WP-071 — Sentence Fragmentation in Real-Time Voice Output: A Diagnostic and Architectural Response

During live voice delivery sessions in September 2026, Merlin exhibited a systematic pattern of fragmenting complete sentences mid-delivery, breaking logical units across multiple output turns without marking the continuation or holding coherent thought boundaries. This whitepaper documents the pattern, its architectural source, the diagnostic process, and the implemented correction protocol. The issue arose from token-streaming architecture prioritizing latency over compositional wholeness, creating perceptual fragmentation despite semantic integrity at the backend. Resolution required enforcing sentence-level buffer-and-hold logic before voice synthesis initiation.