Speech Synthesis by Rule Controlled by a Small, Low-Speed Digital Computer

Abstract

Computer synthesis of speech by rule has already been demonstrated by workers at the Bell Telephone Laboratories, using a large high-speed computer to perform the entire process. This paper describes a way of achieving a similar result by the use of a small computer, in conjuction with a moving-resonance speech synthesizer. The computer program is fairly simple, and consists of instructions for interpreting a table of phoneme data that has been previously fed into the computer store. The sequence of phonemes corresponding to the speech required, together with associated larynx frequencies, is then fed in from a punched tape. Durations are not specified separately, but are calculated from the tables; however, if variations of duration, intensity, or other properties are required to produce variations of stress, etc., additional characters may be added immediately prior to any phoneme symbol. These characters cause the stored table of properties to be modified for that one occurrence of the associated phoneme. This use of modifying characters enables the program to be easily used for experimental changes of the synthesis rules. These are needed mainly for perception experiments leading to further improvements of the rules.