This paper discusses the approach used to develop a Text-To-Speech (TTS) synthesis system for the Punjabi text written in Gurmukhi script. Concatenative method has been used to develop this TTS system using syllables as the basic units of concatenation. After analyzing a carefully selected Punjabi corpus, we have selected nearly thirty three hundred syllables out of about ninety three hundred valid Punjabi syllables. The system is based on a Punjabi speech database that contains the starting and ending positions of syllable-sounds labeled carefully in a wave file of recorded words. The input text is first processed and then syllabified with an automatic syllabification algorithm that has been developed based on grammatical rules of Punjabi language. Then these syllables are searched in the database for corresponding syllable-sound positions in recorded wave file. The paper also discusses the criteria used for the selection of these syllables and the minimum number of words those cover these syllables for recoding
