A computational model for a text-to-speech translator in Italian

1. The phonologlcal processor We shaH describe the computer programme for the automatic translation of any text of 1talian into naturaHy fluent speech, or Phonological Processor (FP), which is used to guide a speech synthesizer. The FP maps into prosodic structures the phonologlcal rules of 1talian, Structural information is provided by such hierarchical prosodic constituents as SyHable (S), Metrical Foot (MF), Phonological Word (PW), Intonational Gl'OUp (lG), Onto these structures, phonological rules are applied such as the "leUer-to-sound ll rules, automatic word-stress rules, internaI stress hierarchy rules indicating secondary stress, external sandhi rules, phonologlcal focus assignment, logical focus assignment, The FP constitutes also a model to simulate the reading process aloud, and the psycholinguistics and cognitive aspects related wlII be discussed in the computational model': i. e, the FP simulates the operations carried out by an 1talian speaker when reading aloud any text, To this end the speaker shaH use the rules of his internaI grammar to translate graphic signs into natural speech. These rules can be organized into two levels, At a phonological high level we have suprasegmental rules, and at a low level we have segmental rules, The latter are represented by three levels of structure, that is S, MF, PW and are governed by phonologlcal rules which are meant to render the movements of the vocal tract and the coarticulatory effects which occur regularly at word level and at word boundaries.

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