SSML phoneme markup can supply a custom pronunciation using phonetic alphabets such as IPA or X-SAMPA on supported speech systems.
TL;DR: SSML phoneme markup can supply a custom pronunciation using phonetic alphabets such as IPA or X-SAMPA on supported speech systems.
Primary reference: Google Developers SSML phoneme documentation; Microsoft Speech SSML pronunciation documentation. Unicode/CLDR data and speech-platform capabilities evolve, so verify the current official documentation before implementing version-specific behavior.
Person-name formatting and locale-sensitive collation are separate problems; display order should not automatically be reused as a universal sort key.
CLDR treats monograms as a distinct person-name formatting use case rather than assuming that taking the first character of two database fields is universally correct.
A fixed Western-style given-middle-family schema cannot represent every person's name structure cleanly.
Many products need a display or preferred name for ordinary interaction while legal or verified identity fields are needed only for specific regulated workflows.
CLDR person-name formatting explicitly accounts for name order that can depend on the language of the name and the viewing locale.
Real naming systems do not always provide both a given name and a surname, so software that requires both can force users to invent data.
