FW: [EXTERNAL] Fwd: Parameter For Pronunciations Of Syllables

Hi Task Force team members,

I found the thread below in the JAWS for Windows Support List (main@jfw.groups.io) It is interesting to see how practitioners find workarounds to pronunciation issues.


Christine K. Loew, Director
Accessibility for Digital Assessments

The College Board
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---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Annabelle Susan Morison <foristnights@comcast.net<mailto:foristnights@comcast.net>>
Date: Mon, Oct 21, 2019 at 1:12 PM
Subject: Parameter For Pronunciations Of Syllables
To: <main@jfw.groups.io<mailto:main@jfw.groups.io>>

Hi, it's Annabelle.
Out of curiosity, does anybody know if there's a parameter you can enter within Dictionary Manager, or somewhere within JAWS, to denote the accurate pronunciation of stressed versus unstressed syllables in a given word? I know in the Microsoft SAPI's speech markup language, there are parameters for typing pronunciations of Primary Stress syllables (1) and Secondary Stress syllables (2), as well as syllabic markers (-), and that each letter or letter combination is separated by a space. For example, if there are two pronunciations of a word, like "Progress". "p r ax - g r eh s 1" or "p r aa 1 - g r eh s". How would I simulate this with JAWS?
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Dean Martineau topdot@gmail.com via<https://support.google.com/mail/answer/1311182?hl=en> groups.io
1:49 PM (2 hours ago)


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The only way I know to do this with JAWS is to mess with spaces and syllables to try to force something resembling the pronunciation you want.




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Glenn / Lenny glennervin@cableone.net via<https://support.google.com/mail/answer/1311182?hl=en> groups.io
2:21 PM (1 hour ago)


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One example of doing this is when I labeled the graphic symbols which will show up as numbered graphics, in Outlook Express, like graphic 520 would be unred message.
But if I wrote it like unread message, , Jaws says:
un reed message.
So I spell read in the graphic label as unred, like the color.
The same can be done in dictionary manager.
But Jaws has no way of knowing when to say a word correctly as far as I know, like when we want the word live to sound like liv.
Or if we want liv to sound like lyve.
Glenn

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Adrian Spratt adrian@adrianspratt.com via<https://support.google.com/mail/answer/1311182?hl=en> groups.io
2:25 PM (1 hour ago)


to main@jfw.groups.io

Annabelle,

You ask two separate questions. In the first, you inquire about the parameters, or controls, we can use in the JAWS dictionary to tell JAWS where to place emphasis. To my knowledge, Vispero has not provided JAWS users with such tools. Surely they have them, considering how well JAWS pronounces many words that go against convention, but we don’t have access to them. There’s a workaround that I’ll get to.

Your second question refers to the problem of a spelling that is pronounced differently in different contexts. Again, Vispero must have a way of making this happen, considering how JAWS handles a word like “read,” but they haven’t shared it with us. At any rate, to my knowledge they haven’t.

The workaround is typically the spacebar and the use of uppercase letters in the “replacement word” field. Taking your “progress” example, if you want the second syllable emphasized, either put a space before the “g” or capitalize that “G.” In general, the JAWS dictionary involves a degree of trial and error enhanced by experience. For example, I’ve found that doubling the consonant at the beginning of some words can bring about a desired effect, but not always.



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Annabelle Susan Morison foristnights@comcast.net via<https://support.google.com/mail/answer/1311182?hl=en> groups.io
2:36 PM (1 hour ago)


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the code "ax" stands for a schwa sound in Microsoft SAPI. How would that be represented in JAWS?

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