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release 0.1 - July 2001
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IT4 - An Italian female voice for the MBROLA synthesizer

Created by : ITC-irst
	     Istituto Trentino di Cultura -
             Centro per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica

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Table of Contents
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1.0 Description of the IT4 diphone database
2.0 Installation and tests
3.0 Announcement
4.0 Acknowledgements

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1.0 Description of the IT4 diphone database
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IT4
An italian female voice for the MBROLA synthesiser
________________________________________________
release 0.1 - July 2001

IT4 is  a diphone database  for Italian, consisting of  1300 diphones,
female  voice.   The following  phoneme  symbols  are  assumed in  our
diphone sets.

SYMBOL PRONOUNCED LIKE IN
       WORD    SAMPA

i	spinoso		s p i n o1 s o
e	veloce		v e l o1 tS e 
E	belpaese	b E l p a e1 z e
a	vaiolo		v a j O1 l o
o	polsino		p o l s i1 n o
O	norditalia	n O r d i t a1 l i a
u	puntale		p u n t a1 l e 

i1      così            k o s i1
e1      mercé           m e r tS e1     
E1      caffè           k a f f E1      
a1      bontà           b o n t a1   
o1	Roma		r o1 m a
O1      però            p e r O1        
u1      più             p j u1  

j	piume		p j u1 m e
w	quando		k w a1 n d o

p	pera		p e1 r a
t	torre		t o1 r r e
k	caldo		k a1 l d o
b	botte		b o1 t t e
d	dente		d E1 n t e
g	gatto		g a1 t t o

f	faro		f a1 r o
s	sole		s o1 l e
S	sci		S i1
v	via		v i1 a
z	peso		p e1 s o
Z	garage		g a r a1 Z

ts	pizza		p i1 ts ts a
tS	pece		p e1 tS e
dz	zero		dz E1 r o
dZ	magia		m a dZ i1 a

m	mano		m a1 n o
n	nave		n a1 v e
J	legna		l e1 J J a
nf	anfora		a1 nf f o r a
ng	ingordo		i ng g o1 r d o

l	palo		p a1 l o
L	soglia		s O1 L L a
r	remo		r E1 m o

_	PAUSE 


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2.0 Installation and Tests
--------------------------------------------------------------

If you  have not  copied the MBROLA  software yet, please  consult the
MBROLA project homepage and get it.

Copy it4.zip into the mbrola directory and unzip it :

   unzip it4.zip (or pkunzip on PC/DOS)

Try

   mbrola it4 TEST/sent1.pho test1.wav
   mbrola it4 TEST/sent2.pho test2.wav

to create  two sound  files for  a short info.  In these  examples the
audio  files  follows the  RIFF  Wave  format.  But depending  on  the
extension  test.au, test.aif, or  test.raw other  file formats  can be
obtained. Listen  to it with your  favorite sound editor,  and try the
other command  files (*.pho) to have  a better idea of  the quality of
speech that can be synthesized with MBROLA and the it4 database.

On Unix systems you can pipe the audio ouput to the sound player as on
a HP : mbrola it4 sent1.pho - | splayer -srate 16000 -l16

Also refer  to the readme.txt  file provided with the  mbrola software
for using it.

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3.0 Announcement
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This database is  a beta release, and we will  take your comments into
account  for  future  updates.   Updates  will  be  announced  on  the
mbrola-interrest mailing list.

For more information and demos, consult the IFD home page at:

     http://nts.csrf.pd.cnr.it

and the Italian MBROLA page at

     http://nts.csrf.pd.cnr.it/IFD/Pages/Italian-TTS-MBROLA.htm

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4.0 Acknowledgments
--------------------------------------------------------------

We  would like  to  thank Loredana  Panato  and Piero  Cosi for  their
efforts in helping ITC-irst to collect and develop this database.

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Contact:
--------------------------------------------------------------
Roberto Gretter (technical issues)
e-mail: gretter@itc.it
phone:          (+39) 0461-314557
fax:            (+39) 0461-314591
secretary:      (+39) 0461-314592

Sara Beatrici (legal issues)
e-mail:	beatrici@itc.it
phone:          (+39) 0461-314351
fax:            (+39) 0461-314588
secretary:      (+39) 0461-314354

ITC-irst
via Sommarive 18
38050 Povo - Trento (Italy)
WWW: http://www.itc.it
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