Erable is an UTAU reclist optimized for Canadian French. It was made by General Nuisance with help from StatikoP (Ben) of The Monochrome System. It's used in the French voicebanks of Arachne and CopperCross, and is intended as a solution for French-Canadians, or non-native French speakers with a more anglicized or Canadian accent, so that they can record a French voicebank without having to change their accent to that of a European French accent.
If you have a European French accent, you can still record Erable, but there will be a lot of phonemes you might not use in your everyday speech, though you may want this for simple reasons of phoneme variety in your voicebank or because you simply prefer the USTing format of Erable to that of other well known reclists, like Mot or FRALoids. Just be aware that the reclist is optimized to a different dialect, so a few things might seem odd to you!
As such, Erable is a much larger format than that of Mot or FRAloids, boasting a size of between 1,105 and 1,202 samples, and 2,750 and 2,904 oto lines, depending on whether you record the version that merges [ɒ] and [ɔ] or not. If you have the cot-caught merger in English, or pronounce the words "sort" and "pas" with the same vowel, you can record the merged (shorter) version of the reclist.
Erable is optimized for Canadian French, and the various subdialects therein. Therefore, it's built with a more anglicized pronunciation with lots of English loanwords in mind. Reclists like Mot, while efficient and easy to record for those with a European accent, cannot accomodate the Canadian accent as a result of its efficiency. Canadian French has many more vowels than European French, including multiple diphtongs, so making an extension to a list like Mot for an accent as different as Canadian French is untenable and makes both Mot, and the resulting Canadian-accented output, worse. So, Erable is an entirely different reclist, so that we can get the best results out of a Canadian-accented bank, without having to completely overhaul a reclist to do something it was never built for.
If you speak Canadian French, or just speak French with a Canadian accent, or even just anglicize the pronunciation a bit more than Mot or FRAloids is built to handle, then Erable is for you. If you want a voicebank with a Canadian accent to sing a song for you, it's likely on the Erable list. Erable is also built with a similar structure to Cz's 2015 VCCV English list, so it'll be familiar and easy to use for anyone familiar with VCCV.
Erable is based on the CMU_Sphinx French dictionary, edited and modified so as to better fit Canadian French's phonology and orthography.
| Erable Phoneme | Mot/FRAloids/CMUSphinx Phoneme | IPA Notation | Example Word | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| aa | ah | a | matte, patte, chatte | Like the English word "mat" |
| ah | N/A | ɒ or o̟̞, depending on your accent | sort, mort, la, cas | The "a" sound. Record this one if you merge "ah" and "oo" or have the cot/caught merger. |
| ay | N/A | aɪ or æɪ | fête, tête | Like the english "long I" |
| ee | ee | ø | peut, ceux, me | Like the English "should" |
| eh | ae | ɛ | mais, fait, est | Like in the English "beg" or "said" |
| ei | eh | e or ɪ | Like "ey" but with a European French accent | Close to the English "fit" |
| en | en | ã | vent, sans | Try pronouncing the "ah/oo" vowel but through your nose. |
| ey | N/A | eɪ | chez, allez, souffler | Like the English "may" |
| ih | ih | i | si, cire | Like the English "key" |
| in | in | ẽɪ̯̃ | vin, quinze, main | Similar to the English "bang" but without the "ng." Just that nasally vowel. |
| oe | oe | œ | soeur, jeune | Also like the English "should" |
| oh | oh | o | haut, sot, bureau | Like in the English "bowl" |
| oi | oi | wa | boire, croix, loi | It's a "wa" sound. What do you want from me? |
| oo | oo | sort, mort, la, cas | ɔ | This is an optional vowel. |
| ou | ou | u | coup, vous, roux | Like the English "boot" |
| ow | N/A | oʊ̯ | cause | Like the English "boat" |
| uh | uh | y | tu, mur | Have your toungue like you're going to say the vowel in the English word "bit" but round your lips like you're saying the vowel in "boot." |
| ui | ui | ɥi | puis, cuit, suis | It's the English "we" sound. |
| un | N/A | œ̃ | brun, un | Kinda a cross between "ee" or "oe" and an r-coloured vowel (like in bird). Nasally. You can reference Arachne or CopperCross' banks if this description doesn't quite do it. |
| uu | N/A | ə | Some pronunciations of je | It's an English schwa. Like in "cut" or the first syllable "about" |
| Erable Phoneme | IPA Notation | Example Word |
|---|---|---|
| b | b | beurre |
| ch | t̠ʃ | chum |
| d | d | dame |
| f | f | faire |
| g | g | gang |
| j | d̠ʒ | jeux |
| k | k | crie |
| l | l | libre |
| m | m | math |
| n | n | net |
| p | p | prix |
| r | ʁ or r or ɾ depending on your accent. Ontarian speakers tend to go for the latter two, Quebecois speakers tend to go for the former. Unless they're like 87 and live in the middle of nowhere. | rouge |
| s | s | si |
| sk | sk | escalier |
| sp | sp | esprit |
| st | st | stop |
| sh | ʃ | chat |
| t | t | tarte |
| v | v | vais |
| w | w | web |
| y | j | yoyo |
| z | z | zebre |