Voice conversion system to emotional speech in multiple languages based on three-layered model for dimensional space

Commonalities and differences of human perception for perceiving emotions in speech among different languages in dimensional space have been investigated in previous work. Results show that human perception for different languages is identical in dimensional space. Directions from neutral voice to other emotional states are common among languages. According to this result, we assume that, given the same direction in dimensional space, we can convert the neutral voices in multiple languages to emotional ones with the same impression of emotion. It means that the emotion conversion system could work for other languages even if it is trained with a databases in one language. We try to convert neutral speech in two different languages, English and Chinese using an emotion conversion system trained with Japanese database. Chinese is a tone language, English is a stress language and Japanese is an accent language. We find that all converted voices can convey the same impression as Japanese voices. On the case, we can make a conclusion that given the same direction in dimensional space, the synthesized speech among multiple language can convey the same impression of emotion. In a word, the Japanese emotion conversion system is compatible to other languages.