Sable

A type of a speech markup language, based on SGML and XML.

SABLE is an interesting speech markup language because it is already supported by the most well-known open source speech synthesizer, Festival.

It was based on earlier SGML systems called STML and SSML, and is now in process of integrating two other systems, Bell Labs' STML and Sun's JSML. SABLE is currently developed by Edinburgh University, Carnegie Mellon University, Bell Laboratories, British Telecom, AT&T and Sun Microsystems. The latest draft specification was 0.2 from March 1998.

Home page: http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/sable/

Here's an example that appears to work just fine in Festival. It illustrates some of the features of the language: Specific noting of different types of data (SAYAS), pronouncation (PRON), rate and volume changes, and breaks.

It shows what's the prime idea of SABLE: Most of the work is done right by Festival's normal text-to-speech, but SABLEd text corrects numerous cases that are ambiguous. For example, when properly marked up, "1984" is pronounced, depending on the markup, "nineteen eighty-four", or "one thousand nine hundred eighty-four" - instead of always going by only one of these forms - or worse, guessing!

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE SABLE PUBLIC "-//SABLE//DTD SABLE speech mark up//EN" 
      "Sable.v0_2.dtd"
[]>
<SABLE>

  Good afternoon.
  This is a <BREAK /> shall we say <BREAK /> simple demonstration of Sable
  (<SAYAS MODE="literal">SABLE</SAYAS>), the speech mark-up
  language.

  This example was made in the early hours of
  <SAYAS MODE="date" MODETYPE="mdy">May 14th, 2002</SAYAS>
  by
  <RATE SPEED="-40%">
    <PRON SUB="yuhrr poe lahnk keyn nen">Urpo Lankinen</PRON>
  </RATE>,
  who noted that English speakers have trouble pronouncing the
  name correctly. (The first name is spelled
  <SAYAS MODE="literal">Urpo</SAYAS>, the last name is spelled
  <SAYAS MODE="literal">Lankinen</SAYAS>. But that is, of course,
  <RATE SPEED="+20%">very, very, <EMPH>very</EMPH> much</RATE>
  irrelevant. <VOLUME LEVEL="quiet">Not that it would matter.</VOLUME>)

  The example was made for the website Everything<BREAK LEVEL="small" />2.
  This site can be accessed at
  <SAYAS MODE="net" MODETYPE="url">http://www.everything2.com/</SAYAS>.

</SABLE>

Anoplopoma fimbria. Also known as sablefish and black cod, even though it is not a type of codfish. Sable is an oily saltwater fish with dark skin (hence the name) and white flesh, caught mainly off the west coast of North America, espcially around Alaska. At its best, sable has a mild flavor and a sublime, velvety texture. Much of the North American catch is shipped frozen to Japan, where it is eaten steamed or baked with kasu, the lees of sake.

In non-Japanese cuisine in North America, sable is best known in smoked form as a Jewish delicatessen food. Smoked sable was developed (apparently after World War II) as a substitute for smoked carp, after overfishing raised carp prices. Consequently it is prepared the way smoked carp used to be: rubbed with paprika and a little garlic. (Sam Gugino, interviewing the delicatessen owner Mark Russ Federman for Wine Spectator in November, 2001, cites an old name "chicken carp" that recalls sable's historical relationship with smoked carp.) Smoked sable is quite oily, and best eaten with breadstuffs rather than alone.

There is an unrelated fish called sable in India, better known as hilsa. Butterfish is another name used for sable, although it also refers to an unrelated Atlantic fish.

Sa"ble (?), n. [OF. sable, F. zibeline sable (in sense 4), LL. sabellum; cf. D. sabel, Dan. sabel, zobel, Sw. sabel, sobel, G. zobel; all fr. Russ. sobole.]

1. Zool.

A carnivorous animal of the Weasel family (Mustela zibellina) native of the northern latitudes of Europe, Asia, and America, -- noted for its fine, soft, and valuable fur.

⇒ The sable resembles the marten, but has a longer head and ears. Its fur consists of a soft under wool, with a dense coat of hair, overtopped by another still longer. It varies greatly in color and quality according to the locality and the season of the year. The darkest and most valuable furs are taken in autumn and winter in the colder parts of Siberia, Russia, and British North America.

⇒ The American sable, or marten, was formerly considered a distinct species (Mustela Americana), but it differs very little from the Asiatic sable, and is now considered only a geographical variety.

2.

The fur of the sable.

3.

A mouring garment; a funeral robe; -- generally in the plural.

Young.

4. Her.

The tincture black; -- represented by vertical and horizontal lines each other.

© Webster 1913.

Sa"ble (?), a.

Of the color of the sable's fur; dark; black; -- used chiefly in poetry.

Night, sable goddess! from her ebon throne, In rayless majesty, now stretches forth Her leaden scepter o'er a slumbering world. Young.

Sable antelope Zool., a large South African antelope (Hippotragus niger). Both sexes have long, sharp horns. The adult male is black; the female is dark chestnut above, white beneath. -- Sable iron, a superior quality of Russia iron; -- so called because originally stamped with the figure of a sable. -- Sable mouse Zool., the lemming.

© Webster 1913.

Sa"ble, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Sabled (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Sabling (?).]

To render sable or dark; to drape darkly or in black.

Sabled all in black the shady sky. G. Fletcher.

© Webster 1913.