Syllabification: An effective approach for a TTS system for Konkani

Speech Synthesis System converts written text to speech. To build a natural sounding speech synthesis system, it is essential that the text processing component produce an appropriate sequence of units. Syllable preserves co-articulation effects within the sound unit. In our current work, concatenative method is use to develop a synthesis system using syllable as the basic unit which includes Jodhakshars, Nasal words, Diphthongs and Vowel Harmony words. It is very difficult to just concatenate phonemes, syllables and words to produce effective speech as output. In this paper, we have discussed the text to speech conversion and related issues for Konkani language. The paper also discusses the improvements possible with Syllabification considering vital challenges in Konkani Language.