10. Apparatus for providing speech output for a speech-enabled application, the apparatus comprising: a memory storing a plurality of processor-executable instructions; and at least one processor, operatively coupled to the memory, that executes the instructions to: receive from the speech-enabled application a text input comprising a text transcription of a desired speech output; generate an audio speech output corresponding to at least a portion of the text input, the audio speech output comprising at least one portion carrying contrastive stress to contrast with at least one other portion of the audio speech output; and provide the audio speech output for the speech-enabled application; wherein the at least one processor executes the instructions to generate the audio speech output at least in part by: identifying a plurality of tokens of the text input of a same text normalization type for which a contrastive stress pattern is to be applied; identifying at least one token of the plurality of tokens to be rendered with contrastive stress; and assigning contrastive stress to be carried by at least one portion of the audio speech output corresponding to at least one portion of the at least one token of the text input; wherein the at least one processor executes the instructions to perform the assigning at least in part by: identifying at least one first portion of the at least one token of the plurality of tokens that differs from at least one corresponding first portion of at least one other token of the plurality of tokens, and at least one second portion of the at least one token that does not differ from at least one corresponding second portion of the at least one other token; and assigning contrastive stress to be carried by at least one first portion of the audio speech output corresponding to the identified at least one first portion of the at least one token, but not to at least one second portion of the audio speech output corresponding to the identified at least one second portion of the at least one token.
10. Apparatus for providing speech output for a speech-enabled application, the apparatus comprising: a memory storing a plurality of processor-executable instructions; and at least one processor, operatively coupled to the memory, that executes the instructions to: receive from the speech-enabled application a text input comprising a text transcription of a desired speech output; generate an audio speech output corresponding to at least a portion of the text input, the audio speech output comprising at least one portion carrying contrastive stress to contrast with at least one other portion of the audio speech output; and provide the audio speech output for the speech-enabled application; wherein the at least one processor executes the instructions to generate the audio speech output at least in part by: identifying a plurality of tokens of the text input of a same text normalization type for which a contrastive stress pattern is to be applied; identifying at least one token of the plurality of tokens to be rendered with contrastive stress; and assigning contrastive stress to be carried by at least one portion of the audio speech output corresponding to at least one portion of the at least one token of the text input; wherein the at least one processor executes the instructions to perform the assigning at least in part by: identifying at least one first portion of the at least one token of the plurality of tokens that differs from at least one corresponding first portion of at least one other token of the plurality of tokens, and at least one second portion of the at least one token that does not differ from at least one corresponding second portion of the at least one other token; and assigning contrastive stress to be carried by at least one first portion of the audio speech output corresponding to the identified at least one first portion of the at least one token, but not to at least one second portion of the audio speech output corresponding to the identified at least one second portion of the at least one token. 18. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the at least one processor executes the instructions to identify the at least one first portion of the at least one token that differs from the at least one corresponding first portion of the at least one other token based at least in part on a normalized orthography of the at least a portion of the text input.