Spanish Galician (gl-ES)
This documentation was updated on October 31, 2023.
Creating grammars
The following subsections describe key issues for working with grammar documents in the Galician language.
Character encoding
Nuance Recognizer has full internal Unicode support. For example, you can create your grammars using UTF-8 or Latin-1 (also known as ISO-8859-1) character encoding. For example, your grammar header might be:
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<grammar xml:lang="gl-ES" version="1.0" root="test">
Below are codes for writing some common Galician characters. These are useful if you do not have access to a Galician keyboard, and are typed by pressing the Alt key while entering digits on your keyboard (after typing the last digit, the desired character appears on your screen when you release the Alt key):
Alt/0224 = à | Alt/0237 = í |
---|---|
Alt/0225 = á | Alt/0239 = ï |
Alt/0231 = ç | Alt/0242 = ò |
Alt/0232 = è | Alt/0243 = ó |
Alt/0233 = é | Alt/0249 = ù |
Alt/164 = ñ | Alt/0250 = ú |
If you do not have access to a keyboard for your target language, you can use the Windows character map. (Choose the “System” font and the “Latin-1” subset.)
Start _→_ Programs _→_ Accessories _→_ System Tools _→_ Character Map
alphanum_lc built-in grammar
The alphanum_lc grammar recognizes a connected string of up to 20 digits and lower case alphabetic characters.
For example, this grammar could be used to recognize a product code or order number.
Characters are the letters a-z, and ñ.
Digits are 0-9.
Non-alphanumeric characters such as hyphens (-), dots (.), and underscores (_) are not recognized; if spoken they reduce recognition accuracy.
Returned keys/values
MEANING | Contains a string of ISO-8859-1 digits and lowercase letters, with no embedded spaces. |
---|---|
SWI_literal | Contains the exact text that was recognized. |
Note: the alphanum_lc built-in grammar replaces the alphanum built-in grammar.
alphanum built-in grammar
The alphanum grammar is identical with the alphanum_ lc grammar for Galician.
boolean built-in grammar
The boolean grammar collects an affirmative or negative response.
Properties
The y and n parameters let you associate any two touchtone buttons as synonyms for yes and no.
Parameter | Description |
---|---|
y | Desired DTMF digit to be equivalent to “si” (default = 1) |
n | Desired DTMF digit to be equivalent to “non” (default = 2) |
Examples
Caller says | MEANING key |
---|---|
si | true |
non | false |
digits built-in grammar
Valid characters are the digits 0-9.
Vocabulary items and pronunciations
This chapter describes considerations for vocabularies and their pronunciations in Galician (gl-ES). Your product documentation covers details about how to work with pronunciations and dictionaries.
Specially tuned pronunciations
The following table shows common words that are fine-tuned by Nuance.
Words with tuned pronunciations (do not modify):
All letters of the alphabet, a-z and ñ.
Boolean: si and non
Digits: 0-9
Galician pronunciations
This section provides detailed reference information to help create pronunciation dictionaries. It is intended for people who have sufficient knowledge of the Galician language as spoken in Spain. It provides information about transcription and pronunciation.
If you are not sure how a certain word is pronounced you can refer to the IPA transcriptions given there and then convert them into the SAMPA symbols, given in The Galician symbol set in alphabetical order .
The Galician phoneme system
The Galician phoneme system can be divided into two groups:
- Vowels
- Consonants
It is possible to distinguish seven different types of Galician consonants:
- Plosives
- Fricatives
- Affricates
- Nasals
- Laterals
- Trills
- Xenophone
Galician symbol set grouped by phoneme classes
The following table shows all phonemes used in Galician transcriptions. They are listed according to their phoneme classes with their SAMPA and IPA representations.
