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

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

9       espeak-ng [options] [words]
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DESCRIPTION

12       espeak-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 till to the end of a stream at once.
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29       If neither -f nor --stdin are provided, then <words> from parameter are
30       spoken, or text is spoken from stdin, read separately one line by  line
31       at a time.
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33       -d <device>
34              Use  the  specified  device to speak the audio on. If not speci‐
35              fied, the default audio device is used.
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37       -q     Quiet, don´t produce any speech (may be useful with -x).
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39       -a <integer>
40              Amplitude, 0 to 200, default is 100.
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42       -g <integer>
43              Word gap. Pause between words, units  of  10ms  at  the  default
44              speed.
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46       -k <integer>
47              Indicate  capital  letters with: 1=sound, 2=the word "capitals",
48              higher values = a pitch increase (try -k20).
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50       -l <integer>
51              Line length. If not zero (which is the default), consider  lines
52              less than this length as end-of-clause.
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54       -p <integer>
55              Pitch adjustment, 0 to 99, default is 50.
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57       -s <integer>
58              Speed in words per minute, default is 175.
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60       -v <voice name>
61              Use  voice file of this name from espeak-ng-data/voices. A vari‐
62              ant can be specified using voice+variant, such as af+m3.
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64       -w <wave file name>
65              Write output to this WAV file, rather than speaking it directly.
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67       --split=<minutes>
68              Used with -w to split the audio output into  <minutes>  recorded
69              chunks.
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71       -b     Input text encoding, 1=UTF8, 2=8 bit, 4=16 bit.
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73       -m     Indicates  that  the text contains SSML (Speech Synthesis Markup
74              Language) tags or other XML tags. Those SSML tags which are sup‐
75              ported are interpreted. Other tags, including HTML, are ignored,
76              except that some HTML tags such as
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78       -x     Write phoneme mnemonics to stdout.
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80       -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.
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84       -z     No final sentence pause at the end of the text.
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86       --stdout
87              Write speech output to stdout.
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89       --compile=voicename
90              Compile the pronunciation rules and dictionary  in  the  current
91              directory. =<voicename< is optional and specifies which language
92              is compiled.
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94       --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.
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99       --ipa  Write phonemes to stdout using International Phonetic  Alphabet.
100              --ipa=1 Use ties, --ipa=2 Use ZWJ, --ipa=3 Separate with _.
101
102       --tie=<character>
103              The  character  to  use  to join multi-letter phonemes in -x and
104              --ipa output.
105
106       --path=<path>
107              Specifies the directory containing the espeak-ng-data directory.
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109       --pho  Write mbrola phoneme data (.pho) to stdout or  to  the  file  in
110              --phonout.
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112       --phonout=<filename>
113              Write output from -x -X commands and mbrola phoneme data to this
114              file.
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116       --punct="<characters>"
117              Speak the names of punctuation characters  during  speaking.  If
118              =<characters> is omitted, all punctuation is spoken.
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120       --sep=<character>
121              The character to separate phonemes from the -x and --ipa output.
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123       --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. If xx-yy language code is passed, then voices with yy of
127              xx language variants are shown with higher  priority  than  just
128              xx.  If variant is passed, then all voice variants are shown. If
129              mb or mbrola is passed, then all voices using the  MBROLA  voice
130              synthesizer  are  shown.  If  all  is passed, then all eSpeak NG
131              voices, voice variants and MBROLA voices are shown.
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133       --voices=<directory>
134              Lists the voices in the specified subdirectory.
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EXAMPLES

137       espeak-ng "This is a test"
138              Speak the sentence "This is a test" using  the  default  English
139              voice.
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141       espeak-ng -f hello.txt
142              Speak the contents of hello.txt using the default English voice.
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144       cat hello.txt | espeak-ng
145              Speak the contents of hello.txt using the default English voice.
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147       espeak-ng -x hello
148              Speak  the  word  "hello"  using  the default English voice, and
149              print the phonemes that were spoken.
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151       espeak-ng -ven-us "[[h@´loU]]"
152              Speak the phonemes "h@´loU" using the American English voice.
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154       espeak-ng --voices
155              List all voices supported by eSpeak.
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157       espeak-ng --voices=en
158              List all voices that speak English (en).
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160       espeak-ng --voices=mb
161              List all voices using the MBROLA voice synthesizer.
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AUTHOR

164       eSpeak NG is maintained by Reece H. Dunn msclrhd@gmail.com. It is based
165       on eSpeak by Jonathan Duddington jonsd@jsd.clara.co.uk.
166
167       This  manual  page is based on the eSpeak page written by Luke Yelavich
168       themuso@ubuntu.com for the Ubuntu project.
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172                                   June 2022                      ESPEAK-NG(1)
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