letter in uppercase
>achieves a similar result and, when it does, it's better. Take the
>place name Doncaster. My American English JAWS dictionary pronounces
>it correctly, with emphasis on the first syllable. But for
>experiment's sake, I just now capitalized the "c." Now JAWS
>emphasizes the second syllable.
>
>Again, my experiments have been made with the Dectalk Express
>synthesizer. You may or may not get the same results with the synth
>you're using.
>
>Regarding your second message on pauses after periods, I'm surprised
>you don't already notice them. FS recently added pauses after
>semicolons and (I believe) colons that work with Eloquence. Sadly
>for me, they don't work with Dectalk Express. However, I hear pauses
>with both synths after periods, commas and question marks. AS you
>suggest, they are essential to reading comprehension.
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Dave Carlson" <dgcarlson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Sent: Saturday, December 05, 2009 12:01 PM
>Subject: Re: questions on pronunciation and dictionary manager
>
>1. Yes, the default dictionary takes precedence over others.
>
>2. Try using a capital letter inserted to get some emphasis on syllables.
>
>3. You can try using dipthongs, like au ae ai oe and even doubling
>vowels to change the vowel sounds.
>
>4. Yes, some words do change due to context. Don't know if that can
>be changed. Try changing the word "lives" in your default to some
>other pronounciation and see if it holds for all examples.
>
>Dave
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Michael Arnowitt" <foodsong@xxxxxxxxx>
>To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Sent: Saturday, December 05, 2009 08:34
>Subject: questions on pronunciation and dictionary manager
>
>Here are a few questions I have about the dictionary manager:
>
>1. I notice my e-mail program (Eudora) makes more pronunciation
>mistakes than my word processing program (Word 2007). That is, a
>word is mispronounced in an e-mail, but if I type it in Word it is
>pronounced correctly. What is the setup with Jaws, does each program
>have separate pronouncing rules? Or does this mean Eudora is using
>the default dictionary but MS Word has its own dictionary which
>might be a little better? Can I somehow get Eudora to use the same
>dictionary as Word is using? When I make a pronunciation change I do
>it in the default.jcf but don't bother to also do it in the jcf for
>Word as well - I think this is right as when I make a change in the
>default it seems to affect both e-mail and word.
>
>2. How do you change which syllable is accented? I haven't had much
>luck in trying to have Jaws accent any particular syllable
>(especially one that is not the first syllable), it seems to make
>them all equal or accents slightly the first syllable no matter what I try.
>
>3. What would you write in the replacement box for a new
>pronunciation for a particular word if: a. You would like an o to be
>a short o as in hot but Jaws is pronouncing it as a long o as in
>show? b. You want an e to be a short e as in bet but Jaws is
>pronouncing it as a long e as in tree? c. You want an i to be a long
>i as in hive, but Jaws is pronouncing it as a short i as in give. As
>an example of the last one, how would you get Jaws to pronounce a
>long i for the word live as in the phrase "performing live"? If I
>write into the edit field l e y e v e it turns it into three syllables.
>
>Finally - not really a question, but does Jaws really pronounce the
>same word differently depending on context? Try reading the
>following line by line:
>
>lives lives in London he lives in London
>
>On both Word and Eudora, the first and third lines the i in the word
>"lives" is reading for me as a short i, but the second line it's
>pronounced as a long i.
>
>I guess if this is really happening it brings to mind a thought -
>can you instruct Jaws to pronounce a word a certain way only if it
>is preceded by another word, for example by putting a two word
>phrase in quotes, or ...?
>
>TIA,
>Michael
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