1SPEAK-NG(1)                 General Commands Manual                SPEAK-NG(1)
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NAME

6       speak-ng - A multi-lingual software speech synthesizer.
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SYNOPSIS

9       speak-ng [options] [<words>]
10

DESCRIPTION

12       speak-ng  is  a software speech synthesizer for English, and some other
13       languages.
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OPTIONS

16       -h, --help
17              Show summary of options.
18
19       --version
20              Prints the espeak library version and the location of the espeak
21              voice data.
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23       -f <text file>
24              Text file to speak.
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26       --stdin
27              Read text input from stdin instead of a file.
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29       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.
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32       -q     Quiet, don´t produce any speech (may be useful with -x).
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34       -a <integer>
35              Amplitude, 0 to 200, default is 100.
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37       -g <integer>
38              Word gap. Pause between words, units  of  10ms  at  the  default
39              speed.
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41       -k <integer>
42              Indicate  capital  letters with: 1=sound, 2=the word "capitals",
43              higher values = a pitch increase (try -k20).
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45       -l <integer>
46              Line length. If not zero (which is the default), consider  lines
47              less than this length as end-of-clause.
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49       -p <integer>
50              Pitch adjustment, 0 to 99, default is 50.
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52       -s <integer>
53              Speed in words per minute, default is 175.
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55       -v <voice name>
56              Use  voice file of this name from espeak-ng-data/voices. A vari‐
57              ant can be specified using voice+variant, such as af+m3.
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59       -w <wave file name>
60              Write output to this WAV file, rather than speaking it directly.
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62       --split=<minutes>
63              Used with -w to split the audio output into  <minutes>  recorded
64              chunks.
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66       -b     Input text encoding, 1=UTF8, 2=8 bit, 4=16 bit.
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68       -m     Indicates  that  the text contains SSML (Speech Synthesis Markup
69              Language) tags or other XML tags. Those SSML tags which are sup‐
70              ported are interpreted. Other tags, including HTML, are ignored,
71              except that some HTML tags such as
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73       -x     Write phoneme mnemonics to stdout.
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75       -X     Write phonemes mnemonics and translation  trace  to  stdout.  If
76              rules  files  have been built with --compile=debug, line numbers
77              will also be displayed.
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79       -z     No final sentence pause at the end of the text.
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81       --stdout
82              Write speech output to stdout.
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84       --compile=voicename
85              Compile the pronunciation rules and dictionary  in  the  current
86              directory. =<voicename< is optional and specifies which language
87              is compiled.
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89       --compile-debug=voicename
90              Compile the pronunciation rules and dictionary  in  the  current
91              directory  as  above,  but  include line numbers, that get shown
92              when -X is used.
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94       --ipa  Write phonemes to stdout using International Phonetic  Alphabet.
95              --ipa=1 Use ties, --ipa=2 Use ZWJ, --ipa=3 Separate with _.
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97       --tie=<character>
98              The  character  to  use  to join multi-letter phonemes in -x and
99              --ipa output.
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101       --path=<path>
102              Specifies the directory containing the espeak-ng-data directory.
103
104       --pho  Write mbrola phoneme data (.pho) to stdout or  to  the  file  in
105              --phonout.
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107       --phonout=<filename>
108              Write output from -x -X commands and mbrola phoneme data to this
109              file.
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111       --punct="<characters>"
112              Speak the names of punctuation characters  during  speaking.  If
113              =<characters> is omitted, all punctuation is spoken.
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115       --sep=<character>
116              The character to separate phonemes from the -x and --ipa output.
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118       --voices[=<language code>]
119              Lists  the available voices. If =<language code> is present then
120              only those voices which  are  suitable  for  that  language  are
121              listed.
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123       --voices=<directory>
124              Lists the voices in the specified subdirectory.
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EXAMPLES

127       speak-ng "This is a test"
128              Speak  the  sentence  "This is a test" using the default English
129              voice.
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131       speak-ng -f hello.txt
132              Speak the contents of hello.txt using the default English voice.
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134       cat hello.txt | speak-ng
135              Speak the contents of hello.txt using the default English voice.
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137       speak-ng -x hello
138              Speak the word "hello" using  the  default  English  voice,  and
139              print the phonemes that were spoken.
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141       speak-ng -ven-us "[[h@´loU]]"
142              Speak the phonemes "h@´loU" using the American English voice.
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144       speak-ng --voices
145              List all voices supported by eSpeak.
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147       speak-ng --voices=en
148              List all voices that speak English (en).
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150       speak-ng --voices=mb
151              List all voices using the MBROLA voice synthesizer.
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AUTHOR

154       eSpeak NG is maintained by Reece H. Dunn msclrhd@gmail.com. It is based
155       on eSpeak by Jonathan Duddington jonsd@jsd.clara.co.uk.
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157       This manual page is based on the eSpeak page written by  Luke  Yelavich
158       themuso@ubuntu.com for the Ubuntu project.
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162                                   June 2022                       SPEAK-NG(1)