Frisian TTS, an example of bootstrapping TTS for minority languages.
Jelske Dijkstra, L.C.W. Pols, R.J.J.H. van Son · UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) · 2004
A Frisian adaptation of a Dutch TTS system based on Festival, NeXTeNS, is presented as a case study in prototyping TTS for resource-poor minority languages.For these languages, demonstrator systems are essential to seed projects in speech and language technology.The conversion of a Dutch TTS system to a new language with minimal speech and language resources, Frisian, demonstrates that a TTS prototype can be built rapidly using existing modules and voices.An informal evaluation with native speakers of Frisian shows that such a hybrid prototype can already produce intelligible speech for demonstration purposes.