LEX File Phoneme List

I've got a bone or two to pick with the pronunciation of a few things that I hear often on my commutes. I'd love to tweak these to correct them

I've noted that the Loquendo software is picking up phonemes for abbreviations in the LEX files, and where the word does not already exist, a literal phoneme substitution is being used. For example, the word Autoroute (abbreviated Aut) is phonetically set up as "\f@-Oa:-th-Oa:-Hr-`u:-th" in the lexicon. A cul-de-sac (abbreviated Cds) is set up as "\f@-kh-`u:-l-HTh-HEh-s-`Aa:-kh".

Is anyone familiar with this phonetic notation? If so, I'd like to try substitution of a few things not already in the LEX tables (esp a couple of badly mangled town names) to see if I can straighten out some of them. Might even work...

Did an 8th bit strip on one of the files so you could see one in a bit more detail. Pretty comprehensive stuff, but no actual LIST of the phoneme substitutions anywhere. With enough time and patience, I could undoubtedly figure out most all of them from the existing LEX files, but that'd be a REALLY tedious job.

"Abram" = "\f`HEI-b-Hr-HEh-m"
"amateur" = "\f`Ae-m-HEh-T$-OR:"
"amateurs" = "\f`Ae-m-HEh-T$-OR:-s"
"approximately" = "\fHEh-ph-Hr-`Aa:-kh-s-m-HEh-th-l-i"
"because" = "\fb-i-kh-`Ah-z"
"circuits" = "\fs-`OR:-kh-I-th-s"
"comfortable" = "\fkh-`Ah-m-f-th-HEh-Hr-b-HEh-l"
"consciences" = "\fkh-`Aa:-n-T$-HEh-n-s-I-s"

If you would like to edit the pronouncation of street names you can use Mapshare to fix them.

• Go to browse map and locate and highlight the street.
• select the blue cursor button between 'find' and 'done'
• Select 'Correct Location'
• Then Select 'Report other error'
• Select 'Existing Street'
• It will take you back to browse map with the street you selected in red.
• Hit 'Done'
• Scroll down the list and check the last option 'Mispronounced street name'
• Then select 'Done'
• It will pronounce the street name for you and will ask you if the street name is pronounced correctly.
• Select 'Yes' and proceed with the pronunciation.

Pedro2NR said:

If you would like to edit the pronouncation of street names you can use Mapshare to fix them.

• Go to browse map and locate and highlight the street.
• select the blue cursor button between 'find' and 'done'
• Select 'Correct Location'
• Then Select 'Report other error'
• Select 'Existing Street'
• It will take you back to browse map with the street you selected in red.
• Hit 'Done'
• Scroll down the list and check the last option 'Mispronounced street name'
• Then select 'Done'
• It will pronounce the street name for you and will ask you if the street name is pronounced correctly.
• Select 'Yes' and proceed with the pronunciation.

Click to expand...

dont you mean "select 'NO' and proceed with the pronunciation?

Selecting NO cancels the process.
I apologize. It will not help you fix the pronunciation, it will just send an error report to Tom Tom.

Pedro2NR said:

If you would like to edit the pronouncation of street names you can use Mapshare to fix them.

Click to expand...

Sometimes it's not street names, it's town names. TT is pretty good at using the actual names on signs for exits, including exit numbers and the names of towns on signs when they exist.

In one particular case, the sign is for Lyons (a town, not a road). For whatever reason, my buddy Suzie TomTom insists on calling this "el-yon" (doesn't even bother with the "s"). Too strange. Good grief! Does that make my buddy Suzie "The Butcher of Lyons"? [OK -- anyone over 50 out there???]

Anyway, I figured that as she has her own LEX file for overriding her standard pronunciation rules (the file is SusanTT.lex), I could learn her a thing or two. Besides, it seems to take a long time for this sort of information to get cycled back from TT.

I believe that if I were to give her ...

"Lyons" = "\fl-'HAI-Aa:-n-z"

... it would sound a whole heap better. Will give it a try tomorrow. Meanwhile, it would be really nice to have a full phoneme table to use to really make the Loquendo firmware do its TTS dance. It doesn't seem to be based upon any of the known standards (e.g., IPA or SAMPA)... looks like something they rolled out on their own.

Pedro2NR said:

If you would like to edit the pronouncation of street names you can use Mapshare to fix them.

• Go to browse map and locate and highlight the street.
• select the blue cursor button between 'find' and 'done'
• Select 'Correct Location'
• Then Select 'Report other error'
• Select 'Existing Street'
• It will take you back to browse map with the street you selected in red.
• Hit 'Done'
• Scroll down the list and check the last option 'Mispronounced street name'
• Then select 'Done'
• It will pronounce the street name for you and will ask you if the street name is pronounced correctly.
• Select 'Yes' and proceed with the pronunciation.

Click to expand...

Of interest ... I'm fine until we reach the "Scroll down the list..." part. My list includes only the following entries:

• Street does not exist
• Wrong street name
• Wrong or missing house numbers
• Wrong speed limit [makes no sense on the 720 - can't see speeds...]
• Cannot turn left onto...
• Cannot turn right onto...
• Wrong street type
• Street is a toll road
• Street is in the wrong place

To reiterate -- this is on 7.221 code.

If you can figure this out - it would be terrific. Some names are pronounced in a fashion that can drive one NUTS! (g)

canderson said:

Of interest ... I'm fine until we reach the "Scroll down the list..." part. My list includes only the following entries:

• Street does not exist
• Wrong street name
• Wrong or missing house numbers
• Wrong speed limit [makes no sense on the 720 - can't see speeds...]
• Cannot turn left onto...
• Cannot turn right onto...
• Wrong street type
• Street is a toll road
• Street is in the wrong place

To reiterate -- this is on 7.221 code.

Click to expand...

Strange that you do no have this option.

Pedro2NR said:

Strange that you do no have this option.

Click to expand...

I thought it odd, too.

--------------
Edit:
Turns out I had Susan shut off at the time. The option only appears with a computer voice. Stupid me. The option is back again.
--------------

Spent some time getting the basics worked out for Susan's "seminar" last night. Will be taking her our shortly to see how well she's learned her lessons.

Meanwhile, I've worked out two very short programs to render *.LEX files to human readable form, and convert the human readable files with edits back to *.LEX format. Not much too that, really, but necessary.

Find attached what I've been able to determine from the phonemes being used in the LEX tables in my 720:

Updated Info

Much to my surprise, even though "Susan" was the voice de jour, making phonetic modifications to the SusanTT.lex file didn't change a thing.

Being certain that these LEX tables had to be used somehow, I then tried (and succeeded) in modifying street names by adding entries to the EnglishUS6.9.lex file. They're spoken a bit more quickly than I'd like, and the ":" characters don't seem to be as effective as one might expect, but at least the results are a heck of a lot better than the original attempts using the standard algorithms:

As examples:

For those wondering what I meant earlier about an 8th bit strip, be advised:

Most of the LEX files (those that look like garbage when read with a text editor) follow these rules:

All lines of text are originally terminated with 8Dh 0Ah
All characters in the file except the 0Ah have their 8th bit set.
That 8Dh 0Ah is really just a normal 0Dh 0Ah (carriage return / line feed) pair, but the 0Dh has its 8th bit set, too.

To make the file human readable, the file must first be converted such that all characters (including spaces) in the file have their 8th bit stripped (set to zero).

After edit of the file, all bits for all characters (including spaces) except the 0Ah characters must have their 8th bit set to 1 again before the file is moved back to the TomTom!

nice research.
Keep us updated on the process.