Try our vocal smileys – sounds & exclamations – and here is how it works.
Back in 2007 we started adding voice sounds and exclamations whenever we recorded a new speaker.
What are Sounds?
Sounds are produced by the speakers’ voice for laughing, breathing, sneezing, coughing or whatever sounds our voices can produce to mimic sounds we make in our daily lives. Sounds are always between two pound signs #LAUGH01# in capital letters and sometimes followed by numbers if there are more than one of the same kind. The children’s voices have more sounds than adult voices because, as you well know, children are way more playful :-).
What are Exclamations?
Exclamations were a bit trickier to select and we only kept the most commonly used ones. Exclamations are always followed by an exclamation sign (!) – quite obviously – but without the blank between the word and the sign. If there is a blank left in between, the exclamation will be ignored. You may noticed that in some cases certain exclamations in the document are doubled by the same exclamation in brackets (“), this is simply to avoid that the (“) causes a pause with these exclamations that already have pauses.
How do I use them?
In both cases you simply need to insert sounds and exclamations in your text and they well be uttered correctly if you are using the right voice – look at the documentation. In fact not all voices have sounds and exclamations, in some cases we can make additional recordings, in some cases we can provide substitutes (that’s when (S) is written afterthe text string, don’t copy this part of course), unfortunately there will be cases where we can’t do anything.
