Patent Document ID: 7877259
Application ID: 11547369

Base Claim:
1. A computer-implemented method of synthesizing speech from text, the method comprising: inputting text to be synthesized to a computerized system; electronically marking the text with electronic versions of one or more prosodic graphical symbols, the electronically marked text being displayable or printable as human-readable text marked with the prosodic graphical symbols, to indicate to a speaker desired speech characteristics to be employed in speaking the text, wherein the prosodic graphical symbols indicate a desired prosody and include intelligibility pronunciation notations in sequence with the text and pitch change notations in sequence with the text; and generating a synthesized speech output comprising phonetic data corresponding with the marked up text and having the prosody indicated by the prosodic graphical symbols.

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Claim 8:
8. A method according to claim 1 comprising placing the prosodic graphical symbols adjacent to the text to be spoken, coordinating the prosodic graphical symbols in a row directly above the text, placing the prosodic graphical symbols selectively beneath the text or placing the prosodic graphical symbols both above the text and beneath the text.