Here's a Ruby script that takes a string of Unicode IPA text and converts it to OS X's say command phonetic syntax.
Slap this Ruby code into a file—let's call it ipa2say.rb. Make the file executable (i.e. chmod u+x ipa2say.rb). Execute the executable, piping some IPA text to it. Out will come some ASCII phonetic text.
Then run say with the [[inpt PHON]] directive.
So, an example. Let's say you want to say the IPA text "ˌɪntərˈnæʃənəl fəˈnɛtɪk ˈælfəˌbɛt fəˈrɛvər". From the command line:
echo "ˌɪntərˈnæʃənəl fəˈnɛtɪk ˈælfəˌbɛt fəˈrɛvər" | ./ipa2say.rb It will spit out:
IXntrnAESnl fAXnEHtIXk AElfbEHt frEHvr You then run: say "[[inpt PHON]]IXntrnAESnl fAXnEHtIXk AElfbEHt frEHvr"
Here's the script.
#!/usr/bin/ruby -w map = { 'æ' => 'AE', 'eɪ' => 'EY', 'ɑ' => 'AO', 'əˈ' => 'AX', 'i' => 'IY', 'ɛ' => 'EH', 'ɪ' => 'IH', 'aɪ' => 'AY', 'ɪ' => 'IX', 'ɑ' => 'AA', 'u' => 'UW', 'ʊ' => 'UH', 'ʌ' => 'UX', 'oʊ' => 'OW', 'aʊ' => 'AW', 'ɔɪ' => 'OY', 'b' => 'b', 'ʧ' => 'C', 'd' => 'd', 'ð' => 'D', 'f' => 'f', 'g' => 'g', 'h' => 'h', 'ʤ' => 'J', 'k' => 'k', 'l' => 'l', 'm' => 'm', 'n' => 'n', 'ŋ' => 'N', 'p' => 'p', 'r' => 'r', 's' => 's', 'ʃ' => 'S', 't' => 't', 'θ' => 'T', 'v' => 'v', 'w' => 'w', 'j' => 'y', 'z' => 'z', 'ʒ' => 'Z', 'ɜ' => '', ' ' => ' ', 'ˈ' => '' } text = ARGF.read substring = '' text.split("").each do |c| substring << c if substring.length == 2 if map.has_key? substring print map[ substring ] else front = substring[0] if map.has_key? front print map[ front ] end back = substring[1] if map.has_key? back print map[ back ] end end substring = '' end end