[mary-users] Looking for Paid Development Assistance for ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian)

[Kalani Bright]

Aloha,

I'm search for development help (paid) in creating a TTS for the Hawaiian Language, either voice (en_US) or a separate language (haw) support.

I've taken a look at the sources as well as the VoiceBuilder; but haven't yet been able to get anything working. Are there developers/freelancers available (paid) who could assist with the creation of the Hawaiian Language (ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi) or as a voice?   This is needed to help accelerate the recovery of the Hawaiian language in communities here.  The Hawaiian Kingdom was overthrown with assistance from the US government in 1893 and the language banned.  We are have some successes but need to modernize our approaches - TTS is one of those ways.  Mahalo for the great open source tool.

Hawaiian has 13 letters, aeiouhklmnpw and ʻ (ʻokina), the vowels sound similar to spanish and we have a macron called the kahakō which goes above vowels (āēīōū) and lengthens the sound. There is also some vowel blending (think kaeo) which can occur between words too (think ka eo).

Is anyone able to look at this and help. I am considering all sorts of help from basic guidance, to voice building assistance (voice data/text would be provided), to the creation of a totally new tts language. (I am a software engineer not very familiar with nlp/tts). I am able to likely offer good compensation (through my employer) who is interested in developing this language in tts technology for non-profit release to the public.

If you or someone familiar with the MaryTTS system is available to provide assistance then please let me know.

Mahalo nui,

Kalani Bright
Solutions Engineer & Design Lead
Kanaeokana (Kula Hawai‘i Network) Support
Kamehameha Schools
808.534.8171 (keʻena / office)
858.705.7923 (paʻalima / cell)
kabright at ksbe.edu

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