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Valdis Vitolins
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6. ADDING OR IMPROVING A LANGUAGE {.western}
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---------------------------------
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Most of the work doesn't need any programming knowledge. Just an
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understanding of the language, an awareness of its features, patience
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and attention to detail. Wikipedia is a good source of basic phonetic
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information, eg
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[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel).
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In many cases it should be fairly easy to add a rough implementation of
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a new language, hopefully enough to be intelligible. After that it's a
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gradual process of improvement.
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### 6.1 Language Code {.western}
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Generally, the language's international [ISO
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639-1](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_639-1) code is used to identify
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the language. It is used in the filenames which contain the language's
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data. In the examples below the code **"fr"** is used as an example.
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Replace this with the code of your language.
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If the language does not have a 2-letter ISO\_639-1 code, then use the
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3-letter ISO\_639-3 code. Language codes may differ from country codes.
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It is possible to have different variants of a language for different
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dialects. For example the sound of some phonemes are changed, or some of
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the pronunciation rules differ.
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### 6.2 Language Files {.western}
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The following files are needed for your language.
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- - - -
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The **fr\_rules** and **fr\_list** files are compiled to produce the
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file **espeak-data/fr\_dict**, which eSpeak uses when it is speaking.
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### 6.3 Voice File {.western}
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Each language needs a voice file in **espeak-data/voices** or
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**espeak-data/voices/test**. The filename of the default voice for a
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language should be the same as the language code (eg. "fr" for French).
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Details of the contents of voice files are given in
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[voices.html](http://espeak.sf.net/voices.html).
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The simplest voice file would contain just 2 lines to give the language
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name and language code, eg:
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~~~~ {.western}
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name french
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language fr
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~~~~
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This language code specifies which phoneme table and dictionary to use
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(i.e. **phonemetable fr** and **espeak-data/fr\_dict**) to be used. If
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needed, these can be overridden by **phonemes** and **dictionary**
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attributes in the voice file. For example you may want to start the
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implementation of a new language by using the phoneme table of an
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existing language.
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### 6.4 Phoneme Definition File {.western}
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You must first decide on the set of phonemes (vowel and consonant
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sounds) for the language. These should be defined in a phoneme
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definition file **ph\_xxxx**, where "ph\_xxxx" is the name of your
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language. A reference to this file is then included at the end of the
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master phoneme file, **phsource/phonemes**, eg:
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~~~~ {.western}
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phonemetable fr base
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include ph_french
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~~~~
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This example defines a phoneme table **"fr"** which inherits the
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contents of phoneme table **"base"**. Its contents are found in the file
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**ph\_french**.
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The **base** phoneme table contains definitions of a basic set of
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consonants, and also some "control" phonemes such as stress marks and
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pauses. These are defined in **phsource/phonemes**. The phoneme table
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for a language will inherit these, or alternatively it may inherit the
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phoneme table of another language which in turn inherits the **base**
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phoneme table.
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The phonemes file for the language defines those additional phonemes
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which are not inherited (generally the vowels and diphthongs, plus any
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additional consonants that are needed), or phonemes whose definitions
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differ from the inherited version (eg. the redefinition of a consonant).
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Details of phonemes files are given in
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[phontab.html](http://espeak.sf.net/phontab.html).
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The **Compile phoneme data** function of the **espeakedit** program
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compiles the phonemes files of all languages to produce the files
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**espeak-data/phontab**, **phonindex**, and **phondata** which are used
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by eSpeak.
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For many languages, the consonant phonemes which are already available
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in eSpeak, together with the available vowel files which can be used to
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define vowel phonemes, will be sufficient. At least for an initial
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implementation.
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### 6.5 Dictionary Files {.western}
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Once the language's phonemes have been defined, then pronunciation
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dictionary data can be produced in order to translate the language's
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source text into phonemes. This consists of two source files:
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**fr\_rules** (the spelling to phoneme rules) and **fr\_list** (an
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exceptions list, and attributes of certain words). The corresponding
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compiled data file is **espeak-data/fr\_dict** which is produced from
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**fr\_rules** and **fr\_list** sources by the command:
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> `espeak-ng --compile=fr`{.western}.
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Or by using the **espeakedit** program.
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Details of the contents of the dictionary files are given in
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[dictionary.html](http://espeak.sf.net/dictionary.html).
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The **fr\_list** file contains:
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- - - -
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### 6.6 Program Code {.western}
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The behaviour of the eSpeak program is controlled by various options
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such as:
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- - - -
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The function SetTranslator() at the start of the source code file
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tr\_languages.cpp recognizes the language code and sets the appropriate
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options. For a new language, you would add its language code and the
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required options in SetTranslator(). However, this may not be necessary
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during testing because most of the options can also be set in the voice
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file in espeak-data/voices (see [Voice
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files](http://espeak.sf.net/voices.html)).
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### 6.7 Improving a Language {.western}
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Listen carefully to the eSpeak voice. Try to identify what sounds wrong
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and what needs to be improved.
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- - - - -
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**If you are interested in working on a language, please contact me so
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that I can set up the initial data and discuss the features of the
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language.**
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For most of the eSpeak voices, I do not speak or understand the
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language, and I do not know how it should sound. I can only make
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improvements as a result of feedback from speakers of that language. If
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you want to help to improve a language, listen carefully and try to
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identify individual errors, either in the spelling-to-phoneme
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translation, the position of stressed syllables within words, or the
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sound of phonemes, or problems with rhythm and vowel lengths.
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