IBM Text-to-Speech SSML Programming Guide

This guide provides information about using Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) to incorporate IBM Text-to-Speech technology into applications.

About using IBM Text-to-Speech and SSML

This guide describes the programming interfaces available for developers to take advantage of these features within their applications.

This guide is also available in Portable Document Format (PDF). To read it, you must have the Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. Using IBM Text-to-Speech Technology and Speech Synthesis Markup Language

Who should use this guide

This guide can help if you are a software developer interested in writing applications that use IBM Text-to-Speech technology. This document describes the use of IBM Text-to-Speech technology for beginning to advanced software engineers.

Guide topics

This guide presents the following main topics.

SSML
This topic describes the use of SSML to control speech synthesis and text processing parameters.
Symbolic phonetic representations (SPRs)
This topic describes the use of special phonetic symbols to customize pronunciations in IBM Text-to-Speech.

Typographical conventions

The following typographical conventions are used throughout this document to facilitate reading and comprehension. They are outlined in the following list.

Monospace font: Applies to code samples, including XML, and to file and directory names.
Bold: Applies to function and callback names, and to data types, including structures and enumerations.

Italics: Applies to parameter and structure member names, sample text, and the introduction of new terms.

UPPERCASE: Applies to property, enumerator, mode, and state names.

Introduction to SSML
The VoiceXML 2.0 specification adopted Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) as the standard markup language for speech synthesis.
Introduction to symbolic phonetic representations
IBM Text-to-Speech technology uses symbolic phonetic representation (SPR) to represent the sounds of words. This topic briefly defines SPR and provides links to language-specific SPR topics.
Introduction to pitch and its use with SSML
This section is about pitch fluctuations, and how pitch is used within the context of IBM TTS and SSML.
TTS question intonation
This topic details how to write questions so that the TTS engine pronounces them with the proper intonation.
Notices and trademarks