John,
My patch, as it is now, would do:
two thousand six year nine month ten two day
two thousand six year nine month two day
Is "couple" used instead of "two" anywhere else? You use it for day and
minute. Is it ever used for year, month, hour, or second?
For year, it should be couple in front of the thousand. In addition, you need to explicity say zero as well:
2006 = couple thousand zero six year
However, it gets interesting at 2010. I surveyed 5 native Chinese speaking colleagues (from both Taiwan and China) in addition to myself, and there isn't any agreement on what to say to make it sound right. The only agreement I found was to say the digits individually. Everyone felt comfortable with having a voicemail system speak the year as:
2006 = two zero zero six year
2010 = two zero one zero year
It's also simpler to implement.
For month & day, you can use two:
Feb 2 = two month 2 day
But it goes back to couple when speaking 2 o'clock:
2:22pm = couple time twenty two PM
How bad is it to say "two" instead of "couple"? I could probably program
it to play "couple" if the recording exists, and fall back to "two" if
that is at all acceptable.
It would sound very awkward. People will understand if "two" is said instead, but it sticks out badly.
Are there any other numbers which might be expressed differently in some
circumstances?
I think "2" is the only digit that changes.
Is a 12-hour or 24-hour clock preferred in chinese?
Civilians generally speak in 12-hr format.
Asterisk currently uses a 24-hour clock by default (format HM):
ten four time ten minute
ten four time zero two minute
zero two time zero zero minute (02:00am)
and can add "zero seven second" to that if seconds are requested (HMS).
Is the "zero zero minute" very bad?
If the minutes are zero, you'd drop it and just say the hour (same as English).
02:00am = couple time AM
And how stuffy is "zero two minute"?
This is correct.
A 12-hour time format (IMP) would be expressed:
two time ten minute p-m
two time zero two minute p-m
two time zero zero minute a-m
You'd want to say "couple time" instead of "two time" in front.
Steve
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