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Na'vi talker

Started by Ftiafpi, January 10, 2010, 10:26:37 PM

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Ftiafpi

So, I'm wondering if people would be interested in collaborating to make a Na'vi computer program that can speak a typed sentence in Na'vi?

I would happily do the audio recording but have no real programming skills other than visual basic (and I haven't used that in years). I figured that since Na'vi is a spoken language only something like this would be quite easy, we would just create a program that links up audio files based on characters strings entered and then it plays them all when the user presses a button.

Hawnuyu atìtse'a

Like a text-to-speech program? It would be good, although it wouldn't be as flowing as natural speech. Unavoidable with a computer program I guess. I'd love to see it come to fruition though.
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Sngä'i Tìrey-yä

I don't think I could contribute anything but my undying love and support for this project.

...so you may have that.
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Hawnuyu atìtse'a

Modifying a text to speech program to suit na'vi phonetics would be the easiest way, but I don't know programming so yeah.
"And that's how you scatter the roaches."- Col. Miles Quaritch.

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jparachoniak

Quote from: Ftiafpi on January 10, 2010, 10:26:37 PM
I would happily do the audio recording but have no real programming skills

The way text to speech is generally done is with a neural network that is trained off of a more specific digitizer program (ie slow and more fixed in the words it can say).  From a reading point of view na'vi is relativity simple (in that one letter one sound so it is only sounds coming in and out of the letters the program needs to learn) so it would be more coding up the neural net and getting annotated sound files (ie sound files with information about this sound comes at this time etc).

I can do some reading today to make sure my memory isn't wrong (been a while since I looking up how text to speech works).
mì Soviet Russia, ngal ke nume nìna'viti, ngati nume nìna'vil

Ftiafpi

Another thing I'm wondering is perhaps this wouldn't be a good tool since it obviously wouldn't be perfect at pronunciation so it may lead people to bad habits.

I envision this being used for someone who knows the proper pronunciation but sees an unfamiliar sentence and would like to know quickly a rough pronunciation of it.

Just some more thoughts, I'd still love to do this.

Hawnuyu atìtse'a

You could use audio files of each individual word being spoken, but infixes would create a problems. Unless you feel like recordng every conjugation possibility, this is going to be difficult at some level.
"And that's how you scatter the roaches."- Col. Miles Quaritch.

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kewnya txamew'itan

How would it know where to put syllable breaks in ambiguous cases (mawey (ma.wey/maw.ey) springs to mind)?

If it needs to be told where they are then I can only see it being of limited use in the application you seem to be aiming it for ma ftiafpi.

That's not to say I think it's useless though, just that I see at as being better for newer learners who are unsure how to pronounce a strange conjugation they've come across.
Internet Acronyms Nìna'vi

hamletä tìralpuseng lena'vi sngolä'eiyi. tìkangkem si awngahu ro
http://bit.ly/53GnAB
The translation of Hamlet into Na'vi has started! Join with us at http://bit.ly/53GnAB

txo nga new oehu pivlltxe nìna'vi, nga oer 'eylan si mì fayspuk (http://bit.ly/bp9fwf)
If you want to speak na'vi to me, friend me on facebook (http://bit.ly/bp9fwf)

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Ftiafpi

Quote from: kawngä mungeyu on January 20, 2010, 01:01:06 PM
How would it know where to put syllable breaks in ambiguous cases (mawey (ma.wey/maw.ey) springs to mind)?

If it needs to be told where they are then I can only see it being of limited use in the application you seem to be aiming it for ma ftiafpi.

That's not to say I think it's useless though, just that I see at as being better for newer learners who are unsure how to pronounce a strange conjugation they've come across.

Yeah, I've more or less abandoned this based on the technical problems, pretty much all similar to the one you mentioned.

Will Txankamuse

your best bet would be to convert the na'vi words into IPA and then use an existing text-to-speech engine such as the AT&T engine which accepts IPA if you specify the source type e.g.:

<phoneme alphabet="ipa" ph="kæt"> </phoneme>

to actually perform the translation.

Will
Txo ayngal tse'a keyeyit, oeyä txoa livu.  I am learning Na'vi too!
If you see a mistake in my post please correct me!

Please help on the Movie Lines in Na'vi wiki page

FamousMassacre1

I am making a program right now.

Robert Nantangä Tirea

I would be happy to lend my voice. I have a headset and I'm good at manipulating my sound recording devices/setting so I'm fairly confident I could provide high quality audio.

I would consider myself to be accentless, but this is subjective to the listener.

If you want a test just let me know what words you want to work with and I'll send some audio files your way.

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Ftiafpi

Quote from: FamousMassacre1 on January 20, 2010, 08:01:27 PM
I am making a program right now.

Yes, I would also love to lend my voice for this. Based on the technical difficulties I'm not sure how will this can be accomplished but if someone's willing to try I'm certainly on-board.

Miyapxi


A better alternative might be creating a dictionary of voiced words.

Then at a later time use said dictionary to say the words consecutively.  The main problem still remains though, you wouldn't have much for inflection in your sentences.

kewnya txamew'itan

We've got Taronyu's audio dictionary for that. It's good but it could do with some more words. I probably ought to record some words so that I can contribute.
Internet Acronyms Nìna'vi

hamletä tìralpuseng lena'vi sngolä'eiyi. tìkangkem si awngahu ro
http://bit.ly/53GnAB
The translation of Hamlet into Na'vi has started! Join with us at http://bit.ly/53GnAB

txo nga new oehu pivlltxe nìna'vi, nga oer 'eylan si mì fayspuk (http://bit.ly/bp9fwf)
If you want to speak na'vi to me, friend me on facebook (http://bit.ly/bp9fwf)

numena'viyä hapxì amezamkivohinve
learnnavi's

Ftiafpi

Quote from: kawngä mungeyu on January 22, 2010, 12:43:43 PM
We've got Taronyu's audio dictionary for that. It's good but it could do with some more words. I probably ought to record some words so that I can contribute.

Yeah, get to that, I'm all alone out there :P

Robert Nantangä Tirea

In addition to the inflection issue (hard to solve, seperate solutions for solving), is the issue of using the same voice. Once a template of all the necessary utterances is formed, we could have multiple people do a complete database in the way that the AT&T Text to Voice program gives you the options for different voices.

How does a man choose between fresh and fly?

COSPLAY LIKE A BOSS!

NotW Celebrity #11!

Erimeyz

Quote from: kawngä mungeyu on January 22, 2010, 12:43:43 PM
I probably ought to record some words so that I can contribute.

You probably ought to.

  - Eri

Kob

Hello Tsu'tey

I'am a hobby programmer too.I don't konow in wich language
do you write this programm , but i still want to help you.
i'm able to compile libary dll , wich you still can use in your programm.
If you need any suport or something else , i still can try to help you.

PS : Sorry for my bad english im from german, And im learning Na'vi since 2 day's
Ich weis nicht mit welchen waffen wir im 3 weltkrieg kämpfen, aber die vom 4 kenne ich : Söcke und Keulen.

Einstein