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ABI speech corpus

ABI speech corpus. Shona D’Arcy, Martin Russell Electronic, Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Birmingham. Motivation. Wide variation in pronunciation of English in the British Isles Perceived as problem for speech technologies No systematic study published to date

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ABI speech corpus

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  1. ABI speech corpus Shona D’Arcy, Martin Russell Electronic, Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Birmingham

  2. Motivation • Wide variation in pronunciation of English in the British Isles • Perceived as problem for speech technologies • No systematic study published to date • Need for corpus of speech representing different accents

  3. Variety of Accents • British isles • Northern England • Southern England • Wales • Scotland • Northern Ireland • Southern Ireland

  4. Corpus design • What is an accent? • What accents are required for corpus? • List of 13 accents to be recorded • Standard Southern english

  5. London

  6. London West County

  7. London West County

  8. Ireland London West County

  9. East Anglia Ireland London West County

  10. East Anglia Ireland Birmingham London West County

  11. Liverpool East Anglia Ireland Birmingham London West County

  12. N Ireland Liverpool East Anglia Ireland Birmingham London West County

  13. N Ireland Lancashire Liverpool East Anglia Ireland Birmingham London West County

  14. N Ireland Yorkshire Lancashire Liverpool East Anglia Ireland Birmingham London West County

  15. N Ireland Newcastle Yorkshire Lancashire Liverpool East Anglia Ireland Birmingham London West County

  16. Glasgow N Ireland Newcastle Yorkshire Lancashire Liverpool East Anglia Ireland Birmingham London West County

  17. Scottish Highlands Glasgow N Ireland Newcastle Yorkshire Lancashire Liverpool East Anglia Ireland Birmingham London West County

  18. Corpus design • Who are good subjects? • People who had lived in the area most of their lives • People who’s parents had lived there most of their lives • Between the ages of 18 and 50 • 10 male and 10 female

  19. Text to be recorded • Accent specific texts • “when a sailor in a small craft faces the might of the vast Atlantic ocean today” • Scribe sentences • Where were you while we were away • Vowels in control contexts, • Had, who’d, Hudd (to rhyme with bud), hid, heard

  20. Texts to recorded • Standard prompts for speech technologies • Digits triples • Letters, phonetic alphabet • GYP, Golf, Yankee, Polo • Equipment specific commands • Climate control 71 degrees

  21. Preparation • Recording software • List of prompts • Venue selection • Chose town • Library/community centre

  22. Hardware • Laptop with external soundcard, (Edirol) • Emkay head mounted microphone • Generic desk mounted microphone

  23. Strategy for subjects • Press releases • Local media, radio (~25) TV(~7) & newspapers (~40) • Interviews • Free phone • Subject selection • Subject criteria • Based on audio

  24. Statistics • 14 locations • 20 people per location, between 16 and 70 • 95 hours of recordings • Annotated at phrase level

  25. Lessons learnt • Identifying accents • Choosing a town likely to have appropriate accent and produce enough candidates • Choice of recording location

  26. Rural settings • Association of ‘accent’ with ‘place’ not reliable • Expectation of situation • Less migration, hence less diluting of accents • Smaller variations over large area • Findings • Young people more likely to adopt other accents • Mainly older people had ‘good’ accent

  27. Urban settings • Most cities homogeneous accent • Liverpool, Glasgow • Huge variety of accents in London

  28. Choice of location • Library • Relatively consistent noise level • Library users available to recruit • Other (e.g. community centre, universities) • More variation in noise • Older people

  29. Press release + free-phone • Mostly successful (would do it again) • Coverage approximately equal in each location • Variable response • When successful • Many volunteers with good accents within our age range • When unsuccessful • Not enough volunteers • Had to ‘recruit from the street’

  30. Future recordings • Fill in holes existing in current database • Incorporating lessons learnt • Record accents not covered in this corpus

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