Characterisation of rhythmic patterns for text-to-speech synthesis

This article proposes an alternative rhythmic unit for the syllable: the inter-Perceptual Center group. This group is delimited by events which can be detected using only acoustic correlates 29]. The rhythmic patterns for French are described using this characterisation: we show that realisation of accents is gradual over the trailed accentual group and that this gradual lengthening is needed for perception. A model of repartition of the IPCG duration among its segmental constituents incorporating automatic generation of pauses (emergence and duration) according to speech rate is then described.