Lucent Technologies 585-310-748 manual How the System Interprets Text/E-Mail

INTUITY Multimedia Messaging User’s Guide 585-310-748	Issue 2
	January 1997
How the System Interprets Text/E-Mail	Page 45

How the System Interprets Text/E-Mail

Your system changes e-mail into speech so you can listen to it. The system follows certain rules to make these changes. Therefore, some parts of an e-mail message may sound odd because of the way the system interprets it. The following list explains what things might sound odd.

Acronymsand		The system normally pronounces words exactly as they are
abbreviations		spelled. The system also pronounces acronyms as words.
that use		For example, for unicef, the system says “UNICEF.”
capital letters		The system also pronounces many all-capital abbreviations
		letter by letter. For example, for IBM, the system says “I B
		M.”
		However, the system may inappropriately pronounce some
		all-capital abbreviations as words. For example, the
		abbreviation VAT stands for the value-added tax typical of
		European countries. The system reads this abbreviation as
		“vat,” not “V A T.”
		If a period (.) appears before a space in an all-caps
		abbreviation, the system ignores it. Thus, for V. A. T. , the
		system says “V A T.” If a period is followed by a letter or
		number, the system says “period.”
Other		The system pronounces many common abbreviations in
common		their full form. For example, the system pronounces Wed.
abbreviations		as “Wednesday,” Mr . as “Mister”, and Oct. as “October.” It
		also pronounces re: as “regarding.”
		However, some abbreviations may have more than one
		interpretation. In these cases, the system may pronounce
		the wrong interpretation. For example, Dr could be “drive,”
		“doctor,” or “Denver.” But the system is sensitive to the
		context of the abbreviation. So if the context is clear, the
		system usually uses the correct interpretation.
Dates	The system pronounces numbers written with two single slashes
	(/) as dates. For example, the system says “April tenth, 1996,” if
	written as 04/10/96. However, the system pronounces 04/10
	(without the year) as “four tenths.” Also, the system doesn’t
	pronounce numbers with single dashes(-) as dates. For example,
	the system says “4 dash 10 dash 96” if written as 4-10-96.
Times	The system pronounces numbers written with colons as hours
	and minutes, including times that use the 24-hour clock. For
	example, the system pronounces 10:23 as “ten twenty-three.” The
	system also recognizes and pronounces 24-hour-clock time.