Different pronouncing between female recording and male TTS

[Barry]

Hello,
I have noticed in several cases different pronouncing in Chinese between female recording and male TTS
in words with letter "c".
For example, the word "才" (ability, talent) - "cai2" female recording pronounces as "kai2", but the male TTS pronounces as "zai2".
The same different pronouncing occurs with words "cai2" as in "裁", or "财".

This problem happens also with some other words that include the letter "c", not only the "cai2" combination. (For example, the word 窜 "cuan4" (escape, flee) female recording pronounces as "kuan4", but the male TTS as "zuan4".)

So what is the right pronouncing? Are they both possible?
Because it is really confusing.

 

[Peter]

While we are at it, some other errors:
握住 (wo4zhu4). Female recording says wo4shu4.
哟 (yo1). Female recording says you1.

I can't confidently comment on cai2; both male and female recordings sounds fine here.

 

[Barry]

Thank you for your replay, Peter.
But I didn't compared male and female recordings,

I pointed at the difference between female recordings and male automatic "Text-To-Speech" (TTS).
And this difference in pronouncing was evident and clear. The question is what is right.

 

[Peter]

Mike hasn't responded. Perhaps post an example sentence where the pleco TTS is pronouncing 才 as zai2.

Another recording error:
纸条 female recording says zhi3tiao4zi

 

[mikelove]

Sorry, was away from my Android devices until today and then had to hurry up and get this 3.2.23 update released.

Anyway, I'm not hearing this as 'kai2' here - she's a bit fuzzier but it's still a 'c' sound. Can you try listening with headphones and see if it sounds any different?

@Peter - thanks for the bug reports, we'd like to do a totally new set of female recordings at some point but the availability of free female TTS on both iOS + Android has made that a bit harder to justify financially; we will add these to our list of fixes though.

 

[Barry]

Hello,
Mike, I didn't express myself clearly enough -
Female pronouncing is just fine, it does sounds as pinyin "c".

What I meant was that male (I think both free male and TTS male), in above combination sounds like "z".
Peter, the example sentence - search Pleco for the word cai2 -"才".
The first example sentence is "Ni zenme cai2 lai jiu yao zuo?"
Pronouncing is clearly "zai2".

 

[mikelove]

Sorry, still sounds like a 'c' to me - again, can you try using headphones and see if it's clearer then?

 

[Barry]

Ok, never mind then. Apparently, this is the issue of my stereo system. Because I think it sounds like "zai". Never mind. At least now I know what is right. This is what I wanted to find out.

 

[Peter]

@Peter - thanks for the bug reports, we'd like to do a totally new set of female recordings at some point but the availability of free female TTS on both iOS + Android has made that a bit harder to justify financially; we will add these to our list of fixes though.

Understood!