Question

My purpose is that to be able to let my application to talk in less popular language (for example Hokkien, Malay, etc). My current approach is using recorded mp3.

I want to know whether there is ‘phonetic characters to speech’ engine exists for .net or any platform?

Phonetic characters here just like the phonetic entry in paper dictionary. Any idea?

Answer 1

Here is the VB.NET code:

'create the object. This object will store your phonetic 'characters'
Dim PBuilder As New System.Speech.Synthesis.PromptBuilder

'add your phonetic 'characters' here. Just ignore the first parameter.
'The second parameter is your phonetic 'characters'
PBuilder.AppendTextWithPronunciation("test", "riːdɪŋ")

'now create a speaker to speak your phonetic 'characters'
Dim SpeechSynthesizer2 As New System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeechSynthesizer

'now actually speaking. It will speak 'reading'
SpeechSynthesizer2.Speak(PBuilder)

And here is the converted C# code:

//create the object. This object will store your phonetic 'characters'
System.Speech.Synthesis.PromptBuilder PBuilder = new System.Speech.Synthesis.PromptBuilder();

//add your phonetic 'characters' here. Just ignore the first parameter.
//The second parameter is your phonetic 'characters'
PBuilder.AppendTextWithPronunciation("test", "riːdɪŋ");

//now create a speaker to speak your phonetic 'characters'
System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeechSynthesizer SpeechSynthesizer2 = new System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeechSynthesizer();

//now actually speaking. It will speak 'reading'
SpeechSynthesizer2.Speak(PBuilder);