Design Methodology for Bilingual Pronunciation Dictionary

This paper presents the design methodology for the bilingual pronunciation dictionary of sound reference usage, which reflects the cross-linguistic, dialectal, first language (L1) interfered, biological and allophonic variations. The design methodology features 1) the comprehensive coverage of allophonic variation, 2) concise data entry composed of a balanced distribution of dialects, genders, and ages of speakers, 3) bilingual data coverage including L1-interfered speech, and 4) eurhythmic arrangements of the recording material for temporal regularity. The recording consists of the triple way comparison of 1) English sounds spoken by native English speakers, 2) Korean sounds spoken by native Korean speakers, and 3) English sounds spoken by Korean speakers. This paper also presents 1) the quality controls and 2) the structure and format of the data. The intended usage of this “sound-based” bilingual dictionary aims at 1) cross-linguistic and acoustic research, 2) application to speech recognition, synthesis and translation, and 3) foreign language learning including exercises.