ESPEAK-NG(1)

💖 espeak-ng(1) — the manual page, but make it make sense 💖

okay bestie, so this is the manual page for espeak-ng(1), the multi-lingual software speech synthesizer. she talks. that's the whole vibe. ✨

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🌸 NAME 🌸

espeak-ng — a multi-lingual software speech synthesizer. literally she speaks, in multiple languages, as software. iconic.

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

espeak-ng [options] [words]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

espeak-ng is a software speech synthesizer for English, and some other languages. that's it, that's the sentence, and honestly she ate. 🫶

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -h, --help — shows you a summary of all the options. the "help me help you" flag 💅
• --version — prints the espeak library version and where your espeak voice data lives. two facts for the price of one, we love efficiency.
• -f <text file> — the text file you want her to speak. feed her a document, she reads it out loud.
• --stdin — read text input from stdin, all the way to the end of the stream, at once. one big gulp, no snacking. 🍓

lowkey important caveat: if you don't give her neither -f nor --stdin, then the <words> from the parameter get spoken — or, if there's no words, text gets spoken from stdin, but read separately, one line at a time. so she's nibbling line by line instead of chugging the whole stream. iykyk.

• -d <device> — use the specified device to speak the audio on. if you don't specify one, the default audio device is used. she'll just pick for you, main character energy.
• -q — quiet mode, don´t produce any speech. sounds counterintuitive for a speech synthesizer but she's multifaceted. (may be useful with -x) 😌
• -a <integer> — amplitude, 0 to 200, default is 100. how loud she's gonna be about it.
• -g <integer> — word gap. pause between words, units of 10ms at the default speed. the dramatic pauses. the pauses. 🎭
• -k <integer> — indicate capital letters with: 1=sound, 2=the word "capitals", higher values = a pitch increase (try -k20). yes, she can yell the capital letters, it's a whole thing.
• -l <integer> — line length. if it's not zero (which is the default), consider lines less than this length as end-of-clause. so short lines get treated like she finished a thought. valid.
• -p <integer> — pitch adjustment, 0 to 99, default is 50. go lower for cozy, higher for chipmunk-girlie.
• -s <integer> — speed in words per minute, default is 175. she can be chill or she can be a caffeinated podcast host, your call.
• -v <voice name> — use the voice file of this name from espeak-ng-data/voices. and bestie, you can specify a variant using voice+variant, such as af+m3. mix and match, slay. 💜
• -w <wave file name> — write output to this WAV file, rather than speaking it directly. saving it for later, we respect a girl with a plan.
• --split=<minutes> — used with -w to split the audio output into <minutes> recorded chunks. one long file is out, chunked files are in. ✂️
• -b — input text encoding, 1=UTF8, 2=8 bit, 4=16 bit. pick your encoding, be specific.
• -m — indicates that the text contains SSML (Speech Synthesis Markup Language) tags or other XML tags. those SSML tags which are supported are interpreted. other tags, including HTML, are ignored — except that some HTML tags such as <hr> <h2> and <li> ensure a break in the speech. so HTML mostly gets the silent treatment, but those three get to interrupt. rude but fair. 💀
• -x — write phoneme mnemonics to stdout. show your work, girl.
• -X — write phonemes mnemonics and translation trace to stdout. if rules files have been built with --compile=debug, line numbers will also be displayed. the full receipts. 🔥
• -z — no final sentence pause at the end of the text. she just. stops. no dramatic trailing off.
• --stdout — write speech output to stdout. piping her into places, we see you.
• --compile=voicename — compile the pronunciation rules and dictionary in the current directory. =<voicename< is optional and specifies which language is compiled. (yes that's exactly how it's written in the original, don't come for me 👑)
• --compile-debug=voicename — compile the pronunciation rules and dictionary in the current directory as above, but include line numbers, that get shown when -X is used. same thing but with the annotations on. 🙈
• --ipa — write phonemes to stdout using International Phonetic Alphabet. --ipa=1 Use ties, --ipa=2 Use ZWJ, --ipa=3 Separate with _. three flavours of fancy.
• --tie=<character> — the character to use to join multi-letter phonemes in -x and --ipa output.
• --path=<path> — specifies the directory containing the espeak-ng-data directory. point her at the data, bestie.
• --pho — write mbrola phoneme data (.pho) to stdout or to the file in --phonout.
• --phonout=<filename> — write output from -x -X commands and mbrola phoneme data to this file. direct all the nerdy output into one spot.
• --punct="<characters>" — speak the names of punctuation characters during speaking. if =<characters> is omitted, all punctuation is spoken. she will literally say "comma". it's giving narrator. 🎀
• --sep=<character> — the character to separate phonemes from the -x and --ipa output.
• --voices[=<language code>] — lists the available voices. and now the details, because there are a lot:
  • if =<language code> is present then only those voices which are suitable for that language are listed.
  • if xx-yy language code is passed, then voices with yy of xx language variants are shown with higher priority than just xx.
  • if variant is passed, then all voice variants are shown.
  • if mb or mbrola is passed, then all voices using the MBROLA voice synthesizer are shown.
  • if all is passed, then all eSpeak NG voices, voice variants and MBROLA voices are shown.

the whole roster. the full lineup. 🌈

• --voices=<directory> — lists the voices in the specified subdirectory. same deal, but you point at the folder yourself.

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🌟 EXAMPLES 🌟

• espeak-ng "This is a test" — speak the sentence "This is a test" using the default English voice.
• espeak-ng -f hello.txt — speak the contents of hello.txt using the default English voice.
• cat hello.txt | espeak-ng — speak the contents of hello.txt using the default English voice. (piping era 💖)
• espeak-ng -x hello — speak the word "hello" using the default English voice, and print the phonemes that were spoken.
• espeak-ng -ven-us "[[h@´loU]]" — speak the phonemes "h@´loU" using the American English voice.
• espeak-ng --voices — list all voices supported by eSpeak.
• espeak-ng --voices=en — list all voices that speak English (en).
• espeak-ng --voices=mb — list all voices using the MBROLA voice synthesizer.

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

eSpeak NG is maintained by Reece H. Dunn msclrhd@gmail.com. It is based on eSpeak by Jonathan Duddington jonsd@jsd.clara.co.uk.

This manual page is based on the eSpeak page written by Luke Yelavich themuso@ubuntu.com for the Ubuntu project. creds given, as they should be. 🫶

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that's the whole page bestie, no notes, go make her say things 💅✨

from the src directory, March 2025 edition of ESPEAK-NG(1) — mwah, xoxo 🎀💜