LL AAA 111 LL AA AA 1111 LL AA AA 11 11 LL AA AA 11 LL AA AA 11 LL AAAAAAAAAAA 11 LL AA AA 11 LL AA AA 11 LLLLLLLLL AA AA 111111 June 05 -------------------------------------------------------------- LA1 - Classical Latin male voice for the MBROLA speech synthesizer Created by Olivier Bianchi Laboratory for the Computational Analysis of Speech University of Lausanne -------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents -------------------------------------------------------------- 1.0 Brief description of the LA1 diphone database 2.0 Files 3.0 Installation and tests 4.0 Announcement 5.0 Acknowledgements -------------------------------------------------------------- 1.0 Brief description of the LA1 diphone database -------------------------------------------------------------- LA1 is a diphone database for classical Latin, consisting of 1275 diphones, male voice, and was created in the context of the author's doctoral project. LA1 provide diphone for classical Latin pronunciation only (i.e. 1st century BC). LA1 uses the SAMPA phonetic alphabet as defined under http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/sampa/home.htm. In addition to the Latin phonemes, some Greek phonemes are included in order to allow synthesis of Greek words transcripted in Latin caracter. Long and short vowels are considered different, according to the newest phonological theories. However, not dinstinction was made between stressed and unstressed vowels or diphtongs. Double (geminate) consonants are considerated as the correspondingly lengthened sound. Double consonants are included in diphone sets to improve the acoustical database quality. For further information about phoneme list, see: Bianchi, O., Orator Romanus. Une synthèse de la parole pour le latin classique, Université de Lausanne, 2005. (IN PROGRESS) There are six 'simple' plosives, p b t d k g, and six double plosives, p: b: t: d: k: g:, and three simple aspirated voiceless plosives, p_h t_h k_h, and three double aspirated plosives, p_h: t_h: k_h:, for Greek words transcription: SAMPA Graph Like in p p pater, septem b b bene t t et, terror d d duco, fides k c/k actus, cloaca, kalendae g g flagrum, reges p: pp cuppa b: bb abbreuio t: tt mitto d: dd reddere k: cc assiccare g: gg aggero p_h ph philosophia t_h th Cethegus k_h ch chorus p_h: ph Sapphus t_h: th leget Thyni k_h: ch haec chrysoprys There are three simple fricatives, f s h, and two double frivatives, f: s:, and one simple fricative, z, and one double fricative, z:, for Greek words transcription: f f facile, infra s s soror, filius h h- hoc z z- zema f: ff differo s: s/ss causa/fissus z: -z- zizania There are three simple nasals, m n N, and two double nasals, m: n:, two simple liquids, l r, and two double liquids, l: r:, and two simple semivowels, w j, and one double semivowel, j: : m m amare, manere n n nox, lumen N g/n regnum, relinquo m: mm accommodus n: nn annus l l labor, uel r r gero, ratio l: ll tabella r: rr terra w u/v uoco/voco j i/j iam/jam j: i/j aio/Ajax There are five short vowels, a E I O U, and one short vowel for Greek words transcription, y. Except the central vowel a and the Greek vowel y, the short vowel appear to have been appreciably more open than the long: a a caput, amans E e pulcher, epulae I i eximo, ille O o censor, optimus U u amicus, gutta y y cytisus There is also an 'intermediate vowel' between I et U, 1, that appear only in particular environments: 1 i/u optimus/optumus There are five long vowels, a: e: i: o: u:, and one long vowel for Greek words transcription, y:, and three diphtongs, aE aU OE : a: a latrina, ingratia e: e institutiones, uolebam i: i boni, audire o: o impono u: u quamdiu, sternutare y: y Hylaeus, gyrus aE ae rosae, Caesar aU au adauctare, faustus OE oe foedus -------------------------------------------------------------- 2.0 Files -------------------------------------------------------------- la1.txt : this file la1 : the diphone database test_1.pho : Example : "Multae res ad hoc consilium Gallos hortabantur." test_2.pho : Another example : "Nullum aditum esse ad eos mercatoribus." -------------------------------------------------------------- 3.0 Installation and Tests -------------------------------------------------------------- [part mostly cut&paste from MBROLA help files] If you have not copied the MBROLA software yet, please consult the MBROLA project homepage and get it at http://tcts.fpms.ac.be/synthesis/mbrola.html Copy la1.zip into the mbrola directory and unzip it : unzip la1.zip (or pkunzip on PC/DOS) (don't forget to delete the .zip file when this is done) Try mbrola la1 test/test_1.pho test_1.wav to create a sound file for a phrase. In this example the audio file follows the RIFF Wav format. But depending on the extension test.au, test.aif, or test.raw you can obtain other file formats. 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 you can synthesize with the MBROLA technique. On Unix systems you can pipe the audio ouput to the sound player as on a HP : mbrola LA1 test/test_1.pho - | splayer -srate 16000 -l16 -------------------------------------------------------------- 4.0 Announcement -------------------------------------------------------------- This work is only a part of the whole doctoral project, whose goal is to provide high quality classical Latin speech synthesis, called Orator Romanus (Laiptts_L). This system, which runs on top of MBROLA and the LA1 database, included rules for duration and pitch control. For more information contact the author at olivier.bianchi@unil.ch -------------------------------------------------------------- 5.0 Acknowledgments -------------------------------------------------------------- This database was recorded by Tomas Dubeda, a Czech researcher. Thank you very much Tomas! We would like to thank Baris Bozkurt for his efforts in converting our diphone database to the MBROLA format. -------------------------------------------------------------- June 9, 2005 Olivier Bianchi For more information contact: olivier.bianchi@unil.ch --------------------------------------------------------------