Nuance Vocalizer Developer's Guide - Avaya Support

Chapter 9Techniques for enhancingaudio output9Phrasing and punctuationThe layout, punctuation, and capitalization of text sent to Vocalizer affectspeech output. Certain types of characters and phrases—for example, digits,dates, and email addresses—are handled in particular ways. By changing theway you transcribe phrases and characters, you can alter the speech synthesis.This chapter outlines how Vocalizer processes your text input.This information applies to text processing for the English language in NorthAmerican, U.K., and Australian/New Zealand dialects. Note that date formatsfor North America differ from U.K. and Australian/New Zealand formats. See“Dates” on page 84.For information on text processing for Canadian French, see Appendix A.Vocalizer recognizes punctuation used to end phrases, sentences, andparagraphs. Vocalizer strips all layout from input text and uses it, in conjunctionwith punctuation, to determine phrasing, thereby enabling natural-soundingintonation and pausing at the ends of phrases, sentences, and questions. Textthat is laid out and punctuated in a natural fashion, as it would be for normalwritten text, will be read in a natural predictable way.TIP: For the most natural-sounding speech, try to break very long sentencesinto multiple sentences. Sending input such as “turn left and go 1 mile turnright and go 2 miles,” will not sound right because there is no punctuation inthe input text.Table 5 explains how Vocalizer interprets punctuation:Chapter 9 Techniques for enhancing audio outputPhrasing and punctuation69