Pronunciation errors in text to speech

Question

I use the en-GB-SoniaNeural voice, the example sentence is "I started at this school two weeks ago". The pronunciation of started is [sɔːtɪd], is that a mistake?

Answer 1

Hello niu No, the pronunciation of "started" as [sɔːtɪd] in the en-GB-SoniaNeural voice is not a mistake. In British English, the letter "a" in "started" is often pronounced as the "o" sound in "hot" or "not", which is represented by the phonetic symbol "ɒ". This is known as the "short o" sound. So the pronunciation [sɔːtɪd] is a valid and common way to pronounce "started" in British English, particularly in Southern British accents. In other accents or dialects, such as some Northern British accents, the "a" in "started" may be pronounced as a longer vowel sound, such as [stɑːtɪd]. Therefore, in the en-GB-SoniaNeural voice, the pronunciation of "started" as [sɔːtɪd] is appropriate for a Southern British accent. Please don’t forget to Accept Answer and Yes for "was this answer helpful" wherever the information provided helps you, this can be beneficial to other community members.