Kon’nichiwa otaku no tomodachi ♡ (￣З￣) Are you an otaku of high lineage? A thoroughbred weeb? Well, surely you are trying to learn Japanese, right? Or at least enough to be able to whisper in your waifu’s ear at night ( ͡° ͜ ͜つ ͡° ) That’s why today I’m going to tell you a little about Woord, a Text Reader Converter For Studying Japanese.
A Little About Japanese ＼(⌒▽⌒)
The Japanese or Nippon language is an East Asian language spoken by around 128 million people, mainly in Japan, where it is the official language. Japanese is the main language of the Japonic languages, and although its linguistic relationship with Korean, Ainu, Altaic languages, Austroasiatic languages, and even Dravidian languages has been debated, there is no consensus as to its origin.
Little is known about the origin of the language. There are Chinese texts from the 3rd century that document some Japanese words, but the first extensive texts do not emerge until the 8th century. During the Heian period (794-1185), the Chinese exerted a profound influence on the vocabulary and phonology of Old and Early Middle Japanese. Late Middle Japanese (1185-1600) is substantially close to contemporary Japanese. The first European loans are also included in this period. After the end of isolation in 1853, the number of loanwords from European languages increased considerably, especially from English.
Although the language is not genetically related to Chinese, Japanese writing uses Chinese characters called kanji (漢字) and much of the vocabulary comes from Chinese. Along with kanji, Japanese uses two syllabaries: hiragana (ひらがな) and katakana (カタカナ). The Latin alphabet (in Japanese romaji) is used to write acronyms and the language uses both Arabic and Chinese numbers.
Check Woord: A Text Reader Converter For Studying Japanese
But first: What Is A Text Reader? ლ(ಠ_ಠ ლ)
Text-To-Speech or TTS Converters are programs that automatically generate an artificial voice that reproduces the sound produced by a person speaking or reading any text out loud. They are systems that allow the conversion of texts into synthetic speech. Depending on the software we use, the audio quality will vary; we can get extremely realistic results, but there are also Saas of this kind that “talks” in a very robotic way. Therefore, it is important to choose the type of converter that best suits us. But, the truth is that there is a wide variety of TTS software today and choosing can be bothersome.
Woord is a free online TTS with a lot of helpful features. It’s available in more than 20 languages, including Japanese. You may convert your writing into professional speaking by using its high-quality female, male or gender-neutral voices. It’s ideal to study, since the quality of the pronunciation of this application is unique. You will be able to practice both your pronunciation and your listening comprehension.
These features, as well as all of the languages, are available for free on the basic plan; this way, you may check out the service before purchasing the premium version. The free version includes up to 20.000 characters every month, as well as professional voices, a chrome plugin, an SSML editor, and an MP3 download. Because the voices in this application are very realistic, you may adjust their speed and structure.
How to use Woord‘s Text Reader Converter For Studying Japanese (•ิ_•ิ)?
- First, go to https://www.getwoord.com/guest/upload
- Once you are on Woord, choose the format of the file you want to digitalize. You can scan or take pictures of the script you want Woord to “read”; you can also write it directly on the SSML editor
- Then, select or drag the files
- Below the file, an exact transcription will appear in an editor that you can modify if needed
- Then, select the gender of the voice and the device on which you will play the audio for Woord to automatically apply the appropriate enhancements to the audio for that device
- Lastly, hit the “Speak it!” button and download.
And that would be it!
If you are interested in this article, check these…
Check This Text To Speech Tool For Your Anime Edits
How To Use Woord’s SSML Editor
Also published on Medium.