Device Speech Rules

The Honeywell text-to-speech (TTS) engine defines how words and data strings should be pronounced. A unique engine is used for each language spoken by a Honeywell voice device; however, there are some rules supported by the TTS across languages. The following content contains general rules for how the device speaks letters, words, and phrases. These rules are based on the performance of Honeywell Talkman devices; speech recognition on other devices may vary.

• The Talkman device uses standard phonetic rules to speak prompt text. Some words do not follow phonetic rules, and they will be mispronounced. If you find that the device mispronounces a word, spell the word the way it sounds (for example, use “hite” for “height”).
• The Talkman device speaks words with all capital letters as acronyms, such as USA. When writing prompt phrases, do not include spaces between the capital letters in an abbreviation (USA, not U S A).
• The Talkman device speaks words with all capital letters and spaces between the letters using the phonetic alphabet. For example, if the word is “M P H” with spaces between each letter, the device will say, “Mike, Papa, Hotel,” whereas, if the word is “MPH,” the device will say “M, P, H.”
• The Talkman device can modify its pronunciation of a prompt based on the presence of a period, question mark, or exclamation point.
• A comma in a prompt causes the Talkman device to pause slightly, and commas in a series lengthen the pause. A second comma lengthens the pause slightly, and every additional comma beyond that adds 50 milliseconds to a pause. When you create a pause, type the commas with no spaces between them.
• The Talkman device does not recognize special characters. You must spell out special characters, such as the dollar sign (5 dollars, not $5), unless there is a phonetic substitution configured for the character.

Phrase Sent	Phonetic Pronunciation	Rules Applied
ABC	"ehe bee see"	Because these letters are capitalized, the device speaks this string as if it is an acronym. So, each letter in the string is spoken.
A B C	"alpha bravo charlie" (or phonetic substitution equivalent)	In this example the letters are still capitalized. However, with spaces between the characters, the device speaks the phonetic substitution equivalent for each letter.
abc	"abk"	In these examples, there are no spaces between the characters, and the alpha characters are not capitalized. The device attempts to speak these examples as words.
24	"twenty-four"
a b c	"ehe bee see"	In these examples, the spaces between each character alert the device that each character in the string should be spoken. Because the alpha characters are lowercase, the device attempts to speak each letter as a word as opposed to speaking "alpha bravo charlie."
2 4	"two four"