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5. VOICES


5.1 Voice Files

A Voice file specifies a language (and possibly a language variant or dialect) together with various attributes that affect the characteristics of the voice quality and how the language is spoken.

Voice files are placed in the espeak-data/voices directory, or within subdirectories in there.

The available voice files can be listed by:

   espeak --voices
or
   espeak --voices=<language>
also
   espeak --voices=<variant>
Lists voice variants which can be applied to eSpeak voices.
   espeak --voices=<mbrola>
Lists the Mbrola voices.

5.2 Contents of Voice Files

The language attribute is mandatory. All the other attributes are optional.

Identification Attributes

Voice Attributes

Language Attributes


5.3 Voice Files Provided

A number of Voice files are provided in the espeak-data/voices directory. You can select one of these with the -v <voice filename> parameter to the speak command.

default
This voice is used if none is specified in the speak command. You can copy your preferred voice to "default" so you can use the speak command without the need to specify a voice.
For a list of voices provided for English and other languages see Languages.