[Espeak-general] English pronunciation improvements

[Reece D. <ms...@go...>]

Hi,

----- *stein

The English rules have an entry for *stein, pronouncing the s as a sh
sound. This means that words like Einstein and Frankenstein are
pronounced with the s as a sh, which is incorrect (they should be
pronounced as an s).

en_rules:

-            stein        StaIn
+            stein        staIn // Einstein, Frankenstein, etc.

Is there any reason why this rule was put in place? What words is it correcting?

NOTE: without this rule, stein is pronounced sti:n (Einstein -->
'aInsti:n instead of 'aInstaIn).

----- *atrix / *atrices

The following adds rules for *atrix and *atrices to catch words like
matrix, mediatrix, administratrix, executrix, etc.

en_list:

+Beatrix            b'i@trIks
-matrices         meItr@si:z
-matrix           meItrIks

en_rules:

          m) atur         @tSU@
          l) ature (_     @tS3
+            atrices (_   'eItr@si:z
+            atrix (_     'eItrIks

----- Other Words

The following is a set of words that are mispronounced by eSpeak that
I am maintaining:

cat > en_extra << EOS
// words

breezeblock		br'i:zbl0k
chateau			S'atoU
chimera			kaIm'i@r@
coed			koU'Ed
girly			g'3:li
locale			loUk'A:l
lunchroom		l'VntSru:m
machinegun		m@S'i:n;_g'Vn
magestic		madZ'EstIk
polytechnic		p,0lIt'EknIk
preppy			pr'Epi
raquet			r'akIt
raquetball		r'akItb,O:l
reconvened		r,i:k0nv'i:nd
redone			ri:d'Vn
synergy            s'In3dZ,I
vaseline		v'as@l,i:n
yummy			j'Vmi

// onomatopea

tsk            t'@sk            // 'tsk' phonemes don't get pronounced correctly

// abbreviations

DOW            d'aU        // DOW Jones index
UCLA            j'u:_s'i:;_'El_'eI
NATO            n'eItoU

// people's names

Aggie            'agi
Beatrice        b'i@trIs
Beatriz            b'i@trIz
Charlotte        S'A@l@t
Elise            Il'i:z
Lindsay            l'Inzi:
Mindy            m'Indi
Rachael            r'eItS@L
Rees            r'i:s
Reese            r'i:s
Sanchez            s'antSEz

// places

Cincinnati        s,InsIn'atI
Devon            d'Ev@n
Gomera            goUm'e@r@
Ipanema            Ip@n'i:m@
Tenerife        t,En3r'i:f
EOS

- Reece