RealSpeak Engine
Voice Tag Attributes
<gender>
The gender attribute should not be used if the name attribute is already being used for the <voice> tag.
<age>
This attribute is not supported.
<name>
If you have an onsite system, please contact your sales account manager for which of these voices you have installed on your server.
The following names are supported by their respective engines:
Language
Name
Gender
US
UK
American English (en-US)
Tom
male
x
-
American English (en-US)
Jennifer
female
x
-
American English (en-US)
Jill
female
x
-
American English (en-US)
Samantha
female
x
-
Mexican Spanish (es-MX)
Javier
male
x
-
Mexican Spanish (es-MX)
Paulina
female
x
-
British English (en-GB)
Daniel
male
x
x
British English (en-GB)
Emily
female
x
x
Australian English (en-AU)
Lee
male
x
-
Australian English (en-AU)
Karen
female
x
-
Canadian French (fr-CA)
Felix
male
x
-
Canadian French (fr-CA)
Julie
female
x
-
Portuguese (pt-PT)
Madalena
female
x
-
Brazilian Portuguese (pt-BR)
Raquel
female
x
-
German (de-DE)
Yannick
male
-
x
German (de-DE)
Steffi
female
x
x
Spanish (es-ES)
Diego
male
-
x
Spanish (es-ES)
Isabel
female
-
x
French (fr-FR)
Sebastien
male
-
x
French (fr-FR)
Virginie
female
-
x
Italian (it-IT)
Silvia
female
x
x
Dutch (nl-NL)
Claire
female
x
x
Belgian Dutch (nl-BE)
Ellen
female
-
x
Mandarin Chinese (zh-CN)
Mei-Ling
female
x
-
If no name is specified, Jill is the default voice for the US Realspeak Engine while Emily is the default voice for the UK Realspeak Engine.
Please contact your account manager if you want any of the following Realspeak voices:
Language
Name
Gender
Dutch (da-DK)
Nanna
female
Italian (it-IT)
Paolo
male
Indian English (en-IN)
Sangeeta
female
Spanish (es-ES)
Monica
female
Basque (eu-ES)
Arantxa
female
Japanese (ja-JP)
Kyoko
female
Korean (ko-KR)
Narae
female
Norwegian (no-NO)
Nora
female
Polish (pl-PL)
Agata
female
Russian (ru-RU)
Katerina
female
Swedish (sv-SE)
Ingrid
female
Hong Kong Cantonese (zh-HK)
Sin-ji
female
The case-sensitive language code attribute MUST be used along with its corresponding xml:lang attribute if the language is not en-US (American English). For example, to hear the Mexican Spanish voice “Javier”, one must type the following:
NOTE: For US speech recognition, we currently only offer American English speech recognition, Spanish speech recognition, and French-Canadian speech recognition for Plum DEV. If you are interested in any other speech recognition languages, please contact your sales representative.
NOTE: For UK speech recognition, we currently only offer American English speech recognition and British English speech recognition for Plum DEV. If you are interested in any other speech recognition languages, please contact your sales representative.
<speak>
The <speak> tag should be used to specify the desired language through the attribute xml:lang=”lg-CN”, where lg-CN is the language-country pair specified in the Language column from the table of supported languages.
Please note that each voice has an associated language. Selecting a language that is not associated with the voice will result in unpredictable behavior; however, in many cases, you will hear the language the text was written in accented by that voice’s associated language.
<voice>
The <voice> tag should be used to specify the desired voice through the attribute name=”name”, where name is the voice specified in the Name/ID column for the table of supported voices.
If another voice is desired, it should specified using the <speak> and <voice> tags as follows within the prompt block:
To sequentially use multiple languages and voices within a <prompt> block, use multiple <speak> and <voice> blocks. For example:
<xml:lang>
If you have an onsite system, please contact your sales account manager for which of these languages you have installed on your server.
Language
Code Value
US
UK
American English
en-US
x
-
Mexican Spanish
es-MX
x
-
Canadian French
fr-CA
x
-
German
de-DE
x
x
British English
en-GB
x
x
French
fr-FR
-
x
Spanish
es-ES
-
x
Belgian Dutch
nl-BE
-
x
Dutch
nl-NL
x
x
Please contact your account manager if you want any of the following Realspeak languages:
Language
Code Value
Danish
da-DK
Swiss German
de-CH
Australian English
en-AU
Indian English
en-IN
Basque
eu-ES
Belgian French
fr-BE
Swiss French
fr-CH
Swiss Italian
it-CHC
Italian
it-IT
Japanese
ja-JP
Korean
ko-KR
Norwegian
no-NO
Polish
pl-PL
Brazilian Portuguese
pt-BR
Portuguese
pt-PT
Russian
ru-RU
Swedish
sv-SE
Mandarin Chinese
zh-CN
Hong Kong Cantonese
zh-HK
Note that different syntax is used for the xml:lang attribute for the RealSpeak Engine. For example, to hear a French speaker you need to use the case-sensitive county code, i.e.,<voice xml:lang=“fr-FR”>.
SSML Tags
An “x” marks that the Child Tag is supported by the speech engine. An asterisk (*) means that there are notes to explain the difference between the speech engines.
Child Tag
RealSpeak Engine
<break>*
x
<emphasis>
<enumerate>
x
<mark>
<paragraph>*
x
<phoneme>*
x
<prosody>*
x
<say-as>*
x
<sentence>*
x
<speak>
x
<sub>
x
<value>
x
<break>
This works as expected.
