Table of Tags

Insert these tags into the input text to affect how it sounds when it is read out loud.  If you are annotating an entry in the Special Words Dictionary, you must use the annotation equivalent of the tag.


Choosing a Speaker (\Vce=Speaker=name\) 

Tag	Annotation	Description
\Vce=Speaker=name\	- - -	Set speaker to the specified user-defined or built-in speaker.
\Vce=Speaker=Reed\	`l1.0 `v1	Set speaker to Reed, which uses an American English adult male voice and a sampling rate of 11 kHz.
\Vce=Speaker=Shelley\	`l1.0 `v2	Set speaker to Shelley, which uses an American English adult female voice and a sampling rate of 11 kHz.
\Vce=Speaker=Sandy\	`l1.0 `v3 	Set speaker to Sandy, which uses an American English child voice and a sampling rate of 11kHz.
\Vce= Speaker=Grandma\	`l1.0 `v7 	Set speaker to Grandma, which uses an American English older female's voice and a sampling rate of 11 kHz.
\Vce= Speaker=Grandpa\	`l1.0 `v8 	Set speaker to Grandpa, which uses an American English older male's voice and a sampling rate of 11 kHz.
 Although the tag labels are not case sensitive, the speaker names are, and must be typed in exactly as indicated above.



Choosing a Language and Dialect   (\Vce=Language=name\)

Tag	Annotation	Dialect or Language 
\Vce=Language=English\	`l1	English
\Vce=Dialect=American\	`l1.0	American English (default dialect)
\Vce=Dialect=British\	`l1.1	British English
		
\Vce=Language=Spanish\	`l2	Spanish
\Vce=Dialect=Castilian\	`l2.0	Castilian Spanish (default dialect)
		
\Vce=Language=French\	`l3	French
\Vce=Dialect=Standard\	`l3.0	Standard French (default dialect)
		
\Vce=Language=German\	`l4	German
\Vce=Dialect=Standard\	`l4.0	Standard German (default dialect)
		
\Vce=Language=Italian\	`l5	Italian
\Vce=Dialect=Standard\	`l5.0	Standard Italian (default dialect)
		
\Vce=Language=Chinese\	`l6	Chinese
\Vce=Dialect=Standard\	`l6.0	Mandarin Chinese (default dialect)
		
\Vce=Language=Portuguese\	`l7	Portuguese
\Vce=Dialect=Brazilian\	`l7.0	Brazilian Portuguese (default dialect)
 Selecting a language will change the language only, not the voice characteristics.  The last selected voice characteristics will remain in effect.



Choosing a Voice and Voice Characteristics

Choosing a Stored Voice (\Vce=StoredVoice="name"\) 

Tag	Annotation	Description
\Vce=StoredVoice="name"\	- - -	Set voice to the specified user-defined or 
built-in voice.
\Vce=StoredVoice="Adult Male 1"\	`v1	Set voice to the default male voice.(Reed's voice)
\Vce=StoredVoice="Adult Male 2"\	 - - -	Set voice to a higher-pitched male.
\Vce=StoredVoice="Adult Female 1"\	`v2	Set voice to the default female voice.(Shelley's voice)
\Vce=StoredVoice="Child 1"\	`v3	Set voice to the default child voice.(Sandy's voice)
\Vce=StoredVoice="Elderly Female 1"\	`v7	Set voice to the default older female voice.(Grandma's voice)
\Vce=StoredVoice="Elderly Male 1"\	`v8	Set voice to the default older male voice.(Grandpa's voice)


 Although the tag labels are not case sensitive, the voice names are, and must be typed in exactly as indicated, including quotation marks.



 The voice names are sensitive to the currently selected User Interface Language (UIL).  

For example, if your current UIL is Deutsch (German), you must use the tag 
\Vce=StoredVoice="ErwachsenerMann1"\ to elicit the "Adult Male 1" voice.



Choosing a Voice by Gender or Age (\Vce=Gender=gender\), (\Vce=Age=age\)

Tag	Description
\Vce=Gender=Male\	Set voice to a male voice, which is either Adult Male, Child, or Elderly Male, depending on the age setting.
\Vce=Gender=Female\	Set voice to a female voice, which is either Adult Female, Child, or Elderly Female, depending on the age setting.
\Vce=Age=Child\	Set voice to the built-in Child voice.
\Vce=Age=Adult\	Set voice to an adult voice, which is Adult Male or Adult Female, depending on the gender setting.
\Vce=Age=Elderly\	Set voice to an elderly voice, which is Elderly Male or Elderly Female, depending on the gender setting.


 There are no equivalent annotations for gender and age tags.



Defining Voice Characteristics

Tag	Annotation	Description
\xVct=male\	`vg0	Set vocal tract configuration to male.
\xVct=female\	`vg1	Set vocal tract configuration to female.
\Pit=N\	`vbN	Set pitch baseline to N.Tag range is 40-422 Hz.Annotation range is 0-100.
\xHsz=N\	`vhN	Set head size to N.Range is 0 (very small head) to 100 (very large head).
\xRgh=N\	`vrN	Set roughness to N.Range is 0 (smooth) to 100 (rough).
\xBth=N\	`vyN	Set breathiness to N.Range is 0 (not breathy) to 99 (very breathy).Setting breathiness to 100 yields a whisper.
\xPfl=N\	`vfN	Set pitch fluctuation to N.Range is 0 (narrow=monotonic) to 100 (wide).
\Spd=N\	`vsN	Set speed of the utterance to N.Tag range is 70-1297 words per minute.Annotation range is 0-250.
\Vol=N\	`vvN	Set speech volume to N.Tag range is 1 to 65535 (linear).Annotation range is 0-100.
\Rst\	(no annotation)	Reset the voice to the original characteristics for the selected speaker.


