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<refentry id="espeak-1">
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<refmeta><refentrytitle>&cmd;</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
<refmiscinfo class="date">20 Aug 2008</refmiscinfo>
<refmiscinfo class="sectdesc">&man1;</refmiscinfo>
<refmiscinfo class="software">&release;</refmiscinfo>
<refmiscinfo class="arch">generic</refmiscinfo>
<refmiscinfo class="copyright">&suncopy;</refmiscinfo>
</refmeta>
<indexterm><primary>&cmd;</primary></indexterm><indexterm><primary>a compact open source software speech synthesizer</primary></indexterm>
<refnamediv id="espeak-1-name"><refname>&cmd;</refname><refpurpose>a compact open source software speech synthesizer</refpurpose></refnamediv>
<refsynopsisdiv id="espeak-1-synp"><title>&synp-tt;</title>
<cmdsynopsis><command>&cmd;</command>
<arg choice="opt"><option role="nodash"><replaceable>option...</replaceable></option></arg>
<arg choice="opt"><option role="nodash"><replaceable>words</replaceable></option></arg>
</cmdsynopsis>
</refsynopsisdiv>
<refsect1 id="espeak-1-desc"><title>&desc-tt;</title>
<para><command>&cmd;</command> is a compact open source software speech synthesizer.
It can run as a command line program to speak text from a file or from
<literal>stdin</literal>.</para>
<para>Main features of <command>&cmd;</command>:</para>
<para>
<screen>
* Includes different voices, whose characteristics
can be altered.
* Can produce speech output as a WAV file.
* Supports SSML (Speech Synthesis Markup Language
- not complete)
* Supports HTML.
* Is compact in size.
* Can translate text to phoneme codes, so it could
be adapted as a front end for another speech
synthesis engine.
* Is written in C++.
</screen>
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1 id="espeak-1-opts"><title>&opts-tt;</title>
<para>The following options are supported:</para>
<variablelist termlength="medium">
<varlistentry>
<term><option>a <replaceable>integer</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem><para>Amplitude as an <replaceable>integer</replaceable> in the
range from 0 to 200, default is 100.</para>
</listitem></varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>b</option></term>
<listitem><para>Input text is 8-bit encoded.</para>
</listitem></varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>f <replaceable>text_file</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem><para>Speak text from <replaceable>text_file</replaceable>.
</para>
</listitem></varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>g <replaceable>integer</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem><para>Specify the word gap, or the pause between words, as an
<replaceable>integer</replaceable>. Units of 10mS at the default
speed.</para>
</listitem></varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>k <replaceable>integer</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem><para>Indicate how to speak capital letters as an
<replaceable>integer</replaceable>. The argument can have the following
values: 1=sound, 2=the word "capitals", higher values=a pitch increase (try
<option>k</option> 20).</para>
</listitem></varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>l <replaceable>integer</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem><para>Line length as an <replaceable>integer</replaceable>. If not
zero (which is the default), consider lines less than this length as
end-of-clause.</para>
</listitem></varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>m</option></term>
<listitem><para>Interpret SSML markup, and ignore other < > tags.</para>
</listitem></varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>p <replaceable>integer</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem><para>Pitch adjustment as an <replaceable>integer</replaceable> in
the range from 0 to 99, default is 50.</para>
</listitem></varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>q</option></term>
<listitem><para>Quiet, do not produce any speech (may be useful with
<option>x</option>).</para>
</listitem></varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>s <replaceable>integer</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem><para>Speed as an <replaceable>integer</replaceable> meaning
words per minute. Values can be from 80 to 370, default is 170.</para>
</listitem></varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>v <replaceable>voice_file</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem><para>Use specified <replaceable>voice_file</replaceable>.</para>
</listitem></varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>w <replaceable>filename</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem><para>Write output to the specified
<replaceable>filename</replaceable>, in WAV format,
rather than speaking it directly.</para>
</listitem></varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>x</option></term>
<listitem><para>Write phoneme mnemonics to <literal>stdout</literal>.</para>
</listitem></varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>X</option></term>
<listitem><para>Write phonemes mnemonics and translation trace to
<literal>stdout</literal>.</para>
</listitem></varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>z</option></term>
<listitem><para>No final sentence pause at the end of the text.</para>
</listitem></varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>-compile=<replaceable>voice_name</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem><para>Compile the pronunciation rules and dictionary in the
current directory. The <replaceable>voice_name</replaceable> value is optional
and specifies which language to use.</para>
</listitem></varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>-punct="<replaceable>characters</replaceable>"</option></term>
<listitem><para>Speak the names of punctuation
<replaceable>characters</replaceable> while speaking. If the
<replaceable>characters</replaceable> value is omitted, all punctuation is
spoken.</para>
</listitem></varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>-split=<replaceable>minutes</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem><para>Starts a new WAV file every <replaceable>minutes<replaceable>. Used with <option>w</option>.</para>
</listitem></varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>-stdin</option></term>
<listitem><para>Read text input from <literal>stdin</literal> instead of a
file.</para>
</listitem></varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>-stdout</option></term>
<listitem><para>Write speech output to <literal>stdout</literal>.</para>
</listitem></varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>-voices=<replaceable>language</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem><para>List the available voices for the specified
<replaceable>language</replaceable>. If <replaceable>language</replaceable> is
omitted, then list all voices.</para>
</listitem></varlistentry>
</variablelist></refsect1>
<refsect1 id="espeak-1-file"><title>&file-tt;</title>
<para>The following files are used by &cmd;:</para>
<variablelist termlength="wholeline">
<varlistentry>
<listitem><para>
Library for &cmd; speech synthesis
</para>
</listitem></varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<listitem><para>
Directory of voice language and data files
</para>
</listitem></varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</refsect1>
<refsect1 id="espeak-1-attr"><title>&attr-tt;</title>
<para>See <olink targetdocent="REFMAN5" localinfo="attributes-5"><citerefentry>
<refentrytitle>attributes</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry></olink>
for descriptions of the following attributes:</para>
<informaltable frame="all">
<tgroup cols="2" colsep="1" rowsep="1"><colspec colname="COLSPEC0" colwidth="1*">
<colspec colname="COLSPEC1" colwidth="1*">
<thead>
<row><entry align="center" valign="middle">ATTRIBUTE TYPE</entry><entry align="center"
valign="middle">ATTRIBUTE VALUE</entry></row>
</thead>
<tbody>
</row>
<row><entry colname="COLSPEC0"><para>Interface stability</para></entry><entry
colname="COLSPEC1"><para>Volatile</para></entry></row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</informaltable>
</refsect1>
<refsect1 id="espeak-1-note"><title>¬e-tt;</title>
<para>
&cmd; was written by Jonathan Duddington.
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1 id="espeak-1-also"><title>&also-tt;</title>
<para>
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>orca</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>libespeak</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>libgnomespeech</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>attributes</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
</para>
<para>
Additional information is available from the following site:
</para>
<para>
</para>
</refsect1>
</refentry>