GR2 - An Hellenic (or Greek) male voice for the MBROLA synthesizer

Created by :

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Table of Contents

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1. Description of GR2 database

a. UoA-TtS-PA

b. Use

2. Distribution and test

3. Acknowledgments

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1. Brief description of GR2 database

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GR2 is an Hellenic male diphone database provided in the

context of the MBROLA project (http://tcts.fpms.ac.be/synthesis).

It consists of 1081 diphones.

We use the UoA-TtS-PA phonetic alphabet for Text-to-Speech systems

version 1 (http://www.di.uoa.gr/speech/synthesis/ttspa), which inherits from SAMPA

but additionally, it introduces some group of phones as clusters.

This enhances the phonemic representation in Text-to-Speech synthesizers,

because complex coarticulations are handled as single clusters and not as

concatenation of discrete phones.

a. UoA-TtS-PA

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General rules:

- We use the notion of 'cluster' instead of 'phoneme' as some units in the database

comprises of more than one traditional 'phoneme' (e.g. /X/ -> /k//s/)

- Each cluster is assigned to a single byte (ASCII character) for faster processing

in the Text-to-Speech system

- Capital vowels imply accents (e.g. /A/ instead of /'a/), but there is not such a

distinction in the current version of the database.

- Thus, 37 clusters are currently defined:

UoA-TtS-PA SAMPA Example Hellenic transcription (ISO8859-7)(English)

_ _ (silence) (παύση) (pause)

[consonants]

p p patAta πατάτα (potato)

b b balOni μπαλόνι (baloon)

t t tirOpita τυρόπιττα (cheesepie)

d d dInome ντύνομαι (get dressed)

k k kalAmi καλάμι (cane)

c c cerI κερί (candle)

g g gremIzo γκρεμίζω (blast)

q gj aqelIa αγγελία (announcement)

f f fotinO φωτεινό (luminous)

v v vuLAzo βουλιάζω (sink)

T T Talassa θάλασσα (sea)

D D DAskalos δάσκαλος (teacher)

s s salAta σαλάτα (salad)

z z zoGraficI ζωγραφική (paint)

G G GAla γάλα (milk)

j jj,j jortI, vjEno γιορτή, βγαίνω (celebration, go out)

x x xarUmenos χαρούμενος (happy)

C C CEri χέρι (hand)

m m mATima μάθημα (lesson)

M mj apaneMA απανεμιά (calm)

n n nanUrisma νανούρισμα (lullaby)

N nj NaurIzo νιαουρίζω (meow)

V (-) aVgaLAzo αγκαλιάζω (bosom)

r r ropI ροπή (torsion)

R r tRopI τροπή (turn)

l l lAva λάβα (lava)

L lj LOno λιώνω (melt)

S ts SalakOno τσαλακώνω (crumple)

X ks XirAfi ξυράφι (razor)

Y ps YAri ψάρι (fish)

[vowels]

a a aEras αέρας (wind)

e e elpIDa ελπίδα (hope)

i i irIni ειρήνη (peace)

o o Oros όρος (clause)

u u uranOs ουρανός (sky)

b. Use of the database

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All the combinations of clusters are supported

apart from the cases:

1. /M/, /N/, /L/, /C/, /c/, /j/, /q/

must be followed by vowel (/a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/)

2. /r/ must follow a vowel or silence (/a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/, /_/)

3. /R/ must follow a consonant

4. /V/ must be followed by /g/ or /q/

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2. Distribution and test

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If you have not copied the MBROLA software yet, please consult

the MBROLA project homepage (http://tcts.fpms.ac.be/synthesis).

Refer to the readme.txt file provided with the mbrola software

for using it.

This distribution of MBROLA database contains the following files:

gr2 :the GR2 MBROLA database

gr2.txt :this file

test\*.pho :pho examples

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3. Acknowledgments

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The voice of GR2 MBROLA database belongs to Gerasimos Xydas (email:gxydas@di.uoa.gr). The database was recorded, segmented and processed by him in the Speech Lab of our department.

We would like to especially thank Baris Bozkurt for his help in building this database and his efforts on the mbrolization of the database.