Phoneme class | SAMPA | IPA | Examples of use |
---|---|---|---|
Consonants | Plosives | b | b |
p | p | palacio | /palaTjo/ |
d | d | diploma | /diploma/ |
t | t | teatro | /teatro/ |
g | g | galiza | /galiTa/ |
k | k | informativo | /informatiBo/ |
Fricatives | f | f | fondo |
B | β | laboratorio | /laBoratOrjo/ |
D | ð | limitado | /limitaDo/ |
G | ɣ | igrexa | /iGrESa/ |
s | s | observar | /oBserBar/ |
T | θ | limpeza | /limpETa/ |
S | ʃ | peixe | /pejSe/ |
Affricates | tS | ʤ | sánchez |
Nasals | m | m | humana |
N | ŋ | joaquín | /xoakiN/ |
J | ɲ | mariña | /mariJa/ |
n | n | xunto | /Sunto/ |
Laterals | l | l | alemán |
Z | ʎ | camillo | /kamiZo/ |
Trills | r | r | camerún |
R | ʀ | carreira | /kaRejra/ |
Xenophone | x | x | jerez |
Vowels | Single vowels | a | a |
e | e | ceno | /Teno/ |
E | ɛ | daniel | /daniEl/ |
i | i | definitivo | /definitiBo/ |
o | o | delictos | /deliktos/ |
O | ɔ | depósitos | /depOsitos/ |
u | u | funcionario | /funTionarjo/ |
Semivowel | j | j | funerais |
Galician consonants
The standard Galician consonants system is considered to have:
- six plosives
- seven fricatives
- one affricate
- four nasals
- two laterals
- two trills
- one xenophone
The sample words given below demonstrate the different contexts in which the sounds can appear. A short explanation is also given.
Plosives
There are three voiced and three voiceless plosives in Galician, which can be arranged in pairs as shown here:
Voiced | Examples | Voiceless | Examples | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
/b/ | balón | /balOn/ | /p/ | paciente | /paTiEnte/ |
/d/ | documento | /dokumento/ | /t/ | toca | /tOka/ |
/g/ | gabriel | /gaBriEl/ | /k/ | kibuz | /kiBuT/ |
Fricatives
There are seven fricatives in the Galician SAMPA symbol set
Examples | Examples | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
/f/ | figura | /fiGura/ | /s/ | salsa | /salsa/ |
/B/ | fluvial | /fluBial/ | /T/ | sancionar | /sanTionar/ |
/D/ | padrón | /paDroN/ | /S/ | socioloxía | /soTioloSia/ |
/G/ | pagar | /paGar/ |
Affricates
In Galician there is one affricate /tS/
/tS/ | acochar | /akotSar/ |
---|
Nasals
There are four nasals in Galician, /m/, /n/, /N/, and /J/.
/m/ | mecánica | /mekanika/ |
---|---|---|
/n/ | natalidade | /nataliDaDe/ |
/N/ | negociación | /neGoTiaTioN/ |
/J/ | pelouriño | /pelouriJo/ |
Laterals
There are two laterals in Galician, /l/ and /Z/.
/l/ | película | /pelikula/ |
---|---|---|
/Z/ | permaneceríalle | /permaneTeriaZe/ |
Trills
There are two trills in Galician, /r/ and /R/.
/r/ | permite | /permite/ |
---|---|---|
/R/ | perruqueira | /peRukejra/ |
Xenophones
In Galician there is one xenophone (borrowed phoneme) /x/
/x/ | tejero | /texEro/ |
---|
Galician vowels
Single vowels (monophthongs)
The Galician language has seven distinguishable monophthongs:
/a/ | abandonar | /aBandonar/ |
---|---|---|
/e/ | eclipse | /eklipse/ |
/E/ | efecto | /efEkto/ |
/i/ | ibérica | /iBErika/ |
/o/ | oeste | /oEste/ |
/O/ | obra | /OBra/ |
/u/ | unida | /uniDa/ |
Semi-vowels
There is one semi-vowel in Galician:
/j/ | universitaria | /uniBersitarja/ |
---|
Specific pronunciation transcription methods
The grapheme <h>
There is no phonetic realization of the grapheme <h>. For example:
hotel | /otEl/ |
---|
Pronunciation of foreign words
When there is a need to transcribe foreign words, the general rule is to transcribe those words with the same SAMPA symbol set than the rest. In case of a Galician transcription you have to transcribe every word of the dictionary with the Galician SAMPA symbols.
If you use a different symbol set your system will be incapable of understanding the input.
Every language has a different phoneme inventory, so you may have problems in covering each and every sound. For the most common case we offer transcription examples.
The French nasals for example are adapted to the Galician vowel system:
blanc | /blO/ |
---|---|
centre | /sOntrE/ |
Multiple pronunciations (variants)
The type of pronunciation used in SAMPA and in the Galician Background dictionary conforms to the standard non-regional Galician pronunciation. Since it is possible to have more than one pronunciation for a word by using pronunciation variants, it may be difficult to determine how many pronunciation variants should be created.
The general rule is: create variants only if the pronunciation differs in more than one phoneme.
The Galician symbol set in alphabetical order
The following table shows the Galician symbol set in alphabetical order:
SAMPA | IPA | Examples of use |
---|---|---|
B | β | laboratorio |
D | ð | limitado |
E | ɛ | daniel |
G | ɣ | igrexa |
J | ɲ | mariña |
N | ŋ | joaquín |
O | ɔ | depósitos |
R | ʀ | carreira |
S | ʃ | peixe |
T | θ | limpeza |
Z | ʎ | camillo |
a | a | cartel |
b | b | bolsa |
d | d | diploma |
e | e | ceno |
f | f | fondo |
g | g | galiza |
i | i | definitivo |
j | j | funerais |
k | k | informativo |
l | l | alemán |
m | m | humana |
n | n | xunto |
o | o | delictos |
p | p | palacio |
r | r | camerún |
s | s | observar |
t | t | teatro |
tS | ʤ | sánchez |
u | u | funcionario |
x | x | jerez |
Start→Programs→Accessories→System Tools→Character Map
key issues for working with grammar documents in the Galician language.
Character encoding
Nuance Recognizer has full internal Unicode support. For example, you can create your grammars using UTF-8 or Latin-1 (also known as ISO-8859-1) character encoding. For example, your grammar header might be:
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<grammar xml:lang="gl-ES" version="1.0" root="test">
Below are codes for writing some common Galician characters. These are useful if you do not have access to a Galician keyboard, and are typed by pressing the Alt key while entering digits on your keyboard (after typing the last digit, the desired character appears on your screen when you release the Alt key):
Alt/0224 = à | Alt/0237 = í |
---|---|
Alt/0225 = á | Alt/0239 = ï |
Alt/0231 = ç | Alt/0242 = ò |
Alt/0232 = è | Alt/0243 = ó |
Alt/0233 = é | Alt/0249 = ù |
Alt/164 = ñ | Alt/0250 = ú |
If you do not have access to a keyboard for your target language, you can use the Windows character map. (Choose the “System” font and the “Latin-1” subset.)
Start _→_ Programs _→_ Accessories _→_ System Tools _→_ Character Map
Entering Galician grammars for ParseTool
The ParseTool program lets you type sentences into a grammar and returns the grammar’s results. The tool is stored in the bin directory of the installation baseline. See your product documentation for information.
When entering Galician text for the built-in grammars, note the following:
- Digits in the digits grammar are written as words (not as Arabic digits). For example, 0 = cero, 1 = un, 2 = dous, etc.
- Digits in the alphanum grammar are written as digits (0-9).
alphanum_lc built-in grammar
The alphanum_lc grammar recognizes a connected string of up to 20 digits and lower case alphabetic characters.
For example, this grammar could be used to recognize a product code or order number.
Characters are the letters a-z, and ñ.
Digits are 0-9.
Non-alphanumeric characters such as hyphens (-), dots (.), and underscores (_) are not recognized; if spoken they reduce recognition accuracy.
Returned keys/values
MEANING | Contains a string of ISO-8859-1 digits and lowercase letters, with no embedded spaces. |
---|---|
SWI_literal | Contains the exact text that was recognized. |
Note: the alphanum_lc built-in grammar replaces the alphanum built-in grammar.
alphanum built-in grammar
The alphanum grammar is identical with the alphanum_ lc grammar for Galician.
boolean built-in grammar
The boolean grammar collects an affirmative or negative response.
Properties
The y and n parameters let you associate any two touchtone buttons as synonyms for yes and no.
Parameter | Description |
---|---|
y | Desired DTMF digit to be equivalent to “si” (default = 1) |
n | Desired DTMF digit to be equivalent to “non” (default = 2) |
Examples
Caller says | MEANING key |
---|---|
si | true |
non | false |
digits built-in grammar
Valid characters are the digits 0-9.
Vocabulary items and pronunciations
This chapter describes considerations for vocabularies and their pronunciations in Galician (gl-ES). Your product documentation covers details about how to work with pronunciations and dictionaries.
Specially tuned pronunciations
The following table shows common words that are fine-tuned by Nuance.
Words with tuned pronunciations (do not modify):
All letters of the alphabet, a-z and ñ.
Boolean: si and non
Digits: 0-9
Galician pronunciations
This section provides detailed reference information to help create pronunciation dictionaries. It is intended for people who have sufficient knowledge of the Galician language as spoken in Spain. It provides information about transcription and pronunciation.
If you are not sure how a certain word is pronounced you can refer to the IPA transcriptions given there and then convert them into the SAMPA symbols, given in The Galician symbol set in alphabetical order .
The Galician phoneme system
The Galician phoneme system can be divided into two groups:
- Vowels
- Consonants
It is possible to distinguish seven different types of Galician consonants:
- Plosives
- Fricatives
- Affricates
- Nasals
- Laterals
- Trills
- Xenophone
Galician symbol set grouped by phoneme classes
The following table shows all phonemes used in Galician transcriptions. They are listed according to their phoneme classes with their SAMPA and IPA representations.
Phoneme class | SAMPA | IPA | Examples of use |
---|---|---|---|
Consonants | Plosives | b | b |
p | p | palacio | /palaTjo/ |
d | d | diploma | /diploma/ |
t | t | teatro | /teatro/ |
g | g | galiza | /galiTa/ |
k | k | informativo | /informatiBo/ |
Fricatives | f | f | fondo |
B | β | laboratorio | /laBoratOrjo/ |
D | ð | limitado | /limitaDo/ |
G | ɣ | igrexa | /iGrESa/ |
s | s | observar | /oBserBar/ |
T | θ | limpeza | /limpETa/ |
S | ʃ | peixe | /pejSe/ |
Affricates | tS | ʤ | sánchez |
Nasals | m | m | humana |
N | ŋ | joaquín | /xoakiN/ |
J | ɲ | mariña | /mariJa/ |
n | n | xunto | /Sunto/ |
Laterals | l | l | alemán |
Z | ʎ | camillo | /kamiZo/ |
Trills | r | r | camerún |
R | ʀ | carreira | /kaRejra/ |
Xenophone | x | x | jerez |
Vowels | Single vowels | a | a |
e | e | ceno | /Teno/ |
E | ɛ | daniel | /daniEl/ |
i | i | definitivo | /definitiBo/ |
o | o | delictos | /deliktos/ |
O | ɔ | depósitos | /depOsitos/ |
u | u | funcionario | /funTionarjo/ |
Semivowel | j | j | funerais |
Galician consonants
The standard Galician consonants system is considered to have:
- six plosives
- seven fricatives
- one affricate
- four nasals
- two laterals
- two trills
- one xenophone
The sample words given below demonstrate the different contexts in which the sounds can appear. A short explanation is also given.
Plosives
There are three voiced and three voiceless plosives in Galician, which can be arranged in pairs as shown here:
Voiced | Examples | Voiceless | Examples | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
/b/ | balón | /balOn/ | /p/ | paciente | /paTiEnte/ |
/d/ | documento | /dokumento/ | /t/ | toca | /tOka/ |
/g/ | gabriel | /gaBriEl/ | /k/ | kibuz | /kiBuT/ |
Fricatives
There are seven fricatives in the Galician SAMPA symbol set
Examples | Examples | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
/f/ | figura | /fiGura/ | /s/ | salsa | /salsa/ |
/B/ | fluvial | /fluBial/ | /T/ | sancionar | /sanTionar/ |
/D/ | padrón | /paDroN/ | /S/ | socioloxía | /soTioloSia/ |
/G/ | pagar | /paGar/ |
Affricates
In Galician there is one affricate /tS/
/tS/ | acochar | /akotSar/ |
---|
Nasals
There are four nasals in Galician, /m/, /n/, /N/, and /J/.
/m/ | mecánica | /mekanika/ |
---|---|---|
/n/ | natalidade | /nataliDaDe/ |
/N/ | negociación | /neGoTiaTioN/ |
/J/ | pelouriño | /pelouriJo/ |
Laterals
There are two laterals in Galician, /l/ and /Z/.
/l/ | película | /pelikula/ |
---|---|---|
/Z/ | permaneceríalle | /permaneTeriaZe/ |
Trills
There are two trills in Galician, /r/ and /R/.
/r/ | permite | /permite/ |
---|---|---|
/R/ | perruqueira | /peRukejra/ |
Xenophones
In Galician there is one xenophone (borrowed phoneme) /x/
/x/ | tejero | /texEro/ |
---|
Galician vowels
Single vowels (monophthongs)
The Galician language has seven distinguishable monophthongs:
/a/ | abandonar | /aBandonar/ |
---|---|---|
/e/ | eclipse | /eklipse/ |
/E/ | efecto | /efEkto/ |
/i/ | ibérica | /iBErika/ |
/o/ | oeste | /oEste/ |
/O/ | obra | /OBra/ |
/u/ | unida | /uniDa/ |
Semi-vowels
There is one semi-vowel in Galician:
/j/ | universitaria | /uniBersitarja/ |
---|
Specific pronunciation transcription methods
The grapheme <h>
There is no phonetic realization of the grapheme <h>. For example:
hotel | /otEl/ |
---|
Pronunciation of foreign words
When there is a need to transcribe foreign words, the general rule is to transcribe those words with the same SAMPA symbol set than the rest. In case of a Galician transcription you have to transcribe every word of the dictionary with the Galician SAMPA symbols.
If you use a different symbol set your system will be incapable of understanding the input.
Every language has a different phoneme inventory, so you may have problems in covering each and every sound. For the most common case we offer transcription examples.
The French nasals for example are adapted to the Galician vowel system:
blanc | /blO/ |
---|---|
centre | /sOntrE/ |
Multiple pronunciations (variants)
The type of pronunciation used in SAMPA and in the Galician Background dictionary conforms to the standard non-regional Galician pronunciation. Since it is possible to have more than one pronunciation for a word by using pronunciation variants, it may be difficult to determine how many pronunciation variants should be created.
The general rule is: create variants only if the pronunciation differs in more than one phoneme.
The Galician symbol set in alphabetical order
The following table shows the Galician symbol set in alphabetical order:
SAMPA | IPA | Examples of use |
---|---|---|
B | β | laboratorio |
D | ð | limitado |
E | ɛ | daniel |
G | ɣ | igrexa |
J | ɲ | mariña |
N | ŋ | joaquín |
O | ɔ | depósitos |
R | ʀ | carreira |
S | ʃ | peixe |
T | θ | limpeza |
Z | ʎ | camillo |
a | a | cartel |
b | b | bolsa |
d | d | diploma |
e | e | ceno |
f | f | fondo |
g | g | galiza |
i | i | definitivo |
j | j | funerais |
k | k | informativo |
l | l | alemán |
m | m | humana |
n | n | xunto |
o | o | delictos |
p | p | palacio |
r | r | camerún |
s | s | observar |
t | t | teatro |
tS | ʤ | sánchez |
u | u | funcionario |
x | x | jerez |
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