XML Elves

The W3C Voice Browser Working Group has posted the last call working draft of the Speech Synthesis Markup Language Version 1.1. "This document enhances SSML 1.0 [SSML] to provide better support for a broader set of natural (human) languages. To determine in what ways, if any, SSML is limited by its design with respect to supporting languages that are in large commercial or emerging markets for speech synthesis technologies but for which there was limited or no participation by either native speakers or experts during the development of SSML 1.0, the W3C held three workshops on the Internationalization of SSML. The first workshop [WS], in Beijing, PRC, in October 2005, focused primarily on Chinese, Korean, and Japanese languages, and the second [WS2], in Crete, Greece, in May 2006, focused primarily on Arabic, Indian, and Eastern European languages. The third workshop [WS3], in Hyderabad, India, in January 2007, focused heavily on Indian and Middle Eastern languages. Information collected during these workshops was used to develop a requirements document [REQS11]. Changes from SSML 1.0 are motivated by these requirements."

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