text.html

<p>Synthesize speech for the specified text. By default this
action is asynchronous -- it returns as soon as possible while
the sound data are played by eSpeak.</p>


<h2>TEXT MARKUP</h2>

<h3>SSML: Speech Synthesis Markup Language</h3>

<p>The following markup tags and their attributes are
recognised:</p>

<dl>
  <dt><b>&lt;speak&gt;</b></dt>

  <dd>xml:base</dd>

  <dd>xml:lang</dd>

  <dt><b>&lt;voice&gt;</b></dt>

  <dd>xml:lang</dd>

  <dd>name</dd>

  <dd>age</dd>

  <dd>variant</dd>

  <dd>gender</dd>

  <dt><b>&lt;prosody&gt;</b></dt>

  <dd>rate</dd>

  <dd>volume</dd>

  <dd>pitch</dd>

  <dd>range</dd>

  <dt><b>&lt;say-as&gt;</b></dt>

  <dd>interpret-as="characters"</dd>

  <dd>interpret-as="characters" &nbsp;format="glyphs"</dd>

  <dd>interpret-as="tts:key"</dd>

  <dd>interpret-as="tts:char"</dd>

  <dd>interpret-as="tts:digits"</dd>

  <dt><b>&lt;mark&gt;</b></dt>

  <dd>name</dd>

  <dt><b>&lt;s&gt;</b></dt>

  <dd>xml:lang</dd>

  <dt><b>&lt;p&gt;</b></dt>

  <dd>xml:lang</dd>

  <dt><b>&lt;sub&gt;</b></dt>

  <dd>alias</dd>

  <dt><b>&lt;tts:style&gt;</b></dt>

  <dd>field="punctuation" &nbsp; mode=none,all,some</dd>

  <dd>field="capital_letters" &nbsp; mode=no,spelling,icon,pitch</dd>

  <dt><b>&lt;audio&gt;</b></dt>

  <dd>src</dd>

  <dt><b>&lt;emphasis&gt;</b></dt>

  <dd>level</dd>

  <dt><b>&lt;break&gt;</b></dt>

  <dd>strength</dd>

  <dd>time</dd>
</dl>

<h3>HTML</h3>

<p>eSpeak can speak HTML text directly, or text containing both
SSML and HTML markup. Any unrecognised tags are ignored. The
following tags cause a sentence break:</p>

<p><b>&lt;br&gt; &nbsp; &lt;dd&gt; &nbsp; &lt;li&gt; &nbsp;
&lt;img&gt; &nbsp; &lt;td&gt; &nbsp;</b></p>

<p>The following tags cause a paragraph break:</p>

<p><b>&lt;h1&gt; &nbsp; &lt;h2&gt; &nbsp; &lt;h3&gt; &nbsp;
&lt;h4&gt; &nbsp; &lt;hr&gt; &nbsp;</b></p>

<p>Text marked by the following tags is ignored:</p>

<p><b>&lt;script&gt; &nbsp; ... &nbsp; &lt;/script&gt;
&nbsp;<br />
&lt;style&gt; &nbsp; ... &nbsp; &lt;/style&gt;
&nbsp;<br /></b></p>

<h2>PHONEMES</h2>

<p>In general a different set of phonemes can be defined for each
language.</p>

<p>In most cases different languages inherit the same basic set
of consonants. They can add to these or modify them as
needed.</p>

<p>The phoneme mnemonics are based on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirshenbaum">the scheme by Kirshenbaum</a>
which represents International Phonetic Alphabet symbols using
ASCII characters (ASCII-IPA).</p>

<p>Phoneme mnemonics can be used directly in the text input to
eSpeak. They are enclosed within double square brackets. Spaces
are used to separate words, and all stressed syllables must be
marked explicitly, eg:<br />
<code>[[D,Is Iz sVm f@n'EtIk t'Ekst 'InpUt]]</code></p>

<h3>English Consonants</h3>

<table>
  <tbody valign="top">
    <tr>
      <td><code>[p]</code></td>

      <td></td>

      <td><code>[b]</code></td>

      <td></td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[t]</code></td>

      <td></td>

      <td><code>[d]</code></td>

      <td></td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[tS]</code></td>

      <td><b>ch</b>urch</td>

      <td><code>[dZ]</code></td>

      <td><b>j</b>udge</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[k]</code></td>

      <td></td>

      <td><code>[g]</code></td>

      <td></td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[f]</code></td>

      <td></td>

      <td><code>[v]</code></td>

      <td></td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[T]</code></td>

      <td><b>th</b>in</td>

      <td><code>[D]</code></td>

      <td><b>th</b>is</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[s]</code></td>

      <td></td>

      <td><code>[z]</code></td>

      <td></td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[S]</code></td>

      <td><b>sh</b>op</td>

      <td><code>[Z]</code></td>

      <td>plea<b>s</b>ure</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[h]</code></td>

