Do you use TTS (text to speech)?

General discussion about learning languages

Do you use TTS (text to speech)?

Yes
7
25%
Sometimes
7
25%
Not willingly
6
21%
Native recordings, or bust
8
29%
 
Total votes: 28

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Querneus
Blue Belt
Posts: 836
Joined: Thu Dec 01, 2016 5:28 am
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Languages: Speaks: Spanish (N), English
Studying: Latin, French, Mandarin
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Re: Do you use TTS (text to sound)?

Postby Querneus » Sun Sep 18, 2022 5:53 pm

Beli Tsar wrote:Latin still hasn't arrived...

There is actually one for Linux that uses Ecclesiastical pronunciation and can even correctly stress words if they're macronized, but the sound quality is so bad I don't even recommend trying it.

I've wondered before what it'd take to make a decent-sounding TTS for Latin...
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Iversen
Black Belt - 4th Dan
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Ahem, not yet: Norwegian, Afrikaans, Platt, Scots, Russian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Albanian, Greek, Latin, Irish, Indonesian and a few more...
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1027
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Re: Do you use TTS (text to speech)?

Postby Iversen » Sun Sep 18, 2022 7:27 pm

I have sometimes used speech synthesizers for experiments with minimal pairs and to hear specific sounds (the repeat button is important here), but to get the 'sound' of a language I need longer speech samples - and NOT as single words or sentences in a target language quoted along a long tirade in English. But the synthethizers get better and better so if I had to choose between something genuine but boring stuff and something interesting spoken by a computer I would probably choose the computer. In Danish DR2 I have noticed that the speech in Danish (in between interviews in for instance English) in some cases is provided by a computer voice that reads the subtitles aloud - we'll probably see more of that in the future.
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luke
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Re: Do you use TTS (text to speech)?

Postby luke » Sun Sep 18, 2022 7:58 pm

desafiar wrote:To add a specific voice with a play on demand button in a basic front card template:
{{Front}}
<br>
{{tts es_MX voices=Apple_Angelica:Front}}

On Windows, the front card template might look like this:
{{Front}}
<br>
{{tts es_MX voices=Microsoft_Raul:Front}}

I say "might", as the TTS adds an annoying delay after the start of the sentence.

Example:
Al principio le molestaba su rudeza.

After saying "Al", the TTS pauses 2 seconds before it says, "principio le molestaba su rudeza".

I also tried the Sabina voice, but it does the same thing:
{{tts es_MX voices=Microsoft_Sabina:Front}}

Has anyone seen and solved an issue like this?
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