PLS - what is it, what “gap” does it fill?

What PLS did is this:

• First, it provided a single, standard XML-based language for describing pronunciations, both for speech recognizers and for speech synthesizers.
• Second, it requires support for IPA, the International Phonetic Alphabet. This Alphabet is a standard symbol set for representing pronunciations of all the languages of the world.

With PLS it is now possible to write one lexicon document that can be used by any speech recognizer and/or any speech synthesizer that supports it. One document for all of your pronunciations, independent of your voice technology vendor.  [click heading for more]