How to fix poor TTS pronunciation - Discussion

[Rick F.]

Took my TomTom with the new map (v865) out for a spin last night and noticed Susan had a speech problem.

I remembered that I had to rename "cphoneme.dat" to "cphoneme.old" in the map folder to correct her speech. Susan wasn't as bad as 3 or 4 months ago, so TT must have changed the dat file some. I noticed it was just a bit larger than last map update.

 

[tony22]

Do these fixes apply to the 540TM?

 

[dhn]

Yep. Rename cphoneme.dat to cphoneme.od and the speech should improve somewhat ............

 

[MikeRivers]

Spanglish??

Whenever I take my 340XLS to California, the pronunciation of Spanish names drives me nuts (drives me to turning off the sound, actually). Dave and Susan are equally bad. They don't even pronounce Los Angeles correctly.

Will a paid map update help? Or does anyone have a list of corrections to one of the oft-discussed files that at least says the names of the cities correctly?

I'm almost tempted to download and install a Spanish voice file. I know left, right and numbers in Spanish.

 

[dhn]

TomTom's speech engine is notorious for butchering Spanish names.

Other than trying the cphoneneme.dat renaming to cphoneme.old tip to perhaps slightly improving things, not that much can be done.....

 

[misterfuss]

Hi MikeRivers,

I bought my XL340TM in November and noticed that Susan's voice WAS horrible pronouncing Spanish origin streets and cities. I live in San Francisco and she pronounced it "SAHN FRAHN SEE SKOH." I waited about a week before I backed up my TomTom and then downloaded the latest version and her pronunciation has improved greatly. (She still "stutters" some street names, but Spanish origin names seem more "real."

 

[tony22]

I tried adding "Del Mem" = "Delaware Memorial", but Susan still pronounces it as "DELmum".

 

[groupa199]

Hi,

I can't find any files cphoneme.dat on my xl340 .
I want to change the way it says n.a.t.i.o.n.a.l and not national. Is this possible with an xl340?

 

[dhn]

Do you have a LoquendoTTS folder on your unit (look with Explorer). If so, the cphoneme.dat file should be in the specific map folder (Australia?)

 

[groupa199]

Yes I have a loquendo TTS folder and Australia folder.Nowhere in those folders can I find cphoneme.dat .
I have the xl340 with IQ routes,does that make a difference?

 

[dhn]

No, it should not matter. I don't have an answer for you, sorry. Hopefully someone else will come along to this thread with more advice.

 

[mvl]

Tomtom's Loquendo engine uses both the roadNR file, and the cphoneme file.

cphoneme.dat is part of the map, and (if used in Austrailia) it should be in your Australia folder. It overrides all other pronunciation files, but your voices should still work if your map doesn't have it.

The .lex file is the second-priority hint file, which only gets used if cphoneme.dat is missing, or doesn't contain an pronunciation entry for your particular road.

 

[groupa199]

I still can't see either of those files,I looked in the Australia and TTS loquendo folders and nada.How do I access the .lex file ?

 

[groupa199]

I think I will just turn off street numbers for now,that way it tells you to follow the road you are on rather than n.a.t.i.o.n.a.l route...

 

[tony22]

I tried adding "Del Mem" = "Delaware Memorial", but Susan still pronounces it as "DELmum".

Anyone have any thoughts on this one? My other language corrections work fine.

 

[tony22]

Anyone have any thoughts on this one? My other language corrections work fine.

Well, I fixed this problem, but I'm not quite sure how. The first thing I did was assume that maybe I needed to break this into separate words. So I did

"Del" = "Delaware"
"Mem" = "Memorial"

I was surprised to see this didn't work either. So I tried this

"del" = "Delaware"
"del " = "Delaware"
"Del" = "Delaware"
"Del " = "Delaware"

"mem" = "Memorial"
"mem " = "Memorial"
"Mem" = "Memorial"
"Mem " = "Memorial"

My thinking was that it was either the space that I saw on the TomTom display when it showed the name, or that all the other entries were in lower case so maybe mine also had to be in lower case. Well, one of these each worked for both words, but I don't know which one it is. I guess I could eliminate them one at a time and figure it out, but that's kind of a pain. If anyone cares to find the answer before I do please feel free. :biggrin1:

 

[groupa199]

Ok,I have found the file I need to change words in.It is
EnglishGBTT.REX
I have changed a few words which now sound 100% better but I can't seem to change n.a.t.i.o.n.a.l though after many attempts.How is it originally written so I can try altering it?The map on the TT shows a 13 as in route 13 but I'm not sure changing that would help.

Cheers

 

[canderson]

I can't seem to change n.a.t.i.o.n.a.l though after many attempts.How is it originally written so I can try altering it?

Best way to see exactly what they're using for spelling is to do a Navigate To with an attempt an address on that road. Instead of seeing the tiny print on the map, you'll have the larger print at the top of the display when you search for the road by name, and perhaps something will become evident then.

 

[groupa199]

Thanks,will try navigating to national route 13 and see what happens.

 

[groupa199]

I have just learned if you type national normally but put some kind of exclamation mark in front of the n,national is read out normal but so is the exclamation.What can be put in front of the n that wont be read out?