eSpeak-NG

hi all, I still can't understand though, that the regional variants are in the e-speak app for english, but only Uk, and US, are languages for voiceover?

Could projects like the Dictionary one for Eloquences be ported to eSpeak? Can this be made to sound close to Eloquence?

Hi everyone. To the people who made this synthesizer possible to work with voiceover, that’s awesome! I love what you have done, and I was wondering if there are any more synthesizes out there for voiceover, or if ESpeak is the only option

Hello,
to Will and anybody else wondering about this, ESpeak can't do anything about this at the moment.
On iOS, currently, VoiceOver allows synthesizers to use only exactly the same languages VoiceOver already supports.
So, for example, if VoiceOver doesn't support Amharic, or some other dialect of a language, you can add it to VoiceOver, but it will simply do nothing. Switching to it isn't possible.
This is a limitation or a bug of the new API. I recommend writing to Apple and explaining about this problem, and hopefully they will fix it in a future update.

On Mac OS,this limitation doesn't exist at all and you can add any language that ESpeak supports.

I'm trying to get this loaded on my apple silicon Mac. Any idea how to do this?

Tell Apple you want your app to sound like it's from the Bronx! LOL!

On launch I get Error loading: The operation couldn’t be completed. (component error -1.)
Any ideas? Thanks

I am very disappointed that the app developer will not add the new espeak variants such as espeak Glenn, baby, bobby, Paul3, etcetera!! I even emailed him about it!! They are important because they make espeak sound a lot better. They make it sound a bit more like eloquence or decTalk. so please add them.

I would like to see Espeak updated to add Glenn as well. Please and Thank you.

Thought I had posted a comment to this thread already, but I guess not. Anyhows...this is amazing and hopefully I will upgrade to a newer iPhone soon so that I can grab myself a copy of this little gem. Not that my current iPhone isn't amazing enough, but it's starting to show its age somewhat and I already have enough apps on there as it is. But I used eSpeak with NVDA and liked it. Hopefully that will also be the case in iOS.

Update March 12: Well curiosity got the best of me as it often does, and I thought I'd try getting this little gem on my M1 Mac. Sure enough, I was able to do that and it is working great thus far. I like all the voices that are currently available, and am now using Adam. I honestly wish I had all day to play with this thing, but I'm going somewhere later and a neighbor is probably going to call and/or stop by again soon.

Where did it go? I'm not seeing it in VO settings anymore, it was there up until about a week ago.

for me, this happens a lot. I just reinstall it and I'm good to go.

Fair enough - do you reinstall the whole app or just the system languages? I tried the latter already.

Update: seems to work after reinstalling the whole app. Thanks!

If anyone's still following this thread, the various sliders don't seem to be labeled. Or is there a way to look at them with one of the VoiceOver recognition options? I'm on an iPhone 14 with iOS 17 latest updates. Oopsie, think I've just answered my own question! The VO recognition options look interesting but now this app looks a bit confusing, lol! I'll have to play around with those options as they could come in handy.

I use Voiceover in the English language. Why would I want eSpeak? Is this app for someone whose primary language is something other than English? Thanks for clarification.

Hi everyone. Last night I was doing some things on my phone as is usually the case, and I switched back to eSpeak. First of all, the issue with switching back to another speech synthesizer seems to be fixed now. I also discovered that in addition to launching the eSpeak app straightaway, you can now launch it from within the accessibility settings under VoiceOver. Now to my questions. (1) I saw something in the settings about switching to a New York accent. Is this actually possible? I haven't heard one thus far with eSpeak. (2) What is SSML? This is one of the settings. I haven't checked VoiceOver recognition in a little while, so I don't know whether this app is accessible by default or not.

Edit: Think I've figured out what the SSML slider does. It would be interesting to find out whether this is available in any other speech synthesizers. Hint hint: TruVoice? Dectalk?

Hey Ekaj,

I don't have this on iOS, but I do have this on my PC running NVDA. The New York voices are kind of neat. Personally, I like the Reeve, I think it's Reeve, voice. As for SSML, the following is from Google:
""In the context of eSpeak, "SSML" stands for "Speech Synthesis Markup Language," which is an XML-based language that allows you to add detailed instructions to text, enabling fine-tuned control over how a text-to-speech engine like eSpeak will pronounce and deliver the words, including aspects like pitch, volume, pauses, and emphasis.
Key points about SSML:
Customization:
By using SSML tags within your text, you can specify how a word should be pronounced, add pauses, adjust speaking rate, change pitch, and more.
XML-based:
SSML is written using XML-like tags, making it structured and easy to understand.
Wide compatibility:
Many text-to-speech engines, including eSpeak, support SSML, allowing you to use the same markup across different platforms.
Example of SSML usage:
Code

<speak>

<prosody rate="slow"> This is a sentence spoken slowly. </prosody>

<break time="1s"/>

<prosody pitch="high"> Important information here! </prosody>

</speak>""