# Phoneme Interpretation [:phoneme]

When phoneme interpretation is set, the Phoneme Interpretation command allows everything within brackets to be interpreted as phonemic text. All phoneme interpretation of text can be silenced by using the [:phoneme silent on] command. By default, the text is spoken without phoneme interpretation. This command is asynchronous.

When you phonemicize text, simply put legal phoneme strings in brackets. Phoneme strings are sequences of phoneme symbols .

Phoneme interpretation allows you to specify the preferred pronunciation of a word or phrase. It is important to note that this command sets the left bracket ( [ ) and right bracket ( ] ) characters as phoneme delimiters. When the user has the phoneme interpretation turned on [:phoneme on], all text and characters that appear between brackets are interpreted as phonemic text and is pronounced as such. For example, to say the word associate, simply embed the phonemic string [axs'owshiyeyt] in the text string. Note that the pronunciation of the phonemic string is different depending on whether phoneme interpretation is on or off.

When phoneme interpretation is on, additional attributes can be associated with the phoneme text. These attributes include singing and musical tones, stress symbols, and syntactic symbols.

Note

Arpabet mode is a 2-character system. All single character symbols must be followed by a space so that faulty translations do not occur. Consider the phonemic representation of "whitehorse," [* w ‘ayt hxowr s ]. The letter "t" in this phonemic representation must be followed by a space, so that it is not interpreted as part of the phonemic symbol [th] in the representation of "whitehorse."

Some older versions of DECtalk Software supported single characters in arpabet mode. Application programs written for use with those versions may fail to function correctly when used with DECtalk Software V4.6 and subsequent versions.

SYNTAX: | [:phoneme XX1 XX2 YY]
ABBREVIATION: | [:phon XX1 XX2 YY]
ALTERNATE COMMAND: | [:phoneme speak on] or [:phoneme on]
OPTIONS: | arpabet | Set phonemic interpretation to arpabet alphabet. (Currently, this option is the only alphabet allowed.)
| speak | If phoneme interpretation is on, speak encountered phonemes. Speak option is ignored if phoneme interpretation is off.
| silent | If phoneme interpretation is on, do not speak encountered phonemes. Silent option is ignored if phoneme interpretation is off.
PARAMETERS: | on | Set phoneme interpretation on
| off | Set phoneme interpretation off
DEFAULT: | Phonetic interpretation is off
EXAMPLES: | [:phoneme arpabet speak on] [axs’owshiyeyt] associate
| [:phoneme speak on] [axs’owshiyeyt] associate
| [:phoneme on] [axs’owshiyeyt] associate
| [:phoneme speak off] [axs’owshiyeyt] pronounced as axsociate
| [:phoneme off] [axs’owshiyeyt] pronounced as axsociate
| [:phoneme silent off] [axs’owshiyeyt] pronounced as axsociate
| [:phoneme silent on] [axs’owshiyeyt] associate not spoken

Note
Make sure that you use a right bracket ( ] ) to end the phonemic. If you do not, any normal text appearing after the phonemic will sound garbled. One right bracket is sufficient to close phonemic mode. It is sometimes useful to begin a text file with a right bracket ( ] ) to ensure that text is not interpreted phonemically. A command sequence consisting of a left bracket followed by a colon ( [: ) is always interpreted as the beginning of a command.

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