# Several languages: Text to robot speech



## Nikola

This site pronounces text from Arabic, Belgian Dutch, Danish, Dutch,French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish,
US English and UK English. You can copy and past text and hear it pronounced, I would like to know how accurate it is in your language. Is it a good tool?
http://demo.acapela-group.com/


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## mcibor

Polish: W Szczecinie Szczebrzeszyn słynie z wielu rzeczy, ale najbardziej z chrząszcza - intonation slightly wrong.
*Nasze życie w wielu kwestiach uległo dalekosiężnym wpływom Amerykanów. Bez względu na to, czy mamy do czynienia z rozrywką, świątecznymi zakupami, czy kampaniami wyborczymi, dajemy się uwieść amerykańskiemu stylowi życia. - Amerykanów is spelled wrong, too long. Also intonation at the end (stylowi should be falling and życia should be falling: \ \)

*Moreover the "250 characters remaining" doesn't work 
Otherwise it's quite good, I must say. Really good for Polish language. Even Polish names are pronounced quite nicely.

Chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie w Szczebrzeszynie, Strząsa skrzydła z dżdżu, A trzmiel w puszczy, tuż przy Pszczynie, Straszny wszczyna szum. - Almost perfect
Czarna krowa w kropki bordo gryzła trawę kręcąc mordą. - trawę should be prounced trawe, and mordą, the accent is on mor, not dą.
Dziewięćsetdziewięćdziesięciodziewięciotysięcznik - well done 

OK, I found one problem. Before i, when it is a sub sentence there should be a longer pause.
eg. Dżdżystym rankiem gżegżółki i piegże, zamiast wziąć się za dżdżownice, nażarły się na czczo miąższu rzeżuchy* i *rzędem rzygały do rozżarzonej brytfanny.

It says numbers... nice 
However 3,576876 should be said: 3 przecinek ...
And street  ul. - cool
although never says half (pół)

Summarizing, I think that if you correct intonation and some words, like Amerykanów, it will be perfect 

Regards
 Michał


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## Jeedade

I’m pretty impressed with Femke (Dutch speaking robot) as well as Sofie (Flemish speaking robot). Pronunciation and intonation are quite realistic, also if you put a question mark at the end of a sentence (the difference between a sentence with- or without exclamation mark I found less convincing).
They do numbers well, even large ones, but as mcibor wrote, they don’t day half instead of 0,5.
Femke has the tendency to rush a bit, sounds better sometimes when you set the speed to “slow”.

BTW: it's a site not a sight.


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## jester.

I've already tried a few times to access the site in order to evaluate the German pronunciation but it just won't load...

I'm trying to access the site from Germany.


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## Whodunit

After trying it over and over again, I finally got access to the site - and I'm impressed (although I had known it before, but had never tried it intensively). My analysis is based on these texts:



> *Chronologie: Das Tauziehen um die 15 Briten*
> Hamburg (dpa) - Die Festnahme von 15 britischen Marinesoldaten im nördlichen Persischen Golf hat eine neue Krise zwischen London und Teheran ausgelöst. Die bisherige Entwicklung: *Source*


 
Klaus:
numbers = 15: perfect
abbreviations: dpa = Deutsche Presseagentur: perfect
proper names = Teheran: nearly perfect
intonation: a bit choppy and sometimes like a roboter

Lea:
numbers: perfect
abbreviations: dpa like dpa (unpronounceable)
proper names: wrong stress
intonation: same as Klause

Sarah:
numbers: perfect
abbreviations: perfect (except that 'Agentur' is stressed incorrectly)
proper names: almost perfect (London sounds a bit "wobbly")
intonation: the best of all



> *Hyperaktivität – eine amerikanische Modeerscheinung?*
> Der Einsatz von Medikamenten gegen Hyperaktivität bei Kindern steigt weltweit an. Wissenschaftler der University of California haben nachgewiesen, dass sich zwischen 1993 und 2003 die Verschreibungen von Medikamenten gegen Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)- dazu gehört auch Ritalin - fast verdreifacht hat. *Source*


 
Klaus:
English borrowings = Hyperaktivität: passable
merged words = Modeerscheinung: not clear
English words = University of California/Hyperactivity Disorder: understandable, but not very well pronounced (he reads "Attention" the German way)
abbreviations = ADHD: reads it like adhd (unpronounceable)
proper names = Ritalin: wrong stress and the second 'i' should be long, I think

He leaves too short pauses between the dashes.

Lea:
English borrowings = Hyperaktivität: perfect
merged words = Modeerscheinung: terrible
English words = University of California/Hyperactivity Disorder: terrible
abbreviations = ADHD: reads it like adhd (unpronounceable)
proper names = Ritalin: nearly perfect

She pronounced "Kindern" with a schwa between R and N, which is not how a native speaker would say it.

Sarah:
English borrowings = Hyperaktivität: passable
merged words = Modeerscheinung: not clear
English words = University of California/Hyperactivity Disorder: understandable, but not very well pronounced (she reads "Attention" the German way)
abbreviations = ADHD: reads it like adhd (unpronounceable)
proper names = Ritalin: wrong stress and the second 'i' should be long, I think

She has a funny intonation at the end of the sentence: "weltweit" is a bit over-stressed, but it sounds ok to me. 

Here are some other tests:

4.574.920.125 --> vier Milliarden fünfhundertvierundsiebzig Millionen neunhundertzwanzigtausendeinhundertfünfundzwanzig 
Sarah pronounces it the best. Lea can't read it properly with the dots.​Chlorfluorwasserstoffe und Acetaldehyde:
They all pronounce Acetaldehyde incorrectly. Sarah pronounces Chlorfluorwasserstoffe (CFKW) best.​12,85 + 3/42 = 12,9214 --> zwöf Komma acht fünf plus drei zweiundvierzigstel ist gleich zwölf Komma neun zwei eins vier
They all say it wrong. Lea says "drei Slash zweiundvierzig" instead of "drei zweindvierzigstel," which is not mathemtically correct at all.​Conclusion: I like the site. Choose Sarah for German sentences, but don't expect too much, especially of abbreviations and English words pronounced correctly in the text.


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## jester.

I've now also managed to access the site and Whodunit is right. It's a well done site.

Apart from the German version, which Whodunit has already examined, I'd like to say that I also found the French version to be quite good.

The Spanish speaker is a bit slow for my taste and also has an intonation that should be improved.

It's a great site nonetheless.


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## Outsider

I tried a few paragraphs of this post, but the software takes some time to digest the text, and I got tired of waiting after a while. 

It seems O.K. The speaker's voice gets a little muddled and with awkward reverberations in the parts where she's speaking more quickly, but I can understand her. She has a typical Lisbon accent. Her pronunciation of the "r" is non-standard, but common in certain kinds of high registers.


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## MarcB

I have reviewed the Arabic. It is actually quite good. Arabic it usually written without the short vowels. The accuracy is best when the text is fully vowelized.
As others have mentioned tone varies but I would expect that from a robot voice. Overall it is a great tool.


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