[nvda] Re: eSpeak - Italian

On 30 May, Talksina <talksina@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> when I try espeak edit executable it says:
> Espeakedit Error
> Failed to load phoneme data,
> needs espeak-data/phontab,phondata,phonindex

It can't find the espeak-data folder.  Did you also install the sapi5
eSpeak package?  It needs the sapi5 eSpeak package (so that it knows
where the espeak-data folder is located), not the eSpeak is integrated
with NVDA.

Unless you want to change the sound of phonemes, you don't need the
espeakedit program.  You can make changes to the spelling-to-phoneme
rules in files  it_rules and it_list using a text editor and then
compile them using the command-line version of eSpeak:
   espeak --compile=it

> ESpeak has many pronunciation errors, for example the r, the s and t, 
> the f, and many other phonetic errors (wrong accents, etc)

Improving consonant sounds can sometimes be difficult.
"s" shouldn't be difficult, but my "t" sounds always sound English.

I've added a few alternative "r" phonemes which you can try.

Get the latest development version (currently 1.25.12) of eSpeak from:
 http://espeak.sf.net/test/latest.html

You can use the command-line version of eSpeak, eg:
  espeak -vit "roma"
 
(where -vit specified the Italian voice).

The -x option will give the phoneme codes which eSpeak uses for the
word:
  espeak -x -vit "roma"
R'o:ma

The apostrophe indicates the stressed syllable.
The colon indicates a long vowel (or some consonants).
 
You can give it phoneme codes rather than text, if you enclose them in
double-square brackets:

  espeak -vit "[[R'o:ma]]" 

You can try different "r" phonemes:

[R] [r] [R2] [R3] [*] [@-*]

or combinations such as [R*].

A different "r" phoneme may be suitable for different places:
- start of word.
- after a consonant.
- between two vowels.
- double "rr" between vowels.
- before a consonant.
- end of word.

> But, if you wish, let's write privately otherwise we could go off
> topic

Yes.  I wrote this message on the list in case it's of interest to
other people, and for other languages.

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