VOICE GENERATOR, METHOD FOR GENERATING VOICE, AND NAVIGATION APPARATUS

A main controller feeds a spelling translator with a text item representing a place name stored in a map database. The spelling translator translates the spelling of the text item according to rules described in a translation rule table. The spelling translator translates, e.g., a French character or string included in the text item and not included in the English alphabet into an English alphabet character or string having a pronunciation equivalent or similar to the pronunciation of the French character or string. The translated text item is fed into a TTS engine for English. The TTS engine converts the text item into voice, which is output from a speaker.