Voice 2.3 Aditi pronunciation fixes

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We’re currently addressing Voice Pali pronunciation fixes for version 2.3. Our goal is not to have perfect Pali pronunciation, which is a bit out of reach for current AI. Instead, our goal is to prevent confusion and misunderstanding.

For example, here is an example where Aditi hiccups unintelligibly on vīthiṃ:

Idha, bhikkhave, gopālako na rūpaññū hoti, na lakkhaṇakusalo hoti, na āsāṭikaṃ hāretā hoti, na vaṇaṃ paṭicchādetā hoti, na dhūmaṃ kattā hoti, na titthaṃ jānāti, na pītaṃ jānāti, na vīthiṃ jānāti, na gocarakusalo hoti, anavasesadohī ca hoti, ye te usabhā gopitaro gopariṇāyakā te na atirekapūjāya pūjetā hoti—

Getting pronunciation right is very very tricky. We are using Amazon Web Services Polly API to correct Aditi’s speech. In particular, we are using custom IPA for Aditi.

Let’s discuss Voice Pali pronunciation problems and/or fixes in this thread. If you are passionate or curious about pronunciation fixes, you can use the AWS Polly Console to experiment and help us find the “right sound”.

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Oh my, I think Aditi has the hiccups! That really must be some super sophisticated simulation technology to even be able to capture the human hiccup. Sadhu! :grin: :smiling_imp:

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Thanks Karl for your incredible devotion and skill.

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Here are some alternatives for the long ī in vīthiṃ. Pick the one that is most intelligible:

  • 1 original with hiccups
  • 2 doubled close-front diphthong
  • 3 near-front close-front diphthong
  • 4 near-front vowel only (ignores Pali long vowel diacritical)
  • 5 accentuated doubled close-front diphthong

0 voters

  1. viːt̪ hɪŋ original with hiccups
  2. vɪ.ɪt̪.hɪŋ doubled close-front diphthong
  3. vɪit̪ hɪŋ near-front close-front diphthong
  4. vɪt̪ hɪŋ near-front vowel only (ignores Pali long vowel diacritical)
  5. vɪ’ɪt̪.hɪŋ accentuated doubled close-front diphthong

Note: this is just me flailing. If you know IPA and would like to suggest something else, please do!

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None of them is completely as desired, but if there is no other way, the I’d say chose the number 2. Thanks so much!

Oh no, I was wrong. There is a long “i” in vīthiṁ. In that case it should be number 3! (So can I change my vote?)

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Thanks! Please click on poll so we get statistics.

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I did click, but I changed my mind, please see above.

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Hmm. Polls are confusing. Is there a “Show vote” eyeball icon that you can click to change your vote?

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I don’t think this is a case for voting actually. There is a long “i” in vīthiṁ, so it should be long.

If you still want to rely on the poll you have t reduce number 2 by one and add that to number 3.

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Yes. The phonemes for 1,2,3,5 are all trying to be long. Only 4 is short.

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But only 3 sounds actually long.

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I can’t change your vote. Only you can. :grimacing:

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I also can’t. :woman_shrugging:

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Hmmm. Is there a image that you can click? I had to click that to change my vote.

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It seems my first vote had somehow not been submitted, so now this should be okay.

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Cool. Thanks, Anagarika!

I’ll go ahead and make #3 the implementation but keep the poll open so we can adjust as needed. :pray:

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Thank you! :bouquet:

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The proposed change affects all Pali long ī. Here is the passage after curing Aditi’s hiccups. Note that long ī occurs in pītaṃ as well as vīthiṃ and anavasesadohī:

Idha, bhikkhave, gopālako na rūpaññū hoti, na lakkhaṇakusalo hoti, na āsāṭikaṃ hāretā hoti, na vaṇaṃ paṭicchādetā hoti, na dhūmaṃ kattā hoti, na titthaṃ jānāti, na pītaṃ jānāti, na vīthiṃ jānāti, na gocarakusalo hoti, anavasesadohī ca hoti, ye te usabhā gopitaro gopariṇāyakā te na atirekapūjāya pūjetā hoti.

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Sounds good to me, thank you so much! I’m actually glad that there is another long “i” in this passage, so we can see there is no devastating effect on it. I hope this is so throughout—otherwise we’d have to live with the hiccups… :woozy_face:

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Is it possible to change the pronunciation of “ñ” sound in rūpaññū?
(I may have already asked this before.)

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