JEITA Speech Group1 Issues of SSML in Japanese Wataru IMATAKE (ANIMO LIMITED) Makoto AKABANE (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.) Kazuyo TANAKA (Tsukuba University) JEITA Technical Standardization Group on Speech Input/Output Systems W3C Workshop on SSML, Nov2-3,2005, Beijing

JEITA Speech Group2 1-1 About JEITA JEITA (Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association) is industry organization about information systems, personal information device, digital appliance, industrial or social system device and electronic parts. JEITA was established in November 2000, by merging Japanese Electronic Industry Development Association (JEIDA) and Electronic Industries Association of Japan (EIAJ).

JEITA Speech Group3 1-2 JEITA Speech Group, Activities Expert Committee on Speech Input/Output Systems (JEIDA Speech Group) was established "JEIDA Standard of Symbols for Japanese Text-to- Speech Synthesizer" as JEIDA standard, in March, Revised version of JEIDA was published in March, 2005, as “JEITA-IT-4002”. JEIDA included control tags for synthesizers, defined by XML. However, the control tags are removed in "JEITA-IT- 4002“.

JEITA Speech Group4 2-1 How to specify Japanese pronunciation in phoneme element "JEITA IT-4002: Symbols for Japanese Text-to-Speech Synthesizer " Two levels for notation: kana level notation with Japanese katakana, and phonemic level with IPA or SAMPA. We suggest that we describe it with "x-JEITA-IT kana", "x-JEITA-IT-4002-ipa", "x-JEITA-IT sampa" as alphabet attribute.

JEITA Speech Group5 2-2 How to specify Japanese pronunciation in phoneme element ?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> tomato tomato tomato

JEITA Speech Group6 3-1 How to specify speaking rate in Japanese A basic unit of Japanese rhythm is mora. Mora is called " 拍 "(haku) in Japanese. For example, a haiku is described in haku. “ こんにちわ ”/ko N ni chi wa/ → 5 moras “ しゃしん ”/sya si n/ → 3 moras Japanese, /sya sin/ → 2 syllables English Therefore, it is natural to specify the speaking rate / Japanese phoneme length by a number of mora. To specify speaking rate in rate attribute of prosody element, use a unit of mora/sec. By the same token, to specify pause time in time attribute of break element, use a unit of mora.

JEITA Speech Group7 3-2 How to specify speaking rate in Japanese おはようございます。 今日は 天気がよいですね。

JEITA Speech Group8 4-1 ruby element There is a lot of different meaning word of the same type (a reading different by the same notation) in a Japanese kanji. For a long time, the newspaper publishing companies or magazine companies used a ruby to understand kanji words easier for readers. In addition, there is a function to describe a ruby, and it is generally used for the word processor which is used a lot in Japan. (Ex. Microsoft Word, Justsystem ICHITARO, OpenOffice writer, etc) Therefore, there are a lot of contents of a text including a ruby in Japan. Japanese voice synthesis engines can reduce misreading by utilizing a ruby positively. A ruby is usually described Japanese katakana or a hiragana letter. Therefore, a ruby does not fit a phoneme element.

JEITA Speech Group9 4-2 ruby element We know "Ruby Annotation - W3C Recommendation 31 May 2001"( but this is overspecialization for voice synthesis. Layout information is unnecessary for a voice synthesis. The simplest expression of the ruby is enough for a voice synthesis. Therefore, we propose that a ruby element be defined newly.

JEITA Speech Group ruby element 私は五月が好きです。 私は 五月 が好きです。

JEITA Speech Group Expansion of an say-as element There are different readings (both are right) in Japanese in the same meaning and the same notation. For example, 「二十日」 can be read as [ ニジュウニチ」 (ni-jyu- ni-chi) and 「ハツカ」 (ha-tsu-ka) with same notation. Both mean 20th of the month. In this case, SSML should provide a function that a creator can choose whether a voice synthesis engine reads "10/20" with " ジューガツハツカ " (jyu-gatsu-ha-tsu-ka) or " ジューガツニ ジューニチ "(jyu-gatsu-ni-jyu-ni-chi). Therefore, we propose the attribute that can speak a Japanese language reading of a date for a say-as element. We are still examining this issues.

JEITA Speech Group Expansion of an say-as element 今日は 10 月 20 日です。 今日は 10 月 20 日 です。