In article ,
Barry Salter wrote:

Because 99% of the time speech synthesisers are utter crap.

The ones in the ticket payment machines at all the council carparks in
Cambridge are deeply, deeply irritating.

"Bleasea pay the barking feeeee by quoins, bankanotes ora gredita garda."

Anyone got a sledgehammer?

The main problems being either mispronunciation or a complete lack of
inflection where you'd normally expect it.

This issue can be fixed for most modern speech synthesis engines -
either by providing dictionary of special words or using special way
to writing texts (with inflection and unusual pronunciations
indicated).

Stephen Farrow wrote:
John Rowland wrote:

Since Emma can't say Highgate properly, and obviously belongs
to a certain class,

Snobbery is never attractive.

I wasn't suggesting that there is anything wrong with speaking like that, or
that her accent wouldn't be suitable for a private company's recordings,
merely that a more class-neutral accent would have been more suitable for
publicly funded transport.

Richard J. wrote:

Apparently TfL haven't bothered to contact Emma. They are prepared to
"fire" someone on the strength of a Mail on Sunday report, or copies
of it that other gullible media have repeated. Disgraceful.

Emma Clarke For Mayor!

Sarah Brown wrote:
In article ,
Barry Salter wrote:

Because 99% of the time speech synthesisers are utter crap.

The ones in the ticket payment machines at all the council carparks in
Cambridge are deeply, deeply irritating.

"Bleasea pay the barking feeeee by quoins, bankanotes ora gredita
garda."

Does it also ask if you want to change your internet service providings?

John Rowland wrote:
Stephen Farrow wrote:
John Rowland wrote:

Since Emma can't say Highgate properly, and obviously belongs
to a certain class,

Snobbery is never attractive.

I wasn't suggesting that there is anything wrong with speaking like
that, or that her accent wouldn't be suitable for a private company's
recordings, merely that a more class-neutral accent would have been
more suitable for publicly funded transport.

ITYF that the Northern Line voice is "Celia", said to be Celia Drummond, NOT
Emma Clarke, unless they've changed the announcements on the 1995 stock
recently.
--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)

In article ,
John Rowland wrote:
Sarah Brown wrote:
In article ,
Barry Salter wrote:

Because 99% of the time speech synthesisers are utter crap.

The ones in the ticket payment machines at all the council carparks in
Cambridge are deeply, deeply irritating.

"Bleasea pay the barking feeeee by quoins, bankanotes ora gredita
garda."

Does it also ask if you want to change your internet service providings?

It doesn't, but the deekeet is reeguired when egzeeting.

On Nov 28, 10:15 pm, "Richard J." wrote:
John Rowland wrote:
Stephen Farrow wrote:
John Rowland wrote:

Since Emma can't say Highgate properly, and obviously belongs
to a certain class,

Snobbery is never attractive.

I wasn't suggesting that there is anything wrong with speaking like
that, or that her accent wouldn't be suitable for a private company's
recordings, merely that a more class-neutral accent would have been
more suitable for publicly funded transport.

ITYF that the Northern Line voice is "Celia", said to be Celia Drummond, NOT
Emma Clarke, unless they've changed the announcements on the 1995 stock
recently.
--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)

Is she the one who says "the next station is Spank" and "this is
Spank", which used to be the same on the Central but seem to have been
rerecorded?

On Wed, 28 Nov 2007 13:17:16 GMT, "Richard J."
wrote:

On her website she used
to tell of the various ways of pronouncing Marylebone that she had to do,
with LU making the final choice.

Ah, so it was LU who chose the wrong pronunciation. I did wonder.

At least she gets Plaistow right.

John Rowland wrote:
Stephen Farrow wrote:
John Rowland wrote:

Since Emma can't say Highgate properly, and obviously belongs
to a certain class,
Snobbery is never attractive.

This:

I wasn't suggesting that there is anything wrong with speaking like that, or
that her accent wouldn't be suitable for a private company's recordings,

Doesn't entirely go with this:

merely that a more class-neutral accent would have been more suitable for
publicly funded transport.

As I said, snobbery is never attractive.

--

Stephen

Veronica: I don't know if I like the idea of you running around a place
full of armed, drunk businessmen.
Keith: That's why I rarely go to Texas.