mbrola is unable to pronounce the French word "les"

[James Hunt]

echo le train | espeak -v mb-fr1 # mbrola voice: OK
echo le train | espeak -v mb-fr4 # mbrola voice: OK

echo les traines | espeak -v mb-fr1 # mbrola voice: BAD
echo les traines | espeak -v mb-fr4 # mbrola voice: BAD

Error from mbrola (which espeak calls) is:

    mbrola: Warning: l-e- unkown, replaced with _-_

This is rather annoying as "les" is rather a useful article in French!

Work arounds:

1) Use the espeak voice.

echo le train | espeak -v fr # espeak voice: OK
echo les traines | espeak -v fr # espeak voice: OK

Works, but sounds rather robotic.

2) An approximation of the correct pronunciation can be generated by converting "les" to "lay" or "lai":

echo "les traines" | sed 's/\<les\>/lai/g' | espeak -v mb-fr1 # OK-ish
echo "les traines" | sed 's/\<les\>/lai/g' | espeak -v mb-fr4 # OK-ish

This gives a passable result, atleast to a naïve ear such as mine ;-)

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: mbrola 3.01h-6
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-18.28-generic-pae 3.2.9
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-18-generic-pae i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 1.94-0ubuntu2
Architecture: i386
Date: Wed Mar 7 11:13:03 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release i386 (20101007)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=fr_CA.UTF8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: mbrola
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-01-12 (54 days ago)

[James Hunt (jamesodhunt)]

Err - and ignore my appalling French - that should be "les trains" I think.

[James Hunt (jamesodhunt)]

Same problem with "des":

mbrola: Warning: d-e- unkown, replaced with _-_

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Luzerne GANHIR (luzerne)]

Same problem on my system.
There is probably something that need to be modified in "the espeakedit/phsource/mbrola/fr1" file that contains the espeak to mbrola phonem conversion rules.

[Luzerne GANHIR (luzerne)]

So I think the problem is in espeak, not in mbrola...

[Jonathan Duddington (jonsd)]

I've fixed this now in the development version of eSpeak (version 1.46.16 or later) at
http://espeak.sourceforge.net/test/latest.html

The fix is to the file: espeak-data/mbrola_ph/fr1_phtrans
which is compiled from the source data file phsource/mbrola/fr1 (in the espeakedit download).

This "fr1_phtrans" file can be used to replace the same file in eSpeak version 1.46.02 (in Ubuntu 12.04) and probably in earlier versions of eSpeak also.

[Luc.Deschenaux (luc-deschenaux)]

this problem with ending wovels is very annoying

echo te le se ty ly sy py gy ta la sa | espeak -v mb-fr1 # only sy sounds good (like english 'e' ) py and gy sounds like english 'i' instead, and other ending french e and a vowels sound is missing

With espeak_1.45.04 only py and gy sounds bad ('i' instead of 'e')

So in the meanwhile i use version 1.45.04, and i block package update with dpkg --set-selection

64bits
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/e/espeak/espeak_1.45.04-1ubuntu2_amd64.deb
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/e/espeak/espeak-data_1.45.04-1ubuntu2_amd64.deb
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/e/espeak/libespeak1_1.45.04-1ubuntu2_amd64.deb

32bits
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/e/espeak/espeak_1.45.04-1ubuntu2_i386.deb
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/e/espeak/espeak-data_1.45.04-1ubuntu2_i386.deb
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/e/espeak/libespeak1_1.45.04-1ubuntu2_i386.deb

block update: (unblock with 'install' instead of 'hold')
echo espeak hold | sudo dpkg --set-selections
echo espeak-data hold | sudo dpkg --set-selections
echo libespeak1 hold | sudo dpkg --set-selections

[Luc.Deschenaux (luc-deschenaux)]

echo les mes tes ses | espeak -v mb-fr1 # also ok with 1.45.04

[Jonathan Duddington (jonsd)]

I can easily fix le, mes, la, sa, etc.
But are "py" "gy" "sy" valid French words?

[Luc.Deschenaux (luc-deschenaux)]

Gy is a proper noun... but i was just trying vowels :-)

as far as i can check in this word list http://www.wordmine.info/fr/Search.aspx?slang=fr&stype=wordsendingin&sword=Y

..in words ending in 'y' following a consonant, 'y' sounds same as 'i' in french (as e in me) not 'i' in english (as i in my) ... for 'my' you can make an exception since 'my tailor is rich' :-)

Thanks in advance !

[Luc.Deschenaux (luc-deschenaux)]

for by you can make an exception too...

bye !

[Luc.Deschenaux (luc-deschenaux)]

damn ... My and By are proper nouns too :-) lol