Adobe Reader's Voice

Timothy · Post by **Timothy** » Sat Jul 03, 2004 5:40 pm

Has anybody tried this?

In the Adobe 6.0 Reader there's a tool under View - Read Out Loud that will convert text to speech. I came across it after I installed and put it off for another day. The other day I ran it on some Latin text and...it was funny. You can understand it easily and it is recongnizable as Latin, but it is just funny to hear your computer speak Latin. I have no idea what it does to Greek.

- Tim

Post by **klewlis** » Sat Jul 03, 2004 6:04 pm

I wanted to try it but when I selected "Read Out Loud" I got an error message: "Read Out Loud is not supported on this system". I wonder if it's because I'm on Win98...

Emma_85 · Post by **Emma_85** » Sat Jul 03, 2004 6:37 pm

Maybe I should install vs. 6, I'm still using vs.5 at the moment... I'm sure I must have the newest version lying around on dvd somewhere, I just can't find it right now. Sounds like a fun tool...

Timothy · Post by **Timothy** » Sat Jul 03, 2004 7:23 pm

I'm confidently guessing that Win98 isn't up to the task. When you installed Adobe may have informed you that Win98 wouldn't support every feature; I seem to recall, though, the install tool identifies the system and only installs what runs under it. I suspect that the text to speech module is only for XP and beyond. I wonder if it runs on the Mac?

And yes! It is a lot of fun! It's that old computer voice but they have gotten much better at enunciation and pauses. What I like about it is how it enunciates every syllable. Now if I could only get it to transliterate w for v...

- Tim

Mongoose42 · Post by **Mongoose42** » Sat Jul 03, 2004 7:46 pm

Does the tool work well enough to be used to teach latin pronunciation?
I know several people were looking for Latin audio samples.

Timothy · Post by **Timothy** » Sat Jul 03, 2004 11:06 pm

Mongoose42 wrote:Does the tool work well enough to be used to teach latin pronunciation?
I know several people were looking for Latin audio samples.

No. Honestly, no. It's inappropriate. The tool is meant for a disabled person.

What I meant in my comment was that often it is easy to slur over syllables in words or stumble over how various consonant combinations could be pronounced. Since Latin is so close to English, it can help to hear all the various syllables enunciated. However, the tone isn't there yet. And a number of patterns aren't possible. -que isn't heard, really; there are other words that come out as English: civis comes out as SIV-is rather than KEY-wis, etc.

Also, it must have a text PDF file. So, for example, the D'Ooge book won't work because it's an image facsimile. But you can get it to read the English translations. Just don't expect it to behave as anything but a computer. It mechanically reads sentence after sentence. Also, if there are any punctuations marks such as ( or [ it speaks them as in, "left square bracket.....right square bracket"

None the less, it's fun!

I think annis posted a site that lead me to a really nice spot that has the reconstructed latin pronunciation: http://www.rhapsodes.fll.vt.edu/Latin.htm

This site uses Real Player files but the readers are good and it is the only place I've come across that reads speech not poetry. Poetic pronunciations aren't the same, all that meter and stress and rolling r's. Anyway, it's got the first parts of the first oration against cataline, which is just so nice.

For me I think the best way to go is to buy an audio CD. I'm waiting for "The Pronunciation of Classical Latin". Early on I got a inexpensive tape from Language/30 that has phrases just to get the basics of the pronunciation.

- Tim