A graphical Tool for Handling Rule Grammars in Java Speech Grammar Format

This paper describes a graphical tool used for generating and depicting rule grammars in the Java Speech Grammar Format (JSGF), which has been developed in the framework of the EC-funded research project GEMINI (Generic Environment for Multilingual Interactive Natural Interfaces, IST-2001-32343). A vocabulary builder component that produces the phonetic transcription of the words included in the grammar file is also incorporated into the tool. Currently, the tool supports embedded grapheme-to-phoneme conversion only for Greek in SAMPA format. However, a language-independent function is included that enables the user to write context-dependent rules for symbol conversions (both grapheme-to-phoneme and phoneme-to-grapheme). Manual vs. tool-based handling of grammars are compared and evaluated in terms of time required for grammar creation and efficiency.