Hokudai/Cast 57: What do 'ann' and 'enni' mean?

On the player to your left,

Click on "Hokudai/Cast 57 Notes Part One" 

to hear the first paragraph in 'normal' human speech.

Click on "Hokudai/Cast 57 Notes" to hear

 a Text-to-Speech version of "How text-to-speech works."

Hokudai/Cast 57 brings you Mt. Paliot's "Lovable Drunkers" and our TTS (Text-to-speech) drama: Dead Men Don't Travel. Also, as April is the beginning of the school year, Word/Play introduces two 'year' related root words: ann and enni (in words such as anniversary, annual, biennial and perennial).

How text-to-speech works. First, you open a TTS application. Hokudai/Cast uses Typeit Readit, which is free, but there are many and some are quite expensive. The TTS application has a window where you enter the words you want to hear. Then you click on Save or Read. The TTS application gives you a file which you edit with an audio editor. Hokudai/Cast used Audacity, which is free, but there are many others. If the audio is okay, you don't have to edit it. 

TTS applications are useful. If you want to know how to pronounce a word, you can enter the word in your TTS application and hear it spoken. If you want to send a voice message to someone but aren't sure of your English, you can use a TTS application. Warning: if the application is in English, it can't pronounce foreign languages very well. If you want to type in Japanese or Chinese, you will need to find a Japanese or Chinese TTS application. 

Next week we hope to have more interviews and more Japanese and Chinese speakers when the students come running onto campus.

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Hokudai/Cast: Your fun-service podcast for learning Japanese, English, and Chinese.