Nuance Communications Launches South African Text-to-Speech Voice
August 27, 2007 at 9:34 pm | Posted in text to speech | 2 Comments
Photo courtesy of DanielVDM
Nuance recently announced the release of a South African version of its RealSpeak text to speech engine, named Tessa (Text-to-Speech South Africa). Tessa speaks English with a distinctly South African accent. She also speaks common names and words in Afrikaans.
This got me to thinking that I would love to see Nuance use the same approach and develop a voice for my home country, New Zealand, that would also correctly pronounce Maori place names.
Tessa was developed in conjunction with Intelleca in South Africa and sounds like another step forward in text to speech technology. Quoting from Michael Renzon, Intelleca CEO, “With Tessa, we’ve created a TTS experience that is more natural and expressive than anything that’s been achieved before. Beyond the baseline of accurate pronunciation requirements, Tessa delivers effective phrasing and emphasis, even sophisticated emotions.”
There is no word yet from Nuance as to when Tessa will be available for the desktop. Until she arrives, here is a sample to whet your appetite.
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I’d like to know if you have Afrikaner voices and how do I acquire them?
Comment by João bosco— September 6, 2010 #
We become what we think about, all day long!
Comment by Daniel— September 16, 2010 #