Language considerations for developing VoiceXML in Spanish This section contains information that is specific to Spanish. If you are developing Spanish voice applications, use the information in this section, instead of the equivalent US English information sections. v Built-in field types and grammars v Predefined events on page iv v Built-in commands on page iv v Specifying character encoding on page iv v Testing built-in field types on page iv v SSML elements and attributes on page v Built-in field types and grammars Table 1 shows the built-in field types and grammars for Spanish. Table 1. Spanish built-in types. Brackets [] around a keyword mean that the keyword is optional. The vertical-bar symbol indicates a choice between two or more keywords. boolean Users can say one of the positive responses sí, verdadero, afirmativo, cierto, correcto, exacto, seguro, claro, exactamente, correctamente, justo, OK, seguramente, claramente, vale, es verdad, está bien, cómo no, and de acuerdo, or one of the negative responses no, falso, incorrecto, negativo, and inexacto. Users can also provide DTMF input: 1 is yes, and 2 is no. 1
Table 1. Spanish built-in types (continued). Brackets [] around a keyword mean that the keyword is optional. The vertical-bar symbol indicates a choice between two or more keywords. currency Users can say currency values as a combination of a main currency component (euro, peso, dólar), such as treinta y siete euros, and a cent component (céntimo, centavo), such as cincuenta centavos. Users can also say one of these components without the other. If both components are present, they can be either not separated (as in veinte euros cincuenta ), or separated by the word y or the word con (as in dos euros con cincuenta ). A main currency component may be in any of these formats: cero euros, un euro, m euros (where 2 <= m <= 999,999,999) and m (where 1 <= m <= 999,999,999). A cent component may be in any of these formats: cero céntimos(centavos), un céntimo(centavo), n céntimos(centavos) (where 1 <= n <= 99). If both components are present, the cent component can also have the format n (where 0 <= n <= 99). Note that if users just say an integer value m (where 1 <= m <= 999,999,999), this will be interpreted as a number of euros. Note also that users can also speak two numerical values, where the first is between 0 and 999,999,999, and the second is between 0 and 99, optionally separated by the word y or con. This will be interpreted as a number of euros followed by a number of cents. The main currency can also be any of the following: peso argentino, peso chileno, peso colombiano, peso cubano, peso dominicano, peso mexicano, balboa, bolívar, bolíviano, colón, colón costarricense, colón salvadoreño, córdoba, guaraní, lempira, nuevo sol, and quetzal. Users can also provide DTMF input using the numbers 0 through 9 and optionally the * key (to indicate a decimal separator), and must terminate DTMF entry using the # key. The return value sent is a string in the format UUUddddddddd.cc, where UUU is a currency indicator, as shown below. Value Currency PAB balboa VEB bolívar BOB boliviano SVC colón, colón salvadoreño CRC colón costarricense NIO córdoba USD dólar EUR euro PYG guaraní HNL lempira GBP libra esterlina PEN nuevo sol MXN peso, peso mexicano ARS peso argentino CLP peso chileno COP peso colombiano CUP peso cubano DOP peso dominicano GTQ quetzal ECS sucre date Users can say a date using days (cardinal numbers 1 to 31, or the ordinal number primero), months, and years, as well as the words ayer, hoy, and mañana. The year must be between 1900 and 2099. A full date starts with the day number, followed by the word de preceding the month name, or by the word del preceding the month number (a cardinal number between 1 and 12). The month is followed by the word de preceding the year (between 1900 and 2099), for example, siete de junio de dos mil dos. Users can also specify a 2-digit year, such as noventa y cinco. A 2-digit year will be interpreted as being between 1911 and 2010. Users can also say the day and month without specifying a year. This will be interpreted as a date in the current year. Any of these constructs can be preceded by a day of the week, such as viernes siete de junio de dos mil dos. However, the day of the week will be ignored. Thus the specified date will be accepted, whether or not it falls on the specified day. Users can also provide DTMF input in the form yyyymmdd. Note: The date grammar does not perform leap year calculations. February 29th is accepted as a valid date regardless of the year. If desired, your application or servlet can perform the required calculations. The return value sent is a string in the format yyyymmdd, with the VoiceXML browser returning a? in any positions omitted in spoken input. 2
Table 1. Spanish built-in types (continued). Brackets [] around a keyword mean that the keyword is optional. The vertical-bar symbol indicates a choice between two or more keywords. digits Users can say non-negative integer values as strings of individual digits (0 through 9). For example, a user could say cero uno dos tres cuatro cinco seis siete ocho nueve. Users can also provide DTMF input using the numbers 0 through 9, and must terminate DTMF entry using the # key. The return value sent is a string of one or more digits. If the result is subsequently used in <say-as> with the interpret-as value vxml:digits, it will be spoken as a sequence of digits appropriate to the current language. For example, the TTS engine speaks 123456 as uno dos tres cuatro cinco seis. number Users can say natural numbers (that is, positive and negative integers, 0, and decimals) from -999,999,999.9999 to 999,999,999.9999. Users can say the words punto or coma to indicate a decimal separator, menos to indicate