[EAS] Multilingual support for CAP messages

[Ed Czarnecki]

Sean --> Onboard TTS is not necessarily needed IF the originator supplies a
foreign language audio resource.  However, it is a very good assumption that
an alert originator may not furnish such a file.  Particularly if WEA alerts
begin to support multilingual - most of the WEA-oriented CAP authoring tools
do not support audio resources, and rely on TTS by the EAS device.  Also,
even if an alert originator sends an alert in one or two "main languages",
there is the strong possibility that a broadcaster might want to serve a
population speaking yet another different language (Somali being a great
case study).

Alex --> a few more thoughts on language.  Mexican usage of Spanish is still
Spanish, but yes "proper" Castilian (European) Spanish is the "mother
tongue".  The same way users of British (or Commonwealth) English view (and
sometimes look down upon) our American usage.   Castilian Spanish is the
language standard for radio and TV speakers in Spain, BUT it is not the only
dialect even in Spain.  Castilian is the dialect of north and central Spain,
while Andalusian is used in the South.  And then there is the whole issue of
Catalan, Galician and Basque ...

What does this have to do with EAS?  There are a lot of considerations for
emergency managers and broadcasters in choosing the right
dialects/vocabularies - the trade-off between addressing a specific
population group that might be in your market, vs. a language usage that
might be more broadly accepted by different groups.  We did a lot of work
with the vocabularies on the DASDEC, with a great support from linguists to
ensure the broadest comprehensibility.

Again, using Spanish as an example,  "Mexican" vs. Castilian dialect
presents once set of choices, but then there is also the distinct usage of
Caribbean Spanish (which includes Colombia) vs.  Argentina vs. Chilean
(Chilean and Argentine Spanish can be tough to understand for those not used
to Rioplatense).  Even the Colombian accent can sometimes provoke a reaction
within the Caribbean subgroup.  There is the balancing act for choosing the
best vernacular (and TTS engines) that accommodate the widest range of
Spanish spoken in this hemisphere.  

For Somali, the TTS engines onboard the DASDEC were the result of a lot of
research done by Echo/TPT in Minnesota, ourselves, and other contributors.
We had to find the best common usage, knowing that there are multiple Somali
dialects: Benaadir (coastal), Maay (southern), and Northern or North-Central
Somali.  Developing a Somali TTS engine was quite the challenge (even Google
does not have one on google translate yet ! ).  From our offline discussion,
it sounds like the translations have gotten to that point, but the cadence
may need some tweaking (and that perhaps could be a regional dialect issue
as well).

As for Farsi, don't count that out.  One state already did a closed-circuit
test of Farsi language EAS (a year or two ago).  

I could also get into the differences between Polish vs. Kashubian vs.
Ruthenian, but that's a niche probably only of passing interest to myself
and maybe some folk at Wietrzne Radio in Chicago ;^)

Another small point - there are quite a few radio groups using the DASDEC
too ...

Ed