  Once a voice characteristic tag is invoked, the voice will continue to use that characteristic until another value for that voice characteristic is given or the \Rst\ (reset) command is invoked.



Choosing a Speaking Style (\Chr="style"\)

Tag	Annotation	Description
\Chr=Whisper\	`vy100	Set voice to a whisper.
\Chr=Monotone\	`vf0	Set voice to a monotone.
\Chr=Normal\	varies	Restore voice to the speaking style in use before the \Chr\ command was invoked.  The equivalent annotation will vary depending on the original breathiness or pitch fluctuation values for the selected speaker.


Adding Emphasis, Tone, Intonation and Pauses

Emphasizing Words (\xWac=n\)

Tag	Annotation	Description
\xWac=00\	`00	reduced emphasis 
\xWac=0\	`0	no emphasis
\xWac=1\	`1	normal emphasis
\xWac=2\	`2	added emphasis
\xWac=3\ or \Emp\ 	`3	heavy emphasis
\xWac=4\	`4	very heavy emphasis


Assigning Tones to Words \xWac=tone\

Tag	Annotation	Description
\xWac=Low\	`al	Low Tone 
\xWac=High\	`ah	High Tone (this is the default for content words)
\xWac=Falling\	`af	Falling Tone
\xWac=Rising\	`ar	Rising Tone 
\xWac=Scooped\	`as	Scooped Tone
\xWac=Downstep\	`ad	Downstepped Tone 

  Emphasis and tone may also be combined in a single tag: 

\xWac=n, tone\  or  \xWac=tone, n\



Modifying Phrase-final Intonation (\xPhf=intonation\ )

Tag	Annotation	Description
\xPhf=SmallRise\	`%	Small pitch rise at the end of the phrase
\xPhf=ContinuationRise\	`%%	Continuation rise at the end of the phrase and low pitch on the nuclear accented  word of the phrase.
\xPhf=HighFlat\	`%%%	Flat, high pitch at the end of the phrase.
\xPhf=LargeFall\	`/	Large pitch fall, as at the end of a paragraph.  More perceived finality than at the end of a sentence.


  The \xPhf\ tag must be immediately followed by the punctuation ending the intonation phrase: either a period, comma, exclamation point, question mark, colon, or semicolon.  If the required punctuation is missing, the tag is ignored.



Inserting Pauses (\Pau=n\) 

Tag	Annotation	Description
\Pau=N\	`pN	Create a pause N milliseconds long. The maximum length for a single pause tag or annotation is about 330 seconds




Choosing Alternative Pronunciations

Setting the Character Spelling Mode (\xSpl=<value>\)

Tag	Annotation	Description
\xSpl=off\	`ts0	No special interpretation (default setting).
\xSpl=alphanumeric\	`ts1	Pronounce only alphanumeric characters by name.
\xSpl=allchars\	`ts2	Pronounce all characters individually by name.
\xSpl=radio\	`ts3	Pronounce alphabet characters according to the International Radio Alphabet.


Pronouncing Numbers and Years (\xYr=<value>\)

Tag	Annotation	Description
\xYr=on\	`ty1	Pronounce 4 digit numbers as "years"  (default setting).\xYr=on\The year was 1945.
\xYr=off\	`ty0	Pronounce 4-digit numbers as ordinary numbers.\xYr=off\The number was 1945.


Dictionary Processing of Abbreviations

Tag	Annotation	Description
\xAbb=on\	`da1	Use the abbreviation dictionaries (default setting).
\xAbb=off\	`da0	Do not use the abbreviation dictionaries (the Internal Abbreviations Dictionary and the User's Abbreviations Dictionary)


Entering Symbolic Phonetic Representations (SPRs)

Tag	Annotation	Description
\xSPR=`[SPR]\	`[SPR]	Pronounce the word phonetically as contained in `[SPR]. 

  Unlike the other tags, the \xSPR\ tag does not modify the word or words which follow it.  Instead, it is used in place of the word for which it specifies the pronunciation.



The Engine Specific Tag: \Eng\

The "Engine Specific" or \Eng\ tag provides a way to use annotations rather than tags.  The tag must first contain "Eng;" then the ETI-Eloquence engine identifier enclosed in curly brackets

{F063EDA0-8C65-11CF-8FC8-0020AF14F271} 

followed by a colon, followed by an annotation that is enclosed in double quotes.

For example:

\Eng;{F063EDA0-8C65-11CF-8FC8-0020AF14F271}:" `vr80 "\	Set voice roughness to 80.
\Eng;{F063EDA0-8C65-11CF-8FC8-0020AF14F271}:" `3 "\	Put heavy emphasis on the following word.
Once you have issued the full engine identifier in a given text, you may eliminate it from all following Eng tags in that text, leaving just the Eng label and the annotation.
For example (note the colon after Eng):
\Eng:" `vy80 "\
\Eng:" `3 "\