a negative number, and más to indicate a positive number (which is the default). Users can also provide DTMF input using the numbers 0 through 9 and optionally the * key (to indicate a comma), and must terminate DTMF entry using the # key. Only positive numbers can be entered using DTMF. The return value sent is a string of one or more digits, 0 through 9, with a decimal point and a + or - sign as applicable. phone Users can say a telephone number, including the optional word extensión or interno, meaning extension. In addition to digits (1 to 9), users can use 2-digit numbers and also the numbers 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, and 900 if they match the end of the telephone number or the end of the extension. Users can also provide DTMF input using the numbers 0 through 9 and optionally the * key (to represent the word extension ), and must terminate DTMF entry using the # key. The return value sent is a string of digits which includes an x if an extension was specified. However, the IBM TTS engine is unable to synthesize the return value for this language. time Users can say a time of day using hours and minutes in either 12-hour clock or 24-hour clock format, as well as the words ahora, mediodía, and medianoche. Times can be stated in any of the following formats: For the 24-hour clock: Una hora y M minutos H horas [y] M minutos H horas y M La una y M [minutos] Las H y M [minutos] La una cero X Las H cero X La una Las H Las H horas where 0 <= H <= 23 (but not 1), 0 <= M <= 59 (minuto instead of minutos when M=1), and 0 <= X <= 9. For the 12 hour clock: las H [en punto] [de la mañana de la tarde de la noche] las H y cuarto [de la mañana de la tarde de la noche] las H y media [de la mañana de la tarde de la noche] las H menos cuarto [de la mañana de la tarde de la noche] las H y M (minutos) [de la mañana de la tarde de la noche] las H menos M (minutos) [de la mañana de la tarde de la noche] where 1 <= H <= 12 (la instead of las when H=1) where 1 <= M <= 29 (minuto instead of minutos when M=1) [el] mediodía [la] medianoche ahora Users can also provide DTMF input using the numbers 0 through 9. The return value sent is a string in the format hhmmx, where x is a for a.m., p for p.m., h for 24 hour format or? if unspecified or ambiguous. For DTMF input, the return value will always be h or?, since there is no mechanism for specifying a.m. or p.m. Language considerations for developing VoiceXML in Spanish 3
Predefined events Table 2 shows the Spanish default event-handler messages for the error, help, and nomatch events. Table 2. Spanish predefined events and event-handler messages Event Default event-handler message error.badfetch error.noauthorization error.semantic error.unsupported.element Perdón, hay que salir debido a un error de proceso. help Perdón, pero no hay ayuda disponible. nomatch Perdón, no se entendió bien. Built-in commands Table 3 shows the built-in VoiceXML browser commands for Spanish: Table 3. Spanish built-in VoiceXML browser commands Grammar name Valid user utterances VoiceXML browser response Quiet/Cancel [por favor] silencio silencio por favor [por favor] cancelar cancelar por favor [por favor] cancele cancele por favor When barge-in is enabled, stops the current spoken output and waits for further instructions from user. Help [por favor] ayuda ayuda por favor Plays the help event-handler message. Specifying character encoding Testing built-in field types The default character encoding for XML documents is utf8, which has 7-bit ASCII as a proper subset. Character codes in VoiceXML documents that are greater than 127 (such as special characters è or ä) will therefore be interpreted as the first byte of a multi-byte utf8 sequence. You can force the XML parser to use another codepage by specifying the desired encoding as the very first thing in the file: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?> Table 4 provides examples of the types of input you might specify when testing a Spanish voice application that uses the built-in field types. Table 4. Sample input for Spanish built-in field types Built-in field type Sample input boolean sí, cierto, exactamente, vale, no, falso currency diez mil pesos nueve euros cincuenta once dólares con diez centavos noventa y ocho céntimos de euro 4
Table 4. Sample input for Spanish built-in field types (continued) Built-in field type Sample input date cinco de marzo trece de abril de dos mil once primero de mayo noviembre del noventa y nueve seis del seis de dos mil dos ayer hoy mañana digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 number diez milliones quinientos mil menos dos coma cinco más dos coma cinco phone siete tres cinco cuatro nueve cero cero cuatro nueve sesenta y siete treinta y seis trescientos extensión once once extensión setenta y dos time las dos las siete y media las nueve y cuarto de la mañana medianoche SSML elements and attributes Table 5. Limitations for Spanish SSML elements Table 5 shows the notes about SSML elements and attributes in Spanish. This tables is applicable to Castilian and Mexican Spanish. <emphasis> This element is not supported. <phoneme> The IPA alphabet is not supported. The IBM alphabet is supported. The IBM alphabet used in SSML refers to the phonology used by IBM TTS. The following example shows the US English phonetic pronunciation of tomato using the IBM TTS phonetic alphabet: <phoneme alphabet="ibm" ph=".0tx.1me.0fo"> tomato </phoneme> For more information on IBM SPRs, see the IBM Text-To-Speech SSML Programming Guide. <prosody> The pitch, range and rate attributes are not supported. <say-as> The interpret-as attribute is only supported with the value vxml:digits. The digits and letters attributes are also supported. Language considerations for developing VoiceXML in Spanish 5