How to fix poor TTS pronunciation - Discussion

[mvl]

This is an automatically created discussion thread. Please leave any feedback about the How to fix poor TTS pronunciation article here.

 

[canderson]

Nicely done, MVL.

I had incorrectly suspected that the cphoneme file was related to the cspeech files, acting as an index. The front end of the file appears to be a very long series of tree-style pointers into the depths of the file, none of which I was ever able to crack for format.

This certainly explains how the Loquendo files were being preempted and why changes being made there were showing up in the TTS on a hit or miss basis.

 

[spook45]

I found three issues with the Loquendo voice engine. I found the answers to two of those issues within this forum.

1. Any selected voice would pronounce highways with a middle zero (Hwy 101) as one west one. Here is the link that describes how to correct this issue. Works like a charm.

https://www.tomtomforums.com/tomtom-voices/18323-number-enunciation.html

2. Highway numbers were pronounced as "one hundred and twenty-four" instead of "one two four". The above link also describes what needs to be done to correct this one too.

3. The last one I came up with myself. The abbreviation for Expressway is normally Expy. Some Expressways out here in California are shown as Expwy. The voice will pronounce this as 'xpee'. To correct this issue you need to edit the file "roadnrEnglishUS.lex located in Loquendo/data directory to add the following entry; "expwy" = "expressway" directly under the "expy" = "expressway" entry. That too works like a charm.

 

[mvl]

I found three issues with the Loquendo voice engine. I found the answers to two of those issues within this forum.

A fourth issue commonly reported by members is that Loquendo says "Branch" instead of "Bridge". Editing the roadnrus file works for that, too.


On my 720, I had also added "razr" = "razor" (my phone), and "13th" = "thirteenth". Loquendo 7 fixed both of those on my 930 without intervention.

 

[Juan]

This is all very interesting however it lacks one very vital piece of information which without this the whole subject is a waste of time for me . That is , HOW DO I OPEN a . LEX file to edit it?
I can't get it to open in anyway.
Maybe it's too simple for the experts so they never consider that it could be an issue?

 

[Juan]

Cancel my previous post as I have just figured out how to do it. Change the . lex . txt and it opens in note pad.
I am quite impressed with myself , I am not as dumb as I thought .

 

[dhn]

The application won't 'see' the file if you keep the extension as .txt. It must be changed back to .lex.

You could have right clicked the .lex file and in the menu that opens, select 'open with' and choose Notepad.

 

[Ian16th]

Confused

Please treat me gently, I'm new here!

I too would like road numbers to by pronounced as "One One Two" rather than "One Hundred and Twelve".

The problem I have is that I live in and bought my GO 720 in South Africa! Most entries on this forum relate to the USA or Europe.

Searching my device I do not have any 'cphoneme' files or any files with a suffix of 'rex'. Though I do have 'lex' files where I have deleted the 'o = west' entries.

Can anyone please assist me?

My levels are:

GO 720 app 8.351
Home 2.7.3.1894 WinXPproSP3

Maps installed: South Africa V840.2587 and Southern Africa V705.1513

 

[Michael Quinlan]

...
- \LoquendoTTS\data\roadnrEnglishUS.lex (all models except the GO 720/920)
...

While I get what the default contents of the file are doing, it would take quite a bit of brushing up before I could edit that file with any success. It's so seldom that I use SED (or anything like it) that it's like starting from scratch each time.

 

[telemike]

Does this still apply in 2010?

 

[gatorguy]

The advice or TTS pronunciation problems? The advice should still be valid, and I think you've purchased one of the new models, so you probably know if the TTS is acceptable on those.

 

[mvl]

Does this still apply in 2010?

The problem seems to still occur in all the models I've seen. I'm not sure if it's a map issue or a application issue (or both).

We'll see if things improve any in the upcoming May map.

 

[misterbk]

Amazing! And just in time for me to move to a new area with new speech challenges.

I can't wait to try this out.

 

[Rob2160]

Hey guys...

WOW.. thank you.. I have now fixed all my problems with pronounciation.

It was bugging me so much driving around LA that I stopped using the Computer voices..

Now they work perfectly..

One small change I have made also to the .lex file is to place a comma ie , after the word Freeway..

So the line will read like this..

"fwy"="freeway,"

This creates a slight pause after the word freeway and makes it sound better..

EG, mine used to say Glenn M Anderson Freewayeast...

Now it clearly seperates the Freeway East and sounds much better...

Just my humble 2 cents worth..

Thanks again.. all awesome advice..

 

[rustybirman99]

Rob2160, If I put the comma after Route and highway, will it say, "Route (pause) 66" rather than "Route66" (same for highway) ? That would be great as well. It could then be done for many of the phrases which are run together. Is that too much to hope for?

 

[Rob2160]

That sounds logical to me... easy fixes.. can't understand why TomTom hasn't done this...

 

[donato]

The advice or TTS pronunciation problems? The advice should still be valid, and I think you've purchased one of the new models, so you probably know if the TTS is acceptable on those.

Does the XXL 540M have this issue with TTS?

 

[dhn]

Yes, all models with TTS have pronounciation issues.

Try the fix by mvl in the first post of the thread.

 

[Strutob]

I have a UK and Europe Go 730, I am using Simon as an electronic voice but I want him to say road numbers as e.g. 4 0 8 not Four hundred and eight. I found the thread with info about changing the TTS Loquendo info but the contents of the folder did not have the string in it shown in the original post so I have not been able to change the "o" to "oh" as suggested.

Any suggestions ?

 

[mvl]

I have a UK and Europe Go 730, I am using Simon as an electronic voice but I want him to say road numbers as e.g. 4 0 8 not Four hundred and eight. I found the thread with info about changing the TTS Loquendo info but the contents of the folder did not have the string in it shown in the original post so I have not been able to change the "o" to "oh" as suggested.

Any suggestions ?

There's been a lot of work on a UK forum to figure out the numbering fix, and it appears they succeeded. I haven't had a chance to read through it all, but check out this link.