MULTI-LINGUAL TEXT-TO-SPEECH SYSTEM AND METHOD
First Claim
1. A multi-lingual text-to-speech system, comprising:
- an acoustic-prosodic model selection module, for an inputted text to be synthesized and containing a second-language (L2) portion, and an L2 phonetic unit transcription corresponding to the L2 portion of the inputted text, sequentially finds a second acoustic-prosodic model corresponding to each phonetic unit of the L2 phonetic unit transcription in an L2 acoustic-prosodic model set, searches an L2-to-L1 phonetic unit transformation table, L1 being a first language, and uses at least a controllable accent weighting parameter to determine a transformation combination to select a corresponding L1 phonetic unit transcription and sequentially find a first acoustic-prosodic model corresponding to each phonetic unit of said L1 phonetic unit transcription in an L1 acoustic-prosodic model set;
an acoustic-prosodic model mergence module that merges said first and said second acoustic-prosodic models into a merged acoustic-prosodic model according to said at least a controllable accent weighting parameter, sequentially processes all the transformations in said transformation combination, then sequentially arranges each merged acoustic-prosodic model to generate a merged acoustic-prosodic model sequence; and
a speech synthesizer, wherein said merged acoustic-prosodic model sequence is applied to said speech synthesizer to synthesize said inputted text into an L2 speech with an L1 accent.
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Abstract
A multi-lingual text-to-speech system and method processes a text to be synthesized via an acoustic-prosodic model selection module and an acoustic-prosodic model mergence module, and obtains a phonetic unit transformation table. In an online phase, the acoustic-prosodic model selection module, according to the text and a phonetic unit transcription corresponding to the text, uses at least a set controllable accent weighting parameter to select a transformation combination and find a second and a first acoustic-prosodic models. The acoustic-prosodic model mergence module merges the two acoustic-prosodic models into a merged acoustic-prosodic model, according to the at least a controllable accent weighting parameter, processes all transformations in the transformation combination and generates a merged acoustic-prosodic model sequence. A speech synthesizer and the merged acoustic-prosodic model sequence are further applied to synthesize the text into an L1-accent L2 speech.
26 Citations
14 Claims
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1. A multi-lingual text-to-speech system, comprising:
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an acoustic-prosodic model selection module, for an inputted text to be synthesized and containing a second-language (L2) portion, and an L2 phonetic unit transcription corresponding to the L2 portion of the inputted text, sequentially finds a second acoustic-prosodic model corresponding to each phonetic unit of the L2 phonetic unit transcription in an L2 acoustic-prosodic model set, searches an L2-to-L1 phonetic unit transformation table, L1 being a first language, and uses at least a controllable accent weighting parameter to determine a transformation combination to select a corresponding L1 phonetic unit transcription and sequentially find a first acoustic-prosodic model corresponding to each phonetic unit of said L1 phonetic unit transcription in an L1 acoustic-prosodic model set; an acoustic-prosodic model mergence module that merges said first and said second acoustic-prosodic models into a merged acoustic-prosodic model according to said at least a controllable accent weighting parameter, sequentially processes all the transformations in said transformation combination, then sequentially arranges each merged acoustic-prosodic model to generate a merged acoustic-prosodic model sequence; and a speech synthesizer, wherein said merged acoustic-prosodic model sequence is applied to said speech synthesizer to synthesize said inputted text into an L2 speech with an L1 accent. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A multi-lingual text-to-speech system, executed on a computer system, said computer system having a memory device for storing at least a first and a second language acoustic-prosodic model sets, said multi-lingual text-to-speech system comprising:
a processor having an acoustic-prosodic model selection module, an acoustic-prosodic model mergence module and a speech synthesizer, wherein for an inputted text to be synthesized and containing a second-language (L2) portion, and an L2 phonetic unit transcription corresponding to the L2 portion of the inputted text, said acoustic-prosodic model selection module sequentially finds a second acoustic-prosodic model corresponding to each phonetic unit of the L2 phonetic unit transcription in an L2 acoustic-prosodic model set, searches an L2-to-L1 phonetic unit transformation, L1 being a first language, and uses at least a controllable accent weighting parameter to determine a transformation combination to select a corresponding L1 phonetic unit transcription and sequentially find a first acoustic-prosodic model corresponding to each phonetic unit of said L1 phonetic unit transcription in an L1 acoustic-prosodic model set, said acoustic-prosodic model mergence module merges said first and said second acoustic-prosodic models into a merged acoustic-prosodic model according to said at least a controllable accent weighting parameter, sequentially processes all the transformations in said transformation combination, then sequentially arranges each merged acoustic-prosodic model to generate a merged acoustic-prosodic model sequence, and said merged acoustic-prosodic model sequence is further applied to said speech synthesizer to synthesize said inputted text into an L2 speech with an L1 accent.
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7. A multi-lingual text-to-speech method, executed on a computer system, said computer system having a memory device for storing at least a first and a second language acoustic-prosodic model sets, said method comprising:
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for an inputted text with second-language (L2) and L2 phonetic sequence corresponding to said inputted text to be synthesized, finding a second acoustic-prosodic model corresponding to each phonetic unit of said L2 phonetic unit transcription in an L2 acoustic-prosodic model set, searching an L2-to-L1 phonetic unit transformation table, L1 being a first language, and using at least a controllable accent weighting parameter to determine a transformation combination to select a corresponding L1 phonetic unit transcription and find a first acoustic-prosodic model corresponding to each phonetic unit of said L1 phonetic unit transcription in an L1 acoustic-prosodic model set; merging said first and said second acoustic-prosodic models into a merged acoustic-prosodic model according to said at least a controllable accent weighting parameter, processing all transformations in said transformation combination, and generating a merged acoustic-prosodic model sequence; and applying said merged acoustic-prosodic model set to a speech synthesizer to synthesize said inputted text into an L1-accent L2 speech. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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Specification