# Custom Pronunciations

## Overview

The Custom Pronunciations tool allows administrators to add nicknames and to customize name pronunciation. For example, if a user named Michael also wants to be recognized as "Mick" or "Mickey" you can add these nicknames to the word "Michael". When a caller says either "Mick" or "Mickey", users named Michael are recognized. You can add multiple pronunciations for each SAA-registered user.

You can also add a phonetic representation of the user's name. For example, an English SAA system will have a better chance of matching the name "Benoit" when you add a phonetic pronunciation (like "benwah").

For systems that use a bilingual language configuration, you can also configure a pronunciation in the secondary language (for example, if French is configured as your secondary language, you can configure a secondary language entry of "maison" to be a pronunciation of the English "house". Note: If multiple SAA-registered users have a name that includes the word "house", they will also be recognized by the programmed pronunciation.

## Conditions and Limitations

- There is no relationship between Custom Pronunciations and SAA names recorded by licensed users when they complete the SAA tutorial. As such, re-recording the SAA names has no impact on the recognition success rate for the Custom Pronunciations.

- Custom Pronunciations take effect immediately (without the need to click the Force Update button). For this reason, exercise care when adding or editing entries.

- It is recommended that a maximum of three Custom Pronunciation entries be added for any one user name.

- The Custom Pronunciation tool is available only to the SAA administrator, not to licensed users.

- The Custom Pronunciation tool does not replace the default system pronunciation engine.

- When implementing this feature, the SAA administrator should:

- - experiment with a single entry (e.g. a user's last name) to confirm that it can be recognized. If unsuccessful, re-do the entry. If successful, add more entries.

  - use default settings for the miscellaneous SAA parameters. Alternatively, contact Mitel product support before modifying the miscellaneous parameters.

## Programming

Note: If you change the SAA language at any time, your Custom Pronunciations may be inappropriate, and may even have a detrimental impact on recognition performance. We recommend that you delete your existing pronunciations when changing SAA language. (You may also want to keep a record of them for future use.)

To add a Custom Pronunciation:

1. In the navigation tree, click Auto Attendant. The Auto Attendant menu appears.

2. Click Custom Pronunciation.

3. In the Word field, type the name for which you want to add a pronunciation (for example, "mouse").

4. In the Pronunciations field, type one or more pronunciations that you want to be recognized as synonyms for "mouse", entering each pronunciation on a new line.

5. Click Add.

To edit a Custom Pronunciation:

1. In the navigation tree, click System Maintenance and then click Auto Attendant. The Auto Attendant menu appears.

2. Click Custom Pronunciation.

3. Click the link of the word you want to edit.

   Note: If the word list is long, you can use the alphabet toolbar to click the first letter of the word and display only those words that begin with the same letter.

4. Make the required changes and then click Save.

To delete a Custom Pronunciation:

1. In the navigation tree, click System Maintenance and then click Auto Attendant. The Auto Attendant menu appears.

2. Click Custom Pronunciation.

3. Select the check box beside the word you want to delete and then click Delete. Click OK to confirm the deletion.

Parent topic: Installation and Configuration