SPEECH SYNTHESIS METHOD AND APPARATUS USING PRE-RECORDED SPEECH AND RULE-BASED SYNTHESIZED SPEECH

A language processing unit identifies a word by performing language analysis on a text supplied from a text holding unit. A synthesis selection unit selects speech synthesis processing performed by a rule-based synthesis unit or speech synthesis processing performed by a pre-recorded-speech-based synthesis unit for a word of interest extracted from the language analysis result. The selected rule-based synthesis unit or pre-recorded-speech-based synthesis unit executes speech synthesis processing for the word of interest.