<paragraph>
This works as expected.
<phoneme>
Phoneme Set for Nuance RealSpeak:
Phoneme
Example
Transcription
i
feel
' f i l
I
fill
' f I l
E
fell
' f E l
@
cat
' k @ t
A
got
' g A t
^
cut
' k ^ t
O
fall
' f O l
U
full
' f U l
u
fool
' f u l
$
allow
$ . ' l a+U
E0
curt
' k E0 R= t
O
door
' d O R=
e+I
fail
' f e+I l
O+I
foil
' f O+I l
a+I
file
' f a+I l
a+U
foul
' f a+U l
o+U
goal
' g o+U l
j
yes
' j E s
w
why
' w a+I
R=
rip
' R= I p
l
lip
' l I p
p
pit
' p I t
t
top
' t A p
k
cat
' k @ t
b
bit
' b I t
d
dig
' d I g
g
got
' g A t
?
eat
' ? i t
f
fat
' f @ t
T
thin
' T i n
s
seal
' s i l
S
ship
' S i p
v
vat
' v @ t
D
then
' D e n
z
zeal
' z i l
Z
leisure
' l iZ $ R=
h
hat
' h @ t
t+S
catch
' k @ t+S
d+Z
journey
' d+Z E0 R= . n i
m
man
' m @ n
n
nut
' n ^ t
nK
ring
' R= I nK
r6
butter
' b ^ . r6 $ R=
i0
sanity
s @ . n i0 . t i
Key
Symbol
Meaning
Example
Transcription
_
word delimeter
nut butter
' n ^ t _ ' b ^ . r6 $ R=
'
primary word stress
record (verb)
R= I . ' k O R= d
'2
secondary word stress
explanation
' 2 E k . s p l $ . ' n e+I . S $ n
“
sentence accent
There are TWO ACCENTS in this sentence
D E R= _ A R= _ ” t u _ “ @ k . s E n t s _ ? I n _ D I s _ ' s E n . t $ n s
.
syllable boundary
syllable
' s I . l $ . b $ l
#
silence (pause)
I said: don't do it
? a+I ” s E d # d o+U n t “ d u _ I t
<prosody>
When using a Realspeak TTS voice, the talking speed of the TTS voice does not revert back to the normal speed after the <prosody> tag closes.
To revert it back to normal, you must use the <prosody> tag again with the attribute of “volume” set to “100.0” and the attribute of “rate” set to “default”.
Note that this engine does not support the “pitch” attribute.
You cannot specify the “rate” value as an integer using this engine, but percentages and the presets rates (“fast”, “medium”, “slow”, or “default”) work as expected.
<say-as>
The table below shows the <say-as> tag types supported by this engine.
Say-as Tag Types
RealSpeak Engine
acronym*
address
x
number
x
number: cardinal
x
number: ordinal
x
number: digits
x
number: decimal
x
number: fraction
x
number: telephone
x
date
x
date:dmy*
x
date:mdy*
x
date:ymd*
x
date:ym*
x
date:my*
x
date:md*
x
date:dm*
x
date:y*
x
date:m
x
date:d
x
date:day
x
digits
x
duration
x
duration:h
x
duration:hm
x
duration:m
x
duration:ms
x
duration:s
x
measure*
x
name
x
net:email
x
net:uri*
time*
x
time:h
x
time:hm
x
time:hms
x
spell
x
telephone*
x
currency*
x
acronym: The acronym tag type works fine in the US, but does not work in the UK.
date:mdy: The preferred format of this tag is “month abbreviation day, year”. For example, to return “December 25, 2001”, you would type “Dec 25, 2001”. You can also use the “month/day/year” format such as “12/25/01” for the US, but this format will not work in the UK.
date:dmy: The preferred format of this tag is “day month abbreviation, year”. For example, to return “December 25, 2001”, you would type “25 Dec, 2001”.
date:ymd: The preferred format for this tag is “year month abbreviation day”. For example, to return “December 25, 2001”, you would type “2001, Dec 25”.
date:my: The format of this tag should be “month abbreviation, year”. For example, to return “December, 2001”, you would type “Dec, 2001”.
date:md: The preferred format for this tag is “month abbreviation day”. For example, to return “December 25”, you would type “Dec 25”. You can also use the “month/day” format such as “12/25” for the US, but this format will not work in the UK.
date:dm: The preferred format for this tag is “day month abbreviation”. For example, to return “December 25”, you would type “25 Dec”.
date:ym: The preferred format for this tag is “year/month”. For example, to return “December 2001”, you would type “2001/12”.
date:y: The date:y tag type works fine in the US, but does not work in the UK.
measure: For Realspeak, either format, 5'4“ or 5m, will work.
net:uri: The RealSpeak Engine does not read back URLs correctly and will play a web address as 'www point examplewebsite point com'.
time: The time tag type works fine in the US, but does not work in the UK.
telephone: The telephone tag type works fine in the US, but does not work in the UK.
The format for telephone numbers is: 123-456-7890
The format for telephone extensions is: 123-456-7890 ext1234
NOTE: For extensions, Realspeak will say the number back correctly. In the example above, Realspeak will say, “one two three four five six seven eight nine zero, extension one two three four.”
currency: When using the say-as type, currency, for AT&T Natural Voices with a Spanish TTS voice, please keep in mind that you will need to format the currency to $<dollar amount>,<cents amount>. The currency amount will not be pronounced correctly if you format it as $<dollar amount>.<cents amount>.
<sentence>
This functions as expected.
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