The accurate specification of pronunciation is critical to the
success of speech applications. Most Automatic Speech Recognition
(ASR) and Text-To-Speech (TTS) engines internally provide extensive high
quality lexicons with pronunciation
information for many words or phrases. To ensure a maximum
coverage of the words or phrases used by an application,
application-specific pronunciations may be required. For example,
these may be needed for proper nouns such as surnames or business
names.
The Pronunciation Lexicon Specification (PLS) is designed to
enable interoperable specification of pronunciation information
for both ASR and TTS engines. The language is intended to be easy
to use by developers while supporting the accurate specification
of pronunciation information for international use.
