Fwd: SSML <break> examples

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---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Alan Reeve <alan.reeve@cambiumassessment.com>
Date: Mon, Oct 2, 2023 at 5:29 PM
Subject: SSML <break> examples
To: pgrenier@gmail.com <pgrenier@gmail.com>


Paul,



Here are my example reasons for supporting <break> in SSML



   - Thanks, Alan





Reasons for <break> (a short delay to in between spoken content) in SSML
and being able to control the length of the break.





Speaking block (versus inline) content. Block content usually implies
separating from ajoining content which when converted to

speech would mean a delay between speaking said content. Two examples:





1) When speaking itemized (ordered or unordered) lists we do not want the
text that comprises the list to flow together.



                <ol>

                                <li>1 Hello</li>

                                <li>2 Hi</li>

                                <li>3 Greetings</li>

                </ol>



Should not speak like "1 hello 2 hi 3 greetings"

but rather as "1 hello <break> 2 hi <break> 3 greetings"



One likely would even want to be able to instead a break between reading
the number and the word which would need some other markup

to achieve, but would require being able to tell the speech engine to add
the break.





2) When speaking tabular content there's an implied separation from other
content both with the table as a whole and table's cells e.g.



                                These are results from a science experiment:



                                <table>

                                  <tr>

                                                <td>Chemical</td>

                                                <td>Amount</td>

                                  </tr>

                                  <tr>

                                                <td>Potassium</td>

                                                <td>3 mg</td>

                                  </tr>

                                  <tr>

                                                <td>Sodium</td>

                                                <td>10 mg</td>

                                  </tr>

                                </table>





One probably doesn't want the spoken text to be "These are results from a
science experiment: Chemical Amount Potassium 3 mg Sodium 10 mg" all run
together,

but rather  "These are results from a science experiment: <break> Chemical
<break> Amount <break> Potassium <break> 3 mg <break> Sodium <break> 10 mg"



One would want some delays between speaking the table as a whole as well as
each cell's content. And yes we would probably want to

embellish the content with our "say as" attribute to make it clear that
this is a table with rows and columns as well.







Sometimes when speaking a story one might want to be able to add a delay in
the speech for effect. Perhaps because the story is meant to be spooky

or, as in the following example, to add emphasis to how a game is played:



"Jimmy and Johnny were playing hide and seek. Jimmy hid while Johhny
counted. '1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Ready or not here I come' exclaimed Johnny."



One would not want the numbers to be spoken serially with no delays. One
would ideally want precise one second delays to emphasize what is going on.