Echoes of innovation: journey through the Croatian speech synthesis landscape

As digital communication becomes increasingly prevalent, the development of speech synthesis systems for Croatian and related languages is of paramount importance. This paper provides an in–depth exploration into the field of speech synthesis, emphasizing the Croatian language. It chronologically charts the evolution of speech synthesis from its mechanical inception to the modern electronic age, culminating in an analysis of contemporary landscape of digital speech synthesis systems. The study commences with a synthesis of previous research on Croatian speech synthesis, scrutinizing the methodologies and strategies implemented, and evaluating their effectiveness, constraints, and results. A comparative study is also presented, assessing advancements in related Slavic languages, including Serbian, Slovene, Bosnian, and Macedonian. The discourse then widens to include the global landscape of speech synthesis. It highlights the latest breakthroughs, particularly cutting–edge techniques, frameworks, and algorithms that have yielded significant outcomes in languages with abundant linguistic resources, such as English and Mandarin Chinese. This comparison elucidates the notable gaps in speech synthesis progress on a global scale. The paper also addresses the challenges posed by the scarce and suboptimal quality digital linguistic resources available in Croatia, which hinder the development of speech synthesis. In response to these challenges, the paper introduces a doctoral thesis dedicated to creating an annotated corpus and formulating deep learning models specifically tailored for Croatian speech synthesis. The ambition of this scholarly work is to catalyze advancement, remedy existing shortcomings, and pave the way for a robust future for Croatian speech synthesis technology. In conclusion, this survey examines both the historical trajectory and the present state of speech synthesis in Croatian. It underscores the criticality of ongoing research in this area and the urgent necessity for enhanced linguistic resources and innovative methodologies. The paper also briefly touches upon the significant progress in speech synthesis for globally dominant languages, such as English and Mandarin Chinese, providing a benchmark for future investigations.