Speaker
Description
As Automated Text Recognition (HTR) becomes increasingly integral to Digital Humanities, under-resourced scripts such as Syriac continue to present unique methodological challenges. This presentation outlines an experimental workflow designed to bridge this gap by not only recognizing Syriac handwriting but actively "giving voice" to the texts. The proposed pipeline begins with the HTR processing of Syriac manuscripts using Transkribus, followed by the automated transliteration of the recognized text into Latin script. Once transliterated, Text-to-Speech (TTS) technologies are applied to generate audio output. Crucially, by combining Transkribus-based HTR, transliteration, and TTS, this workflow aims to make historical Syriac sources accessible to individuals with visual impairments, allowing them to hear texts that were previously out of reach. Furthermore, it offers new avenues for linguistic analysis and broader public dissemination.