Speech Samples
The framework is evaluated with one Scottish speaker from the CMU_ARCTIC Corpus [1] and one Australian speaker from Google TTS API [2].
We study two scenarios on the accented TTS framework, a) only a small accented phonetic lexicon is available for the target accent. b) both a small accented phonetic lexicon and limited accented speech samples are available for the target accent.
The following TTS systems are implemented for comparison.
(1) Char-AM: This is a multi-speaker TTS acoustic model that takes a character sequence as input.
(2) US_G2P-AM: This is an accented TTS framework that consists of an American G2P model and a multi-speaker TTS acoustic model. The American G2P model is part of the pre-trained multi-accent G2P model conditioned on the General American accent ID.
(3) SCOT_G2P-AM: This is an accented TTS framework that consists of a Scottish G2P model and a multi-speaker TTS acoustic model. The Scottish G2P model is the pretrained multi-accent G2P model fine-tuned with a Scottish phonetic lexicon of 5k words.
(4) AU_G2P-AM: This is similar to SCOT_G2P-AM except that the G2P model is fine-tuned with a General Australian phonetic lexicon of 5k words.
(5) SCOT_G2P-F0_Dur_AM: This is an accented TTS framework that consists of a Scottish G2P model and a multi-speaker TTS acoustic model with integrated pitch and duration predictors. The Scottish G2P model is the pre-trained multi-accent G2P model fine-tuned with a Scottish phonetic lexicon of 5k words.
(6) AU_G2P-F0_Dur_AM: This is similar to SCOT_G2P-F0_ Dur_AM except that the G2P model is fine-tuned with a General Australian phonetic lexicon of 5k words.
Note: The TTS system followed with ’-L’ denotes using only a small accented phonetic lexicon, with ’-S’ denotes using only limited accented speech data, and with ’-LS’ denotes using both of them.
a) Only a small accented phonetic lexicon.
| US_G2P-AM-L | SCOT_G2P-AM-L | Reference Speech | Transcription | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scottish | s t aa p t | s t oo p t | stopped | |
| d aa lw @r r z | d oo l @r r z | dollars | ||
| n aa t^ @ d | n oo d i d | nodded |
| US_G2P-AM-L | AU_G2P-AM-L | Reference Speech | Transcription | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australian | w oo t^ @r r | w oo t^ @ | water | |
| g aa th i k | g o th i k | gothic | ||
| w or r m | w oo m | warm |
b) Both a Small Accented Phonetic Lexicon and Limited Accented Speech Samples.
| Char-AM | SCOT_G2P-AM-L | SCOT_G2P-F0_Dur_AM-L | Reference Speech | Transcription | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scottish | Not fine-tuned | Three oilers and a fourth engineer, was his greeting. | ||||
| Eighteen hundred, he calculated. | ||||||
| The stout wood was crushed like an eggshell. |
| Char-AM-S | SCOT_G2P-AM-LS | SCOT_G2P-F0_Dur_AM-LS | Reference Speech | Transcription | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scottish | Fine-tuned with 50 utts | In partnership with Daylight, the pair raided the San Jose Interurban. | ||||
| The Eldorado emptied its occupants into the street to see the test. | ||||||
| Obviously, it was a disease that could be contracted by contact. | ||||||
| Fine-tuned with 300 utts | I just do appreciate it without being able to express my feelings. | |||||
| Bob, growing disgusted, turned back suddenly and attempted to pass Mab. | ||||||
| His newborn cunning gave him poise and control. |
| Char-AM | AU_G2P-AM-L | AU_G2P-F0_Dur_AM-L | Reference Speech | Transcription | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australian | Not fine-tuned | Nor did it confine itself to mere verbal recommendations. | ||||
| but an empty regulation which all so disposed could defy. | ||||||
| when speaking more particularly of the borough jails. |
| Char-AM-S | AU_G2P-AM-LS | AU_G2P-F0_Dur_AM-LS | Reference Speech | Transcription | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australian | Fine-tuned with 50 utts | Nor did it confine itself to mere verbal recommendations. | ||||
| Jails, of which the old prison at Reading was a specimen, were still left intact. | ||||||
| The provision of separate sleeping cells was still quite inadequate. For instance, | ||||||
| Fine-tuned with 300 utts | to call for information as to the observance of its provisions. | |||||
| but an empty regulation which all so disposed could defy. | ||||||
| They therefore recommended that the prisoners should be removed |