From yesterday's Toronto Star, "
The Fixer: I say Spa-dinah, you say Spa-deenah"
Computers are always supposed to get it right, but the TTC’s computer-generated voice always gets Spadina wrong.
TTC riders have probably noticed that announcements over the public address system are being made by a well-spoken fellow who does not sound quite human.
For years, people complained that TTC service announcements were garbled and undecipherable. An important message about a service interruption, for instance, could not be understood, leaving riders guessing about its intent.
The TTC listened, and last month replaced real voices with “text-to-voice messaging software,” in which a typed message is converted to language spoken by a disembodied, computerized voice.
The feedback from riders has been almost entirely positive, the TTC says, with many saying it is much easier to hear and understand than the old system.
But we’ve had a half-dozen emails about the inability of the robo-voice to properly say Spadina, which it insists on pronouncing Spa-dee-na.
“What can be done about fixing the computerized TTC alert voice they’ve started using?” asked Jeremy Greenberg.
“I’m already sick of hearing Yonge-University-SpadEEna line. How could they let that mispronunciation go unnoticed? A simple phonetic fix would get the program reading that text properly.”
Jason Cahill says he loves “the new automated-sounding male voice that loudly and clearly announces delays throughout the system, but rather gratingly says Spa-DEE-na.
“An organization like the TTC should have caught this long before now.”
STATUS: Jessica Martin, who deals with media for the TTC, said the new software had problems pronouncing a few words, which was resolved by typing the word phonetically. But no matter which way Spadina is entered, the voice says Spa-dee-na, said Martin. A software upgrade should take care of it, she said, noting the overall response to the new system is so positive the TTC is willing to live with the mistaken pronunciation. Brad Ross, who’s in charge of TTC communications, later told us the software should be upgraded before the end of next week.
