#88 [it] Voiced/unvoiced "s" and "z"

[Stemby]

Hi,
I'm using eSpeak 1.45.04.

In Italian the "s" character can be pronounced as "s" ("s sorda") or "z" ("s sonora"), but the choice is not free: there are some rules.

I find that the pronunciation should be managed more accurately. For example "sbatto", "smetto", "sdentato", "esborso", "giurisdizione" need "z"[1]:

$ espeak -xv it smetto
sm'et:o

(should be "zm'et:o")

Regards,
Carlo

[1] http://www.accademiadellacrusca.it/faq/faq_risp.php?id=4012&ctg_id=93

[Mario Frasca]

I want to confirm and add that the voiced/unvoiced problem plays also for the Z. espeak uses far too often the unvoiced variant.
for the S, espeak uses a regional rule, used in Northern Italy (single S between vocals is always voiced).

I do not manage to follow the accademia della crusca link, I'm adding an other one:
http://languagespeedway.com/page/official/italian/pronunciation7theletterssandz

but then, since the choice between voiced/unvoiced for Z and S is very regional, I would very much like to be offered the ability to instruct espeak to pronounce words like "COSA" the northern way (with voiced S) or the standard way (with unvoiced S) or like ZIO and PRANZO the "wrong" way, which to half of the Italian population (me included) will likely sound "correct".

I suggest that the bug report name be changed to "italian voiced/unvoiced S and Z".

[Stemby]

Updating the previous link:
http://www.accademiadellacrusca.it/it/lingua-italiana/consulenza-linguistica/domande-risposte/pronuncia-s

Bye,
Carlo

[Jonathan Duddington]

I've fixed there words in eSpeak version 1.46.29 at
http://espeak.sf.net/test/latest.html

but Italian has other ambiguities between [s] and [z] sounds.