This paper extends n-gram graphone model pronunciation generation to use a mixture of such models. This technique is useful when pronunciation data is for a specific variant (or set of variants) of a language, such as for a dialect, and only a small amount of pronunciation dictionary training data for that specific variant is available. The performance of the interpolated ngram graphone model i...

In this paper two di erent models of pronunciation are presented: the rst model is based on a rule set compiled by an expert, while the second is statistically based, exploiting a survey about pronunciation variants occurring in training data. Both models generate pronunciation variants from the canonic forms of words. The two models are evaluated by applying them to the task of automatic segme...

This paper proposes a new method of pronunciation variant generation for reducing word error rate in conversational speech recognition. In particular, this paper focuses on the generation of alternative pronunciations from canonical forms by using the phonological knowledge derived from the analysis of a phonetic transcription corpus. The experimental results show that the pronunciation variati...

This article reports on an action research project which investigated the value of systematically and explicitly incorporating a pronunciation sub-syllabus within the overall syllabus of a full-time post-intermediate level ESOL course. This pronunciation syllabus involved raising each individual learner’s awareness of their difficulties with pronunciation and of the main features of spoken Engl...

In this paper, we evaluate a set of linguistic rules for pronunciation variations in Singapore English. We collect and annotate a speech corpus for Singapore English and label it with IPA narrow transcriptions. Data driven pronunciation rules are derived using American English (Buckeye corpus) as a reference. We compare the data driven rules with linguistic rules proposed by phoneticians, and f...

This paper investigates whether individual speakers forming a homogeneous group differ in their choice and pronunciation of words when engaged in casual conversation, and if so, how they differ. More specifically, it examines whether the Balanced Winnow classifier is able to distinguish between the twenty speakers of the Ernestus Corpus of Spontaneous Dutch, who all have the same social backgro...

Pronunciation, long on the periphery of applied linguistics research and pedagogy, continues to grow in importance because of its central roles in speech recognition, speech perception, and speaker identity. Pronunciation-related issues such as comprehensibility, accent, and the mutual intelligibility of varieties of world Englishes are central to many questions in applied linguistics. This cal...

Speech recognition systems are conventionally broken up into phonemic acoustic models, pronouncing dictionaries in terms of the phonemic units in the acoustic model and language models in terms of lexical units from the pronouncing dictionary. Here we explore a new method for incorporating pronunciation probabilities into recognition systems by moving them from the pronouncing lexicon into the ...