1ESPEAK-NG(1) ESPEAK-NG(1)
2
6 espeak-ng - A multi-lingual software speech synthesizer.
7
9 espeak-ng [options] [words]
10
12 espeak-ng is a software speech synthesizer for English, and some other
13 languages.
14
16 -h, --help
17 Show summary of options.
18 --version
20 Prints the espeak library version and the location of the espeak
21 voice data.
22 -f <text file>
24 Text file to speak.
25 --stdin
27 Read text input from stdin instead of a file.
28 If neither -f nor --stdin are provided, <words> are spoken, or if no
30 words are provided then text is spoken from stdin a line at a time.
31 -d <device>
33 Use the specified device to speak the audio on. If not speci‐
34 fied, the default audio device is used.
35 -q Quiet, don´t produce any speech (may be useful with -x).
37 -a <integer>
39 Amplitude, 0 to 200, default is 100.
40 -g <integer>
42 Word gap. Pause between words, units of 10ms at the default
43 speed.
44 -k <integer>
46 Indicate capital letters with: 1=sound, 2=the word "capitals",
47 higher values = a pitch increase (try -k20).
48 -l <integer>
50 Line length. If not zero (which is the default), consider lines
51 less than this length as end-of-clause.
52 -p <integer>
54 Pitch adjustment, 0 to 99, default is 50.
55 -s <integer>
57 Speed in words per minute, default is 160.
58 -v <voice name>
60 Use voice file of this name from espeak-ng-data/voices. A vari‐
61 ant can be specified using voice+variant, such as af+m3.
62 -w <wave file name>
64 Write output to this WAV file, rather than speaking it directly.
65 --split=<minutes>
67 Used with -w to split the audio output into <minutes> recorded
68 chunks.
69 -b Input text encoding, 1=UTF8, 2=8 bit, 4=16 bit.
71 -m Indicates that the text contains SSML (Speech Synthesis Markup
73 Language) tags or other XML tags. Those SSML tags which are sup‐
74 ported are interpreted. Other tags, including HTML, are ignored,
75 except that some HTML tags such as <hr> <h2> and <li> ensure a
76 break in the speech.
77 -x Write phoneme mnemonics to stdout.
79 -X Write phonemes mnemonics and translation trace to stdout. If
81 rules files have been built with --compile=debug, line numbers
82 will also be displayed.
83 -z No final sentence pause at the end of the text.
85 --stdout
87 Write speech output to stdout.
88 --compile=voicename
90 Compile the pronunciation rules and dictionary in the current
91 directory. =<voicename< is optional and specifies which language
92 is compiled.
93 --compile-debug=voicename
95 Compile the pronunciation rules and dictionary in the current
96 directory as above, but include line numbers, that get shown
97 when -X is used.
98 --ipa Write phonemes to stdout using International Phonetic Alphabet.
100 --ipa=1 Use ties, --ipa=2 Use ZWJ, --ipa=3 Separate with _.
101 --tie=<character>
103 The character to use to join multi-letter phonemes in -x and
104 --ipa output.
105 --path=<path>
107 Specifies the directory containing the espeak-ng-data directory.
108 --pho Write mbrola phoneme data (.pho) to stdout or to the file in
110 --phonout.
111 --phonout=<filename>
113 Write output from -x -X commands and mbrola phoneme data to this
114 file.
115 --punct="<characters>"
117 Speak the names of punctuation characters during speaking. If
118 =<characters> is omitted, all punctuation is spoken.
119 --sep=<character>
121 The character to separate phonemes from the -x and --ipa output.
122 --voices[=<language code>]
124 Lists the available voices. If =<language code> is present then
125 only those voices which are suitable for that language are
126 listed.
127 --voices=<directory>
129 Lists the voices in the specified subdirectory.
130
132 espeak-ng "This is a test"
133 Speak the sentence "This is a test" using the default English
134 voice.
135 espeak-ng -f hello.txt
137 Speak the contents of hello.txt using the default English voice.
138 cat hello.txt | espeak-ng
140 Speak the contents of hello.txt using the default English voice.
141 espeak-ng -x hello
143 Speak the word "hello" using the default English voice, and
144 print the phonemes that were spoken.
145 espeak-ng -ven-us "[[h@´loU]]"
147 Speak the phonemes "h@´loU" using the American English voice.
148 espeak-ng --voices
150 List all voices supported by eSpeak.
151 espeak-ng --voices=en
153 List all voices that speak English (en).
154 espeak-ng --voices=mb
156 List all voices using the MBROLA voice synthesizer.
157
159 eSpeak NG is maintained by Reece H. Dunn msclrhd@gmail.com. It is based
160 on eSpeak by Jonathan Duddington jonsd@jsd.clara.co.uk.
161 This manual page is based on the eSpeak page written by Luke Yelavich
163 themuso@ubuntu.com for the Ubuntu project.
164 September 2017 ESPEAK-NG(1)