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Low-level articulatory synthesis: A working text-to-speech solution and a linguistic tool1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 June 2017

David R. Hill ,
Craig R. Taube-Schock  and
Leonard Manzara
David R. Hill*
Affiliation:
University of Calgary, Dept. of Computer Science
Craig R. Taube-Schock
Affiliation:
Waikato University, Dept. of Computer Science
Leonard Manzara
Affiliation:
University of Calgary, Dept. of Computer Science
*
hilld@ucalgary.ca
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Abstract

A complete text-to-speech system has been created by the authors, based on a tube resonance model of the vocal tract and a development of Carré’s “Distinctive Region Model”, which is in turn based on the formant-sensitivity findings of Fant and Pauli (1974), to control the tube. In order to achieve this goal, significant long-term linguistic research has been involved, including rhythm and intonation studies, as well as the development of low-level articulatory data and rules to drive the model, together with the necessary tools, parsers, dictionaries and so on. The tools and the current system are available under a General Public License, and are described here, with further references in the paper, including samples of the speech produced, and figures illustrating the system description.

Résumé

Un système de synthèse vocale complet a été créé par les auteurs, basé sur un modèle de résonance tubulaire du système vocal, et, pour contrôler le tube, sur un développement du modèle aux régions distinctes de René Carré, qui est à son tour basé sur les résultats de Fant and Pauli (1974) au sujet de la sensibilité des formants. Pour atteindre cet objectif, des recherches linguistiques à long terme ont été menées, y compris des études de rythme et d'intonation, ainsi que le développement de données articulatoires de bas niveau et de règles pour faire fonctionner le modèle, ainsi que les outils, les analyseurs syntaxiques, les dictionnaires, etc. Les outils et le système actuel sont disponibles sous une Licence Publique Générale; ils sont décrits ici. D'autres références figurent dans l'article, y compris des exemples de la parole synthétisée et des figures illustrant la description du système.

Keywords

articulatory text-to-speech synthesisrhythmintonationhistoryresearch toolsynthèse vocalerythmeintonationhistoireoutil de recherche
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 62 , Issue 3 , September 2017 , pp. 371 - 410
Copyright
© Canadian Linguistic Association/Association canadienne de linguistique 2017 

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Footnotes

1

Numerous people have contributed support, research, and technical assistance. Individuals directly involved in the synthesizer work are listed at <http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuspeech>. Walter Lawrence, Betsy Uldall and David Abercrombie were early mentors for the first author. René Carré originated the basic DRM idea, based on Fant and Pauli's (1974) research. Dalmazio Brisinda and Steve Nygard ported the synthesis system to the Macintosh. Marcelo Matuda ported it to GNU/Linux GNUStep. The Canadian Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council supported early work under grant A5261. Suggestions by three anonymous reviewers significantly improved the article.

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