Speech Normalization does not correctly convert Malaysian Ringgit (RM) currency into spoken form, while it works for USD

Support Help
1

I have enabled Speech Normalization to ensure currency values are converted into natural spoken form.

For USD, the feature works correctly. For example:

  • $100.50 is pronounced as “one hundred dollars and fifty cents.”

However, for Malaysian Ringgit, it does not work as expected. For example:

  • RM100.50 is pronounced as “R-M-one-zero-zero-dot-five-zero” instead of a natural spoken format such as “one hundred ringgit and fifty sen.”

It appears that Speech Normalization does not recognize the “RM” currency format.

Please advise if there is a configuration setting or workaround to enable proper normalization for RM.

2

The speech normalization feature in Retell AI currently supports English, Spanish, French, and German(1). For non-MiniMax TTS providers, other languages will result in a no-op, meaning the text is not modified(1).

The normalization is designed to convert numbers, currency, and dates to their spoken form before audio generation(2)(3)(4). However, the documentation only mentions converting standard formats like “$24.12” to “twenty four dollars twelve cents”(1)(2)(3)(4).

Since Malaysian Ringgit (RM) is not explicitly mentioned in the supported currency formats, and the normalization currently only works for the four languages listed above(1), the feature likely does not recognize “RM” as a currency symbol.

Workaround options:

  1. Use the pronunciation dictionary to guide consistent pronunciation of “RM” followed by numbers(2)(3)(4). You can add entries to specify how specific Malaysian Ringgit amounts should be pronounced.

  2. Pre-process the text before it reaches the TTS system by converting “RM100.50” to a format like “100.50 ringgit” in your prompt or through custom logic, which may be more naturally spoken by the voice synthesis.

  3. For MiniMax TTS provider specifically, the normalizeForSpeech parameter is passed directly to MiniMax’s API for server-side normalization(1), which may have different currency support.

I don’t have information in the available sources about expanding currency support beyond the documented formats or adding Malaysian Ringgit specifically.

For additional support with currency normalization for Malaysian Ringgit:

Would you like a general answer based on my knowledge instead?