An Introduction to S3ML Beijing InfoQuick SinoVoice Speech Technology Corp. CHEN Ming, LV Shinan, LI Xiulin

Outline Background PinYin Support Definition Domain Support Conclusion

Background SSML Speech Synthesis Markup Language Now is W3C Recommendation SinoVoice Famous Speech Technology and Service Provider Leading Chinese TTS Technology and Product Deploy Real Systems

Background S3ML (SinoVoice SSML) Since the launching of jTTS 4.0, March 2004 Based on SSML Specification Defines some extensions aiming at Chinese TTS Defines the detail of some elements which SSML does not define precisely Provide maximum compatibility with newest SSML version

PinYin Support PinYin Phoneme annotation method for Chinese characters in SSML The phoneme element provides a phonemic/phonetic pronunciation for the contained text. Two attributes: alphabet and ph

PinYin Support alphabet The alphabet attribute is an optional attribute that specifies the phonemic/phonetic alphabet. Use ‘ py ’ as value of ‘ alphabet ’ to specify that PinYin will be used ph The ph attribute is a required attribute that specifies the phoneme/phone string. Use PinYin string as value of ‘ ph ’

PinYin Support Example More about PinYin string Conformed to “ Chinese Mandarin PinYin Specification “ Series of PinYin for several characters Tone information 1~4: high flat, rising, diving and falling tone 0, 5: light tone 查 良镛 查良镛 先生

PinYin support When PinYin string is included in normal text? Comparing with CSSML We think is not for such purpose, is more suitable We think extension in S3ML is more compatible with SSML Next station is di4 tan2 zha1 良镛 他姓 查

Definition The detail of element When SinoVoice define S3ML, the detail values of the attributes of this element is not defined in SSML. Now, “ SSML 1.0 say-as attribute values ” is proposed but it is still on progress / SinoVoice will support this proposal, so I will only talk about some additional values

Definition Name and address, especially person name because of the polyphone Chinese characters Math, some mathematic expression is confused with other info 张朝阳 朝阳区

Definition Net address Phoneme, useful for character/phoneme mixed text The pronunciation of ‘ tomato ’ is tɒmɑtoʊ Next station is di4 tan2

Domain Support Important for real system Customized TTS is used more and more popular Better voice quality than general version One possibility in SSML Use element and define special values of ‘ name ’ attribute But it is not natural because it is normal to support several different domains by using a same name (voice library)

Domain Support element The ‘ name ’ attribute is required to specify the customized TTS package used The value of ‘ name ’ attribute will be a vendor-specific name will not change voice If a voice library does not support this domain, this element will be just ignored.

Domain Support If we want TTS System select the best voice for this domain automatically Extended ‘ domain ’ attribute of ‘ domain ’ is still in least priority 今天白天 ，晴转多云，最高温度 26 度 今天白天 ，晴转多云，最高温度 26 度

Conclusion Summarize extension of S3ML name / address / math / phoneme / net We hope it will be helpful to define the standard for internationalizing SSML

Thank You!