== Support for explicit prosody specifications == MARY TTS support explicit prosody specification using 'prosody' element as described in W3C Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) recommendations; and the different attributes in 'prosody' element like 'rate', 'pitch' and 'contour' are used as specifications to modify predicted phone durations and pitch contour before passing them to synthesizer. Example: {{{

Welcome to the world of speech synthesis!

}}} '''1. Adjusting Speech Rate''' Example 1: {{{

I am now speaking twice as fast.

}}} Example 2: {{{

I am now speaking 30% more slowly.

}}} '''2. Adjusting Pitch level''' Example 1: {{{

I am now speaking with 3/4 pitch.

}}} Example 2: {{{

This is five semitones lower.

}}} '''3. Shaping intonation contour''' Example 1: {{{

I am talking with rising intonation.

}}}