Croatian voice guides on English?

[Mario Ivancic]

Today, I tried out voice instructions in Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian (they are essentially the same thing). Generally, regardless of the language, instructions are given in English, but numbers (kilometers) are in Croatian/Serbian, with a heavy accent on English words. It sounds like when I speak English. Since you don't know what I sound like, imagine a Russian mobster speaking English. Initially, it's funny, but later it becomes tiresome, and eventually, it's irritating. English pronunciations struggle with Slavic or any other language street/place names, while Slavic voices give instructions in "Russian" English... What's the solution?

[Mario Ivancic]

The voices I tried that were no good include Italian, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Russian, Romanian, Arabic, and Slovak... Interestingly, Bulgarian was good.

[Nick Carthew]

The app uses the voices available on your phone. An iPhone has different options.

[Mario Ivancic]

It makes sense and probably uses Google voices. However, why are the words English for, say, Italian? I understand that we Balkans are not considered important, but it puzzles me that the Italian voice speaks English with an Italian accent. Is the problem in the app's translation, or should Google translate the application and then speak in the desired language? Also, for instance, Bulgarian works, but Italian does not? I can't find the logic.

[Nick Carthew]

@Mario-Ivancic When I read your reply, I’m reading it in a Russian gangster accent
I can’t answer your question, as I said the voices are the ones in your phone and not supplied by MRA.

[Herko ter Horst]

@Mario-Ivancic Looking at the Apple App Store entry for MyRoute app, it supports the following languages:

• English
• Dutch
• French
• German
• Italian
• Spanish

I would imagine the Android-version of the app supports the same languages, but Google doesn't show this in the Play Store

As far as I know, the language used in the app will match the one used on your phone, if supported, otherwise it will probably be English.

This has nothing to do with the voices available on your phone. When you select a voice for a language that is not supported by the app, you'll get English with an accent.

[Mario Ivancic]

@Nick-Carthew
Of course, how else but like a Russian gangster from Hollywood movies.
I just tried to set up Android TTS, adding Croatian, which works fine in the Android system itself, but not in the app. It seems like the words for instructions in the app are incorrectly entered for the Croatian language. They are in English. So when TTS reads, it says, for example, "Turn left in petsto meters". The only thing said correctly in Croatian is 500 (petsto). If the problem were in the phone or the voice itself, it wouldn't work properly on the phone either. Also, the number of kilometers wouldn't be in Croatian then.
I think somene need to translate words in app, so TTS can read them. TTS will not translate them automaticly.

[Mario Ivancic]

@Herko-ter-Horst
Italian voice on Android not working. But Bulgarian works...

[Herko ter Horst]

@Mario-Ivancic What do you mean "not working"?

Assuming your phone is set to Croatian, the app will most likely be running in English. The voice you select doesn't change that at all, it just pronounces the words the app gives it.

So if you select an Italian voice, it will pronounce English words in an Italian accent. Numbers will be spoken in Italian.

If you select a Bulgarian voice, it should also pronounce English words in a Bulgarian accent (with numbers in Bulgarian). Are you saying it's speaking all words in Bulgarian in this case?

[Mario Ivancic]

@Herko-ter-Horst
Yes Bulgarian is ok. You change phone on Italian, still not working, You change phone on English, still not working. You add TTS language you want on android system, still not working.
But for example, French, Bulgarian, Spanish, English.... works no matter what language and region is setup on the phone.
Italian, Croatian, Hungarian.... just use english words, and only number read correct.

[Herko ter Horst]

@Mario-Ivancic @Mario-Ivancic Mmm, weird. It should use the language of your phone, if it's one of the supported ones. I'm pretty sure Bulgarian is a supported language, so no idea what's happening there if you're saying it's speaking Bulgarian fully.

Just note that the voice-language is completely independent of the language used by the app, it will not magically translate the words from the app, which will be in one of the supported languages.

I could select a French voice on my Dutch phone with the app set to Dutch and then I'll get Dutch words spoken with a French accent. Numbers are spoken in the language of the voice, because they're provided as numbers, not words, by the app.

[Mario Ivancic]

@Herko-ter-Horst

But all of this is easily solvable. Let the developer give us a table of words/phrases that need to be translated.
Croatian/Bosnian:
Left = Lijevo
Right = Desno
In = Nakon
...and so on.
Then, regardless of the selected language on the phone, or whether it is supported as main, if there is a translation, it will be pronounced correctly. After all, we are talking about approximately a few dozen phrases, if that many.