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Recognizing and Prompting in Other Languages

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The default language for Microsoft Speech Server (MSS) applications is English (United States). This topic describes how to create speech applications for other languages.

Speech applications can support one language or multiple languages. The choice of languages depends on what language packs are installed. See the following section, Selecting Languages and Speech Engines, for information.

Once a language pack is installed, applications can be developed that support languages other than the default. Applications can support a single language other than the default English (United States), or they can support multiple languages. Both scenarios are described in the following sections.

Selecting Languages and Speech Engines

The choice of languages available for speech applications in Microsoft Speech Application SDK Version 1.1 (SASDK) depends on which language packs are installed. English (United States) components are installed by default. Components for other languages can be added by installing language packs for those languages.

Installing Language Packs

To develop speech applications in a language other than English (United States), install the appropriate language pack on the SASDK Version 1.1 computer. For more information, see Installing or Removing a Language Pack.

Viewing the Installed Languages and Engines

To see the list of available languages and the voice and recognition engines associated with those languages, see the Languages and Speech Engines pane in the Options dialog box, as described in the following procedure. To change engine selections, use the drop-down list boxes on the Languages and Speech Engines pane.

Note  The TTS engine used for Spanish (United States) projects is the Spanish (Mexico) TTS engine.

To view available languages and voice and recognition engines

  1. In Visual Studio .NET 2003, on the Tools menu, click Options.
  2. In the tree view pane on the left, expand the Speech Application SDK item, and then click Languages and Speech Engines.

Creating a Non-English Language Application

Use the Speech Web Application Project Wizard to create the project for a non-English language application. This will correctly set the culture of the application thread as well as language values for the following application components:

  • Prompt projects
  • Grammar files
  • Manifest.xml
  • Start page
  • Web.config

Once the culture of the application thread is set, Application Speech Controls will use the correct resource .dll files, and will therefore recognize speech and speak prompts in the correct language.

Creating a Multi-Language Application

The simplest model to use in developing a multi-language application is to use a chooser application to determine the language, and branch from there to separate Web applications that support the selected language. One way to do this is to use an English-language Start page that prompts the user with something like Press 1 for English, Press 2 for Spanish. Once the user responds with a selection, navigate to the single-language application. Use Speech Web Application Project Wizard to create the project for each of the applications, which provides an initial set of components using the correct language setting. See the following illustration showing a chooser application and two single-language applications.

Assuming the appropriate engine configurations are available on MSS each application may be in a different language, and there is no limit to the number of times the language can be switched in a session. Each Standard Edition server or Enterprise Edition server farm can support multiple languages at one time.

Also see the previous section, Creating a Non-English Language Application.

Converting from an English (United States) Language Application

To convert an English (United States) language application to support a different language, perform the tasks in the following list.

  • Translate application prompts.
  • Translate custom grammars.
  • Ensure that references to system grammars point to the localized grammars provided with the language pack.
  • Modify the application's manifest.xml so that it references the correct application resources. For more information, see Supporting non-English Resources.
  • Use the uiCulture attribute of the globalization element in the web.config file to set the application culture. For more information, see Set Culture Information in an ASP.NET Application Without Code.

For information on converting English (United States) applications to other languages, see Upgrading Speech Application SDK Version 1.0 Applications.

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