goldendict/goldendict — Issue #57: Adding new pronunciation engines
Author: ENigma885
Created: 2011-10-12 08:07:53+00:00
State: open

**Problem :-
- GoldenDict has only one pronunciation engine which is Forvo, which faces many issues like sound quality, noise, lack of pronunciation standards.
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**Suggested Solution :-
- Add more reliable pronunciation engines like Google's Dictionary and The Free Dictionary; their resources are available for unlimited free access.
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**More Details :-
1- Google Dictionary:
- Searching for "Phantasmagoria", for instance, can be found @http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&q=phantasmagoria&tbs=dfn:1&tbo=u&sa=X&ei=uEOVToq4NoKl-gaThMjqAQ&ved=0CB0QkQ4&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=4fdef1ac3fc44f70&biw=1280&bih=841 and the pronunciation can be accessed @http://ssl.gstatic.com/dictionary/static/sounds/de/0/phantasmagoria.mp3 ALSO @http://www.gstatic.com/dictionary/static/sounds/de/0/phantasmagoria.mp3
- So this relatively high quality, bit rate of VBR around 128kb/sec, mp3 file can be accessed by simple syntax of the url by only changing the name of the mp3 file in the url itself; pronouncing WORD is @http://www.gstatic.com/dictionary/static/sounds/de/0/word.mp3 (all letters in lowercase)

2- The Free Dictionary:
- It offers both American and British pronunciations
- Searching for "Tranquility", for instance, can be found @http://www.thefreedictionary.com/tranquility
- The American and British pronunciation can be heard by clicking on the US and UK flags respectively.
- The mp3 resource can be found @http://img.tfd.com/pron/mp3/en/UK/st/stsfsgdgsjsdsrslsgsjs3ygh7h3.mp3 (British)
and @http://img.tfd.com/pron/mp3/en/US/st/stsfsgdgsjsdsrslsgsjs3ygh7h3.mp3 (American)

3- Google Translate TTS engine:
- It's only a TTS engine, which depends on common pronunciation rules to pronounce any word even if it doesn't have an English pronunciation basically making it less preferable standard-wise.
- Searching for "Translucent" for instance can be found @http://translate.google.co.uk/?hl=en&tab=wT#auto|en|Translucent
- The mp3 file can be found @http://translate.google.co.uk/translate_tts?ie=UTF-8&q=transleucent&tl=en&prev=input
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**Additional Notes :-
- Regarding any legal or copyrights hassle, the files are available for the public and they are not restricted to be used only through a web browser for sure.