espeak(1)							   User Commands							 espeak(1)

NAME

       espeak - a compact open source software speech synthesizer

SYNOPSIS

       espeak [option...] [words]

DESCRIPTION

       espeak is a compact open source software speech synthesizer.  It can run as a command line program to speak text from a file or from stdin.

       Main features of espeak:

	   * 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++.

OPTIONS

       The following options are supported:

       -a integer	       Amplitude as an integer in the range from 0 to 200, default is 100.

       -b		       Input text is 8-bit encoded.

       -f text_file	       Speak text from text_file.

       -g integer	       Specify the word gap, or the pause between words, as an integer.   Units of 10mS at the default speed.

       -k integer	       Indicate  how  to  speak capital letters as an integer.	The argument can have the following values: 1=sound, 2=the
			       word "capitals", higher values=a pitch increase (try -k 20).

       -l integer	       Line length as an integer. If not zero (which is the default), consider lines less  than  this  length  as  end-of-
			       clause.

       -m		       Interpret SSML markup, and ignore other < > tags.

       -p integer	       Pitch adjustment as an integer in the range from 0 to 99, default is 50.

       -q		       Quiet, do not produce any speech (may be useful with -x).

       -s integer	       Speed as an integer meaning words per minute.  Values can be from 80 to 370, default is 170.

       -v voice_file	       Use specified voice_file.

       -w filename	       Write output to the specified filename, in WAV format, rather than speaking it directly.

       -x		       Write phoneme mnemonics to stdout.

       -X		       Write phonemes mnemonics and translation trace to stdout.

       -z		       No final sentence pause at the end of the text.

       --compile=voice_name    Compile the pronunciation rules and dictionary in the current directory. The voice_name value is optional and spec-
			       ifies which language to use.

       --punct="characters"    Speak the names of punctuation characters while speaking.  If the characters value is omitted, all  punctuation	is
			       spoken.

       --split=minutes	       Starts a new WAV file every minutes.  Used with -w.

       --stdin		       Read text input from stdin instead of a file.

       --stdout 	       Write speech output to stdout.

       --voices=language       List the available voices for the specified language.  If language is omitted, then list all voices.

FILES

       The following files are used by espeak:

       /usr/lib/libespeak.so

	   Library for espeak speech synthesis

       /usr/share/espeak-data

	   Directory of voice language and data files

ATTRIBUTES

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability		     |SUNWespeak		   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Interface stability	     |Volatile			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

NOTES

       espeak was written by Jonathan Duddington.

SEE ALSO

       orca(1), libespeak(3), libgnomespeech(3), attributes(5)

       Additional information is available from the following site:

       http://espeak.sourceforge.net/

SunOS 5.11							    20 Aug 2008 							 espeak(1)