TTS Engine Characteristics
This attribute works fine for these speech engines.
The gender attribute should not be used if the name attribute is already being used for the <voice> tag.
This attribute is not supported.
This attribute is not supported.
This attribute looks for an exact match, instead of looking for the closest match. For example, <voice age=“10”> will only select a ten-year-old voice, or fall back to the default voice if one is not found.
If you have an onsite system, please contact your sales account manager for which of these voices you have installed on your server.
The following names are supported by their respective engines:
AT&T Natural Voices:
Language | Name | Gender | US | UK | Audio Sample |
American English (en_us) | Mel | male | x | - | |
American English (en_us) | Mike | male | x | x | |
American English (en_us) | Ray | male | x | x | |
American English (en_us) | Rich | male | x | - | |
American English (en_us) | Claire | female | x | - | |
American English (en_us) | Crystal | female | x | x | |
American English (en_us) | Julia | female | x | - | |
American English (en_us) | Lauren | female | x | x | |
Spanish (es_us) | Alberto | male | x | - | |
Spanish (es_us) | Rosa | female | x | - | |
British English (en_uk) | Charles | male | x | x | |
British English (en_uk) | Anjali | female | x | - | |
British English (en_uk) | Audrey | female | x | x | |
French (fr_fr) | Alain | male | x | - | |
French (fr_fr) | Juliette | female | x | - | |
German (de_de) | Reiner | male | x | x | |
German (de_de) | Claudia | female | x | x | |
If no name is specified, mike is the default voice for the US AT&T Natural Voices while charles is the default voice for the UK AT&T Natural Voices.
Cepstral Engine (case-sensitive):
Language | Name | Gender | US | UK | Audio Samples |
American English (en_us) | David | male | x | x | |
American English (en_us) | William | male | x | x | |
American English (en_us) | Diane | female | x | x | |
Spanish (es_us) | Miguel | male | x | x | |
Spanish (es_us) | Marta | female | x | x | |
British English (en_uk) | Lawrence | male | x | x | |
British English (en_uk) | Millie | female | x | x | |
French (fr_fr) | Jean-Pierre | male | x | x | |
French (fr_fr) | Isabelle | female | x | x | |
German (de_de) | Matthais | male | x | x | |
German (de_de) | Katrin | female | x | x | |
Italian (it_it) | Vittoria | female | x | x | |
If no name is specified, Diane is the default voice for the US Cepstral Engine while Millie is the default voice for the UK Cepstral Engine.
RealSpeak Engine (case-sensitive):
Language | Name | Gender | US | UK | Audio Sample |
American English (en-US) | Tom | male | x | - | |
American English (en-US) | Jennifer | female | x | - | |
American English (en-US) | Jill | female | x | - | |
American English (en-US) | Samantha | female | x | - | |
Mexican Spanish (es-MX) | Javier | male | x | - | |
Mexican Spanish (es-MX) | Paulina | female | x | - | |
British English (en-GB) | Daniel | male | x | x | |
British English (en-GB) | Emily | female | x | x | |
Australian English (en-AU) | Lee | male | x | - | |
Australian English (en-AU) | Karen | female | x | - | |
Canadian French (fr-CA) | Felix | male | x | - | |
Canadian French (fr-CA) | Julie | female | x | - | |
Portuguese (pt-PT) | Madalena | female | x | - | |
Brazilian Portuguese (pt-BR) | Raquel | female | x | - | |
German (de-DE) | Yannick | male | - | x | |
German (de-DE) | Steffi | female | x | x | |
Spanