SSML for Urdu Speech Synthesis Sarmad Hussain Professor and Head - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

▶
ssml for urdu speech synthesis
SMART_READER_LITE
LIVE PREVIEW

SSML for Urdu Speech Synthesis Sarmad Hussain Professor and Head - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Mar 05, 2024 225 likes •381 views

www.crulp.org www.nu.edu.pk SSML for Urdu Speech Synthesis Sarmad Hussain Professor and Head Center for Research in Urdu Language Processing National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences, Lahore Background Comments based on

slide-1
SLIDE 1

SSML for Urdu Speech Synthesis

Sarmad Hussain Professor and Head Center for Research in Urdu Language Processing National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences, Lahore ¢

www.nu.edu.pk www.crulp.org

slide-2
SLIDE 2

SSML for Urdu TTS 2

Background

  • Comments based on experience in developing a

concatenative Urdu TTS system

– inputs Urdu Unicode or UZT text and outputs Urdu speech – performs textual analysis, normalization and phonological processing to convert the text to speech – uses 5000+ diphone database – models duration and intonation based on learning through tagged corpus – complete framework developed by CRULP through funding by Ministry of IT, Govt. of Pakistan

slide-3
SLIDE 3

SSML for Urdu TTS 3

Using SSML for Urdu Speech Synthesis

  • SSM L standards works well for Urdu
  • SSML needs to be enhanced to handle some

Urdu specific problems

– Multilingual text – Digits – Date formats – Diacritics – Word Segmentation

slide-4
SLIDE 4

SSML for Urdu TTS 4

Multilingual Text

  • Need to identify one of the three strategies

(for different contexts)

– Switch to English TTS – Transliterate and Read – Spell-out

slide-5
SLIDE 5

SSML for Urdu TTS 5

slide-6
SLIDE 6

SSML for Urdu TTS 6

slide-7
SLIDE 7

SSML for Urdu TTS 7

slide-8
SLIDE 8

SSML for Urdu TTS 8

slide-9
SLIDE 9

SSML for Urdu TTS 9

Digits

  • Should be able to read out Urdu digits

– Issues related to normalization?

  • Two strategies for English digits (to be

defined by the website)

– Read in English – Read in Urdu

slide-10
SLIDE 10

SSML for Urdu TTS 10

Date Formats

  • Cover other date formats in Urdu

– A complete list can be provided

  • Cover two calendars

– Lunar based islamic calendar – Regular calendar

slide-11
SLIDE 11

SSML for Urdu TTS 11

slide-12
SLIDE 12

SSML for Urdu TTS 12

Diacritics

  • Optionally, incompletely and (sometimes)

incorrectly given

ً (almost), ا ٰ (high (in quality or rank))

  • َ
  • ِ
  • ُ
  • (ambiguous, knit (v), son of

(particle), make (v))

slide-13
SLIDE 13

SSML for Urdu TTS 13

Diacritics

  • Lexical look-up

– Should be ignored, and look up base form from the lexicon – MUST match given diacritics (even if incomplete)

  • Normally given where diacritic can cause ambiguity
  • If lexical look-up fails, use a pronunciation guessing

engine?

  • Use default mechanism/ No engine
  • Use an engine, at the given path: need to decide on

– diacritics or pronunciation? » IPA, Custom Scheme, others? – Accuracy vs. performance? » POS tagger » WSD

slide-14
SLIDE 14

SSML for Urdu TTS 14

Word Segmentation

  • Urdu does not have the concept of SPACE
  • SPACE used by typists to get the visual output

– Spaces within words

  • رو

– No spaces between words, esp. after non-joiners, as words visually OK

  • اذڈدآ ژزڑرو
  • Should it point to word segmentation engine to enable

correct output?

– Use default mechanism/ No engine – Use an engine, at the given path: need to decide on

  • Accuracy vs. performance?
slide-15
SLIDE 15

SSML for Urdu Speech Synthesis

Sarmad Hussain Professor and Head Center for Research in Urdu Language Processing National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences, Lahore ¢

www.nu.edu.pk www.crulp.org