pronunciation rules for types of symbols

We need a way to classify a group of words that are too numerous to itemize and assign a set of pronunciation rules to that group. This is for PLS 1.0, <http://www.w3.org/TR/pronunciation-lexicon/>.

Symbols in a category are an example. Explanatory prefixes exclusively for speech might be desired, because the visual representation is more informative than a literal speaking would usually be. E.g.:
%33
/percent thirty-three/: confusing to the unfamiliar public
/percent-encoded percent three three/: prefixed

While programmers understand %33, the public doesn't. A string like %67%75%80%75 read literally and without an explanation will confuse most of the public.

A character entity might appear in a natural-language string solely because HTML requires it for proper rendering by one user agent, but pronunciation may have to treat it differently. E.g., for &amp;:
/ampersand a m p semicolon/: literal & confusing to most listeners
/ampersand amp semicolon/
/ampersand amp/: the semicolon seems like ordinarily silent punctuation
/character entity ampersand a m p semicolon/
/character entity for ampersand/
/ampersand/: formal interpretation
/and/: semiformal interpretation

On the other hand, silencing of what is visible might be appropriate. It nmight be desired to read long runs of "0x62356 0x8172367 0x8364856 0x865892 . . ." without pronouncing the hex visual prefixes.

I'm not sure if the lexeme element's role attribute would solve this problem. If role is too specific, I propose a new attribute, perhaps number-role or super-role, the latter supporting more values, such as "number-year" and "number-quantity".

I assume role can already handle formality. If not, I propose an attribute: formality="" with values "formal", "semiformal", and "informal", and probably others.

Quantities are not supposed to be pronounced with "and" except at the location of a decimal point, e.g., six and three fourths, although perhaps informality allows it.

Thank you.

-- 
Nick

Received on Sunday, 20 September 2009 23:50:04 UTC