Morpho-Syntactic Analysis Framework for Tone Language Text-to-Speech Systems

Abstract

This paper presents a morpho-syntactic analysis framework using data-driven methodology. The proposed framework complements the front-end design of a recent text-to-speech (TTS) project and is generic for other tone language systems. We experiment the design for Ibibio (ISO 693-2: nic; Ethnologue: IBB), a Lower Cross language of the (New) Benue Congo language family, widely spoken in the south-eastern region of Nigeria. Implementation shows that the design is sufficient for morpho-syntactic parsing and useful for prosody improvement in TTS systems. Also, the methodology adopted detaches a greater part of the linguistic features specification from the program code. This allows for easy morphological alterations of utterances and replication of the synthesizer for other languages.