espeak

eSpeak is a compact open source software speech synthesizer for English and other languages, for Linux and Windows.

eSpeak uses a "formant synthesis" method. This allows many languages to be provided in a small size. The speech is clear, and can be used at high speeds, but not as natural or smooth as larger synthesizers which are based on human speech recordings.

Features

• Included differend Voices, whose characteristics can be altered.
• Can produce speech output as a WAV file.
• SSML (Speech Synthesis Markup Language) is supported (not complete), and also HTML.
• Compact size. The program and its data, including many languages, total about 2 MB.
• Can be used as a front-end to MBROLA diphone voices. eSpeak converts text to phonemes with pitch and length information.
• Can translate text into phoneme codes, so it could be adapted as a front end for other speech synthesis engines.
• Potential for other languages. Several are inluded in varying stages of progress.

Configuration Options

Variable	Default Value	Description
male	true	Voice gender, male or female.
voice_number	1	Male supports voices 1-4, Female 1-7.