W3C releases Last Call Working Draft of Pronunciation Lexicon Specification (PLS)

W3C releases Last Call Working Draft of Pronunciation Lexicon 
Specification (PLS)

The accurate specification of pronunciation is critical to the success 
of speech applications. Most Automatic Speech Recognition and 
Text-To-Speech  synthesis engines internally provide extensive high 
quality lexicons with pronunciation information for many words and 
phrases. To ensure a maximum coverage of the words or phrases used by an 
application, application-specific pronunciations may be required. These 
are most commonly needed for proper nouns such as surnames or business 
names.

The Pronunciation Lexicon Specification (PLS) is designed to enable 
interoperable specification of pronunciation information for both ASR 
and TTS engines within voice browsing applications. The language is 
intended to be easy to use by developers while supporting the accurate 
specification of pronunciation information for international use. Last 
Call Working Draft of PLS is available for review at 
http://www.w3.org/TR/pronunciation-lexicon/

Last Call means that the Working Group believes that this specification 
is technically sound and therefore wishes this to be the Last Call for 
comments. If the feedback is positive, the Working Group plans to submit 
it for consideration as a W3C Candidate Recommendation. Comments can be 
sent until March 15, 2006 Comments and discussion are welcomed on the 
public mailing list < www-voice@w3.org <mailto:www-voice@w3.org> >. To 
subscribe, send an email to <www-voice-request@w3. org 
<mailto:www-voice-request@w3.org>> with the word subscribe in the 
subject line (include the word unsubscribe if you want to unsubscribe). 
The archive <http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-voice/> for the 
list is accessible on-line.

The W3C Voice Browser Working Group plans to submit  PLS as a W3C 
Candidate Recommendation after the PLS specification has been widely 
reviewed during the review period ending March 15 and after developers 
have implementation experience with the specification. 

Jim Larson
Co-Chair, W3C Voice BrowserWorking Group