Google Translate: "Listen"

[Paul B. Gallagher]

We've already discussed the advantages and disadvantages of Google's 
translate module, which can be brilliant at times and incredibly dumb at 
times.

Today I'd like to solicit opinions on their "Listen" buttons. If you 
haven't already played with it, there are actually two -- one below the 
input text, and one to the right of the input text. The one below 
pronounces the input text, and the one to the right pronounces the 
output (translated) text.

For those who have played around with this, I'd be interested to know 
how realistic you find the Russian pronunciations. I suspect this is 
some kind of computer-synthesized voice -- they surely haven't hired 
someone to read thousands upon thousands of utterances.

I find the intonation and pacing of sentences not very natural, but 
individual words and sounds are pretty good. What say you?

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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