Takes espeak output, makes it into sort-of-readable phonetic language inspired by Sayspel

phoneticspell.lua

local input =                                                                            
[==[                                                                                     
Put Your input text here.
]==]                                                                                     
                                                                                         
local phonemes = {}                                                                      
do                                                                                       
  local h = io.popen('espeak -w /dev/null -x "' .. input .. '"')                         
  phonemes = h:read('*a')                                                                
  h:close()                                                                              
end                                                                                      
                                                                                         
-- http://espeak.sourceforge.net/phonemes.html                                           
local subst = {                                                                          
  -- -- short words -- --                                                                
  {'DI2;', 'dh'},                                                                        
  {'D@', 'dh'},                                                                          
                                                                                         
  -- -- consonants -- --                                                                 
  {'j', 'y'},                                                                            
  {'tS', 'ch'},                                                                          
  {'kw', 'q'},                                                                           
  {'dZ', 'j'},                                                                           
  {'ks', 'x'},                                                                           
  {'gz', 'x'},                                                                           
  {'D', 'dh'},                                                                           
  {'T', 'th'},                                                                           
  {'S', 'sh'},                                                                           
  {'N', 'ng'},                                                                           
  {'L', 'l'},                                                                            
  {'k', 'c'},                                                                            
                                                                                         
  -- -- vowel + rhotics -- --                                                            
  {'A@', 'ar'},                                                                          
  {'e@', 'er'},                                                                          
  {'i@', 'i'},                                                                           
  {'o@', 'or'},                                                                          
  {'O@', 'or'},                                                                          
  {'3:?', 'ur'},                                                                         
                                                                                         
  -- Vowels                                                                              
  {'eI', 'aa'},                                                                          
  {'aU', 'au'},                                                                          
  {'aa', 'a'},                                                                           
  {'A:', 'á'},                                                                           
--  {'a', 'a'},                                                                          
  {'i:', 'é'},                                                                           
  {'aI', 'í'},                                                                           
--{'i', 'i'},                                                                            
  {'OI', 'oi'},                                                                          
  {'oU', 'ó'},                                                                           
  {'O:', 'ou'},                                                                          
  {'O', 'o'},                                                                            
  {'u:', 'ú'},                                                                           
                                                                                         
  {'E', 'e'},                                                                            
  {'I2?', 'i'},                                                                          
  {'0', 'o'},                                                                            
  {'V', 'u'},                                                                            
  {'U', 'oo'},                                                                           
                                                                                         
  -- old schwa rules were to sometimes replace with 'u'                                  
--  {'@([bptdkg])', 'u%1'},                                                              
--  {';@', 'u'},                                                                         
--  now I use a schwa and I like it                                                      
  {'@', ''},                                                                             
                                                                                         
  -- -- ignored -- --                                                                    
  {'[-!_:;#\',]', ''},                                                                   
}                                                                                        
                                                                                         
print(phonemes)                                                                          
print(input)                                                                             
                                                                                         
for i,s in ipairs(subst) do                                                              
  local pat, sub = table.unpack(s)                                                       
  phonemes = phonemes:gsub(pat, sub)                                                     
--print(pat, sub, phonemes)                                                              
end                                                                                      
                                                                                         
print(phonemes)