Speech service phonetic sets

The Speech service defines phonetic alphabets ("phone sets" for short), consisting of seven languages; en-US, fr-FR, de-DE, es-ES, ja-JP, zh-CN, and zh-TW. The Speech service phone sets typically map to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) . Speech service phone sets are used in conjunction with the Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML), as part of the Text-to-speech service offering. In this article, you'll learn how these phone sets are mapped and when to use which phone set.

English suprasegmentals

Example 1 (Onset for consonant, word initial for vowel) Example 2 (Intervocalic for consonant, word medial nucleus for vowel) Example 3 (Coda for consonant, word final for vowel) Comments
burger /b er 1 r - g ax r/ falafel /f ax - l aa 1 - f ax l/ guitar /g ih - t aa 1 r/ Speech service phone set put stress after the vowel of the stressed syllable
inopportune /ih 2 - n aa - p ax r - t uw 1 n/ dissimilarity /d ih - s ih 2- m ax - l eh 1 - r ax - t iy/ workforce /w er 1 r k - f ao 2 r s/ Speech service phone set put stress after the vowel of the sub-stressed syllable

English vowels

sapi ipa Example 1 Example 2 Example 3
iy i eat feel valley
ih ɪ if fill
ey eɪ ate gate day
eh ɛ every pet meh (rare word finally)
ae æ active cat nah (rare word finally)
aa ɑ obstinate poppy rah (rare word finally)
ao ɔ orange cause Utah
uh ʊ book
ow oʊ old clone go
uw u Uber boost too
ah ʌ uncle cut
ay aɪ ice bite fly
aw aʊ out south cow
oy ɔɪ oil join toy
y uw ju Yuma human few
ax ə ago woman area

English R-colored vowels

sapi ipa Example 1 Example 2 Example 3
ih r ɪɹ ears tiramisu near
eh r ɛɹ airplane apparently scare
uh r ʊɹ cure
ay r aɪɹ Ireland fireplace choir
aw r aʊɹ hours powerful sour
ao r ɔɹ orange moral soar
aa r ɑɹ artist start car
er r ɝ earth bird fur
ax r ɚ allergy supper

English Semivowels

sapi ipa Example 1 Example 2 Example 3
w w with, suede always
y j yard, few onion

English aspirated oral stops

sapi ipa Example 1 Example 2 Example 3
p p put happen flap
b b big number crab
t t talk capital sought
d d dig random rod
k k cut slacker Iraq
g g go ago drag

English Nasal stops

sapi ipa Example 1 Example 2 Example 3
m m mat, smash camera room
n n no, snow tent chicken
ng ŋ link sing

English fricatives

sapi ipa Example 1 Example 2 Example 3
f f fork left half
v v value event love
th θ thin empathy month
dh ð then mother smooth
s s sit risk facts
z z zap busy kids
sh ʃ sh e abbreviation rush
zh ʒ Jacques pleasure garage
h h help enhance a-ha!

English affricates

sapi ipa Example 1 Example 2 Example 3
ch tʃ chin future attach
jh dʒ joy original orange

English approximants

sapi ipa Example 1 Example 2 Example 3
l l lid, glad palace chill
r ɹ red, bring borrow tar