SPEECH PROCESSING METHOD AND APPARATUS

A speech synthesis method comprising: receiving a text input and outputting speech corresponding to said text input using a stochastic model, said stochastic model comprising an acoustic model and an excitation model, said acoustic model having a plurality of model parameters describing probability distributions which relate a word or part thereof to a feature, said excitation model comprising excitation model parameters which are used to model the vocal chords and lungs to output the speech using said features; wherein said acoustic parameters and excitation parameters have been jointly estimated; and outputting said speech.