      <td colspan="3"></td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[m]</code></td>

      <td></td>

      <td><code>[n]</code></td>

      <td></td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[N]</code></td>

      <td colspan="3">si<b>ng</b></td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[l]</code></td>

      <td></td>

      <td><code>[r]</code></td>

      <td><b>r</b>ed (omitted if not immediately followed by a
      vowel)</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[j]</code></td>

      <td><b>y</b>es</td>

      <td><code>[w]</code></td>

      <td></td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td colspan="4">
        <p><strong>Some Additional Consonants</strong></p>
      </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[C]</code></td>

      <td>German i<b>ch</b></td>

      <td><code>[x]</code></td>

      <td>German bu<b>ch</b></td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[l^]</code></td>

      <td>Italian <b>gl</b>i</td>

      <td><code>[n^]</code></td>

      <td>Spanish <b>ñ</b></td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

<h3>English Vowels</h3>

<p>These are the phonemes which are used by the English
spelling-to-phoneme translations (en_rules and en_list). In some
varieties of English different phonemes may have the same sound,
but they are kept separate because they may differ in another
variety.</p>

<p>In rhotic accents, such as General American, the phonemes
<code>[3:], [A@], [e@], [i@], [O@], [U@]</code> include the "r"
sound.</p>

<table>
  <tbody valign="top">
    <tr>
      <td><code>[@]</code></td>

      <td>alph<b>a</b></td>

      <td>schwa</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[3]</code></td>

      <td>bett<b>er</b></td>

      <td>rhotic schwa. In British English this is the same as
      <code>[@]</code>, but it includes 'r' colouring in American
      and other rhotic accents. In these cases a separate
      <code>[r]</code> should not be included unless it is
      followed immediately by another vowel.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[3:]</code></td>

      <td>n<b>ur</b>se</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[@L]</code></td>

      <td>simp<b>le</b></td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[@2]</code></td>

      <td>the</td>

      <td>Used only for "the".</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[@5]</code></td>

      <td>to</td>

      <td>Used only for "to".</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[a]</code></td>

      <td>tr<b>a</b>p</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[aa]</code></td>

      <td>b<b>a</b>th</td>

      <td>This is <code>[a]</code> in some accents,
      <code>[A:]</code> in others.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[a#]</code></td>

      <td><b>a</b>bout</td>

      <td>This may be <code>[@]</code> or may be a more open
      schwa.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[A:]</code></td>

      <td>p<b>al</b>m</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[A@]</code></td>

      <td>st<b>ar</b>t</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[E]</code></td>

      <td>dr<b>e</b>ss</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[e@]</code></td>

      <td>squ<b>are</b></td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[I]</code></td>

      <td>k<b>i</b>t</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[I2]</code></td>

      <td><b>i</b>ntend</td>

      <td>As <code>[I]</code>, but also indicates an unstressed
      syllable.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[i]</code></td>

      <td>happ<b>y</b></td>

      <td>An unstressed "i" sound at the end of a word.</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[i:]</code></td>

      <td>fl<b>ee</b>ce</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[i@]</code></td>

      <td>n<b>ear</b></td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[0]</code></td>

      <td>l<b>o</b>t</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[V]</code></td>

      <td>str<b>u</b>t</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[u:]</code></td>

      <td>g<b>oo</b>se</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[U]</code></td>

      <td>f<b>oo</b>t</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[U@]</code></td>

      <td>c<b>ure</b></td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[O:]</code></td>

      <td>th<b>ou</b>ght</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[O@]</code></td>

      <td>n<b>or</b>th</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[o@]</code></td>

      <td>f<b>or</b>ce</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[aI]</code></td>

      <td>pr<b>i</b>ce</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[eI]</code></td>

      <td>f<b>a</b>ce</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[OI]</code></td>

      <td>ch<b>oi</b>ce</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[aU]</code></td>

      <td>m<b>ou</b>th</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[oU]</code></td>

      <td>g<b>oa</b>t</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[aI@]</code></td>

      <td>sc<b>ie</b>nce</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[aU@]</code></td>

      <td>h<b>our</b></td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

<h3>Some Additional Vowels</h3>

<p>Other languages will have their own vowel definitions, eg:</p>

<table>
  <tbody valign="top">
    <tr>
      <td><code>[e]</code></td>

      <td>German <b>eh</b>, French <b>é</b></td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[o]</code></td>

      <td>German <b>oo</b>, French <b>o</b></td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[y]</code></td>

      <td>German <b>ü</b>, French <b>u</b></td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td><code>[Y]</code></td>

      <td>German <b>ö</b>, French <b>oe</b></td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

<p><code>[:]</code> can be used to lengthen a vowel, eg.
<code>[e:]</code></p>