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Meet Elle & Biera, the North Sami Text-to-Speech Voices, by Acapela GroupMONS, Belgium, May 6, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- 'I am very happy that we now have the possibility to use this technology for the Sami language. The text-to-speech system is a good tool and has become important for many language cultures in the world. It's also a tool that can be used by those attempting to learn Sami, for example by reading the content on the Internet and online newspapers" says Aili Keskitalo, the President of the Sami Parliament. Sami is a language spoken in the north of Norway, Finland and Sweden. Among all different Sami languages, Acapela has developed the most widespread, North Sami, spoken by 20 000 people. The project has been carried out by Divvun and Giellatekno (Centre for Sami language technology at the University of Tromsø) that through a tender process have engaged Acapela Group to make text to speech solutions for North Sami. 'At Acapela we are proud of this achievement and happy to contribute to the spread of the Sami language. North Sami text-to-speech is part of a global project initiated by Sametinget to contribute to continued speaking, teaching and learning of this minority language. This is fully in line with Acapela's approach tolanguages and audio cultural heritage and with our dedication to create voices for all', comments Lars-Erik Larsson, CEO of Acapela Group. Resources collected since the start of the project in 2005 have been used to create the male and female voices that are now available as 'Colibri voices', based on Acapela's HMM technology. Meet Elle & Biera Hear voice samples of Elle & Biera on soundcloud or play with your own Sami words on the online interactive demo . https://soundcloud.com/acapelagroup/sami-north-elle About Acapela group: Contact: [email protected] SOURCE Acapela Group |