After over a year, the sequel to Conlang Test #1 has come! This time, Eleanor Forte AI sings the following square poem in Ŋarâþ Crîþ v9, both in rows and in columns:
venełan erionoros sivandełas crîði
rana nalfo. mêven łan
vesro; ħespe; čercas; ondis
cfjoþelþa lora aveneca gendroris.
When read in rows, it has the following meaning:
In the forest where the maple tree’s branches droop
Grow roots. The rain clouds
Are strong; alas, o (maiden), now
(my) leafless hair has left with the wind.
When read it columns, it instead means the following:
The roots of the maple tree are strong; the leafless
branches grow. Alas, (maiden)
Of rain whose hair droops, with the wind
the clouds have now left the forest.
(čêrca means ‘a person between twelve and eighteen years of age', with no distinction in gender.)
Each time, Eleanor is made to sing the poem as if she were singing in a different language, using the functionality added in Synthesizer V Studio version 1.5.0 for AI voicebanks. The most conspicuous aspect of this functionality is that most of the problems that Eleanor has when trying to sing in an unsupported language are also present when the language is set to something else, such as undesired velarization on /l/ and funky vowels. Throw in problems with not having the right phonemes in some languages and you’ll be having a lot of fun.
Using Mandarin pronunciation over English has a few benefits, though, such as having separate aspirated and unaspirated stops – useful for Ŋarâþ Crîþ v9, where 〈p t c č〉 are always aspirated. The greatest deficiency in this case (compared even to Japanese) is the lack of /v/. (Technically, Mandarin has no voiced stops, but plain /t k/ suffice for 〈d g〉.)
I also used the auto-pitching functionality in SVS Pro, though I turned down the settings from what I used in the ‘#’ video.
- 0:00 Intro
- 0:19 English – Has trouble with the 〈cfj〉 /kfj/ onset.
- 0:49 Japanese – Purer vowels, but has trouble pronouncing 〈r〉 /ɹ/ and 〈l〉 /l/ distinctly. Also has trouble with dental fricatives.
- 1:19 Mandarin Chinese – Better distinction between aspirated and unaspirated stops; can’t pronounce dental fricatives or 〈v〉 /v/.
