[DECtalk] Adding words to Dectalk dictionary

Jayson Smith ratguy at insightbb.com
Tue Jan 25 17:11:58 EST 2011


Hi,

As for getting the word out, here's one thought. As many of you probably 
know, RSGames is a free service offering Internet multi-player Monopoly, 
Uno, Yahtzee and Blackjack games which are totally accessible to the blind 
using a special client. This client runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. It 
works directly with most popular screen readers. Recently RSGames started 
running text advertisements in order to defray the costs of running the 
service. Ads cost $15 per month and reach a targeted audience of blind 
gamers. Anyone interested in an ad can hit a single keystroke to have a copy 
of that ad Emailed to them, along with a web link to obtain more information 
about the product or service. Payments should be made via Paypal. For more 
info about RSGames, go to www.rsgames.co.nr, and to ask about ads, write to 
rsgames at gmail.com. When constructing your ad, you should provide a website 
where potential customers can get more info.

Other ways of reaching out would be Twitter, Facebook, etc. Obviously this 
list. Fred's Head, Top Tech Tidbits on Thursday, etc.

Now, a few questions. Is this going to be a Fonix product? Any estimate on a 
release date? Price? Will it have an exceptions dictionary? Imho it should. 
Also imho novice users should be able to use standard misspelling techniques 
to adjust the pronunciation, but advanced DECtalk geeks should be able to 
get down to the phoneme level if they wish.

Another thing that always bugged me about DECtalk is that the end user 
didn't have access to the d phoneme used in regular speech. Thus, when using 
a custom pronunciation dictionary or making DECtalk sing, the d sounds 
always sounded a bit weird. Is this going to be fixed?
Thanks, and I look forward to playing with this!
Jayson


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Dectalk at aol.com>
To: <dectalk at bluegrasspals.com>
Sent: Monday, January 24, 2011 10:33 PM
Subject: Re: [DECtalk] Adding words to Dectalk dictionary


> Hi guys!  I'll be in charge of the Dectalk  dictionary, but I don't have
> anything yet.  If it will do phrases, this  won't be a problem.  But, I'm
> thinking that the dictionary is single word  only.  So I have no clue how 
> to
> handle double pronunciations.
>
> One question I have is, is there a control character  that appears as a
> space, that I could use as a command for an alternative  pronunciation?  I 
> know
> in one Dectalk  version it was control something, but I can't remember 
> what
> it  was.
>
> I would live to stay away from a visible command so it  won't show up in a
> document.  I have no clue how.
>
> I have another question.  If E-voice still  existed, I could let everyone
> know about the Dectalk SAPI 5 within hours.   I miss E-voice to no end! 
> So
> on the internet, what is the best way to get  the word out about this SAPI 
> 5?
>
>
> SNOOPI BOTTEN
>
>
> In a message dated 1/24/2011 9:37:25 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
> musicalman1 at comcast.net writes:
>
> Well, I  am not familiar with the Dectalk dictionary in any way, but those
> kinds of  rules would not be easy to implement even if such a dictionary
> existed. I  believe most synths that can pronounce words two different 
> ways
> use  context clues to figure out which pronunciation to use. For instance,
> read  has two pronunciations, as you know. For example:
> you should read the book  by Thursday.
> or
> The book should be read by Thursday.
> You could  probably just put phrases in the dictionary, and changing their
> pronunciations accordingly. That is, if the Dectalk dictionary supports
> phrases, which it should although i'm just guessing here. This might work
> in
> the example you mentioned, as putting words in front of record would
> determine how it is pronounced. For example, you would never say, the
> re-cord. So it is safe to change this in the dictionary. you could
> probably
> do that for a lot of different word combinations and it would be  pretty
> accurate. Adding all these rules would take a lot of time, and you  would
> have to be careful with it. If the Dectalk dictionary supports  context
> clues
> though, I wouldn't know how you would help it determine  which
> pronunciation
> is correct.
> These are just my thoughts. I don't  know how accurate this is, but I am
> pretty sure it is a good work-around  if no other can be found.
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Blake  Roberts" <beroberts at hughes.net>
> To: "'DECtalk Discussions'"  <dectalk at bluegrasspals.com>
> Sent: Monday, January 24, 2011 8:31  PM
> Subject: [DECtalk] Adding words to Dectalk dictionary
>
>
>> Hi  all,
>> Snoopi and I have been involved with the Dectalk SAPI project for 
>> several
>> months now. I am happy to report that a SAPI Dectalk is  nearing reality.
>>
>> The project leader gave Snoopi the task of  adding words to the Dectalk
>> dictionary. Specifically, enabling Dectalk  to say the same word two
>> different ways, such as record. Does anyone  have ideas on how the 
>> Dectalk
>> dictionary can be modified so that  Dectalk will know when to use
> different
>> pronunciations for the same  word?
>>
>> I know Snoopi is on this list. I am writing on his  behalf because Snoopi
>> asked me to inquire of people familiar with  Dectalk. Any advice would be
>> appreciated.
>>  Blake
>>
>>
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>
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