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Nodes and Palette Options > Detailed Palette Option Descriptions > Emphasis
 
Emphasis

Type

SSML item

Available from

Any level tab in the Prompt File Editor. For more information about the Prompt File Editor, see Using the Prompt File Editor.

Purpose

In natural speech, some words are emphasized more than others. That is, we place a greater stress on some words than others when we talk. The Emphasis item causes the speech synthesis engine to place emphasis on selected text to be rendered.

Note:

The Emphasis item and its properties function correctly only with SSML-compliant speech synthesis engines. The Microsoft Speech SDK, which is used by Dialog Designer during application simulation, is not an SSML-compliant speech synthesis engine, so any settings you make with this item are ignored. For more information about the SSML standard, see the Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) Version 1.0 W3C Recommendation.

Behavior

When you place an Emphasis item in a prompt, you can choose to either:

If you place the Emphasis item at the root level of the prompt, the setting of the Emphasis item affects all the TTS and text variables segments from that point forward. It remains in effect for the rest of the prompt or up to the point where you place another Emphasis item at the root level.

If you attach the Emphasis item to a particular TTS or text variable segment, the setting of the Emphasis item affects only that TTS or text variable segment.

So, for example, to create a TTS sentence that says, "That car is a beautiful one," with a strong emphasis on the word "beautiful":

  1. Create a prompt with three TTS prompt segments:
  1. Attach an Emphasis item to the second segment with a Level setting of strong.

Properties

Emphasis Setting

Description

strong

Applies a great amount of emphasis to the selected text.

medium

(default) Applies a moderate amount of emphasis to the selected text.

none

Applies no emphasis to the selected text. You can use this setting, in effect, to cancel a prior Emphasis item setting.

reduced

In effect, acts as the opposite of emphasizing a word. This setting actually reduces the normal amount of emphasis on the selected text. For example, "going to" with a setting of reduced might be rendered as "gonna."


Note:

The actual amount of emphasis applied to the text depends on the speech synthesis engine. The amount of emphasis also depends on the language being spoken. This is because each language indicates emphasis differently, based on a combination of pitch changes, timing changes, loudness, and other acoustic differences.

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