SPD-SAY(1)

💖 SPD-SAY(1) 💖

okay bestie, we're in the User Commands corner of the manual and this one is called spd-say — it's giving "make the computer talk" energy and honestly? iconic.

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✨ NAME ✨

spd-say — send a text-to-speech output request to speech-dispatcher 🗣️💬

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

spd-say [options] "some text"

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

send text-to-speech output request to speech-dispatcher

that's it. that's the whole vibe. you hand it some text, it goes to speech-dispatcher, and the machine speaks. no cap. 🫶

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

so many little toggles, and every single one of them matters, so let's go option by option, no skipping, not on my watch:

• -r, --rate — Set the rate of the speech (between -100 and +100, default: 0)
• -p, --pitch — Set the pitch of the speech (between -100 and +100, default: 0)
• -R, --pitch-range — Set the pitch range of the speech (between -100 and +100, default: 0)
• -i, --volume — Set the volume (intensity) of the speech (between -100 and +100, default: 0)
• -o, --output-module — Set the output module
• -O, --list-output-modules — Get the list of output modules
• -I, --sound-icon — Play the sound icon
• -l, --language — Set the language (ISO code)
• -t, --voice-type — Set the preferred voice type (male1, male2, male3, female1, female2 female3, child_male, child_female)
• -L, --list-synthesis-voices — Get the list of synthesis voices
• -y, --synthesis-voice — Set the synthesis voice
• -c, --character — Speak the character
• -k, --key — Speak the key
• -m, --punctuation-mode — Set the punctuation mode (none, some, most, all)
• -s, --spelling — Spell the message
• -x, --ssml — Set SSML mode on (default: off)
• -e, --pipe-mode — Read text to be spoken on stdin, write it on stdout unchanged, and the

corresponding speech through Speech Dispatcher.

• -P, --priority — Set priority of the message (important, message, text, notification, progress;default: text)
• -N, --application-name — Set the application name used to establish the connection to specified string value (default: spd-say)
• -n, --connection-name — Set the connection name used to establish the connection to specified string value (default: main)
• -w, --wait — Wait till the message is spoken or discarded
• -S, --stop — Stop speaking the message being spoken
• -C, --cancel — Cancel all messages
• -v, --version — Print version and copyright info
• -h, --help — Print this info

🐛 Please report bugs to speechd-discuss@nongnu.org — the maintainers genuinely want to hear from you, bestie.

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©️ COPYRIGHT ©️

Copyright © 2002-2012 Brailcom, o.p.s.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later version. Please see COPYING for more details.

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

The full documentation for spd-say is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and spd-say programs are properly installed at your site, the command

info spd-say

should give you access to the complete manual. go read it, fr fr 📚✨

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and that's the whole page, babe 🎀 — this was spd-say 0.12.1 from June 2026, dropping out of SPD-SAY(1) like the main character it is. 💜🦋💅