Abstract
Given two simple syllables with a common vowel in them, we find that a new quite intelligible syllable can be synthesized by splitting the two syllables at this common vowel, and then concatenate the first part of the first syllable and the second part of second syllable. We call these two simple syllables front syllable and back syllable respectively, and call this method SVOLA, or “same vowel overlap and add” syllable synthesis. With a somewhat minimal set of front and back syllables as basis, a Taiwanese syllable synthesis system can be built easily using SVOLA. In addition to implement such a synthesis system, this thesis also explores four methods of splitting of the basis syllables. The first is independent frame maximum log-likelihood. The second is maximum segmental total likelihood without training data. The third is maximum segmental total likelihood with training data. For the fourth method we transform the feature vectors into a DS matrix (smoothing and then taking difference), and we split the basis syllable using the VDS sequence, or the sequence of the column variances of the DS matrix. The VDS approach is more effective in splitting the front syllables.