Re: [orca-list] Capital, Capital, Capital

[Hynek Hanke <hanke brailcom org>]

Jonathan Duddington napsal(a):
> Is "alpha, bravo, charlie" spelling actually useful?
> Why?
>
> I think this is not a text-to-speech function.  Rather it's a higher
> level.  It's a language dependent text-to-text function.
No. The proper way to read "OK 271" is

"oscar (short pause) kilo (long pause) two (short pause) seven
(short pause) one (short pause) (pitch drop for end)."

How to do this translation on a text-to-text level? How to insert
the long pause. How to ensure intonation?  Shouldn't the pauses
between the words of such military spelling be different than
the pauses between two words in an ordinary sentence?
What if such a text is embedded in a sentence?

"<spell>OK 271</spell>, turn left, then heading <spell>160</spell>."

How could this be handled in text-to-text in order not to destroy
the precious information for the synthesizer about the original
form of the text?

I don't know whether this kind of spelling is important for
accessibility and if it is worth any efforts now, but I'm just
trying to show that this is in principle not a text-to-text
thing. It can only be reduced to text-to-text in exchange
for a loss of possible quality.

With regards,
Hynek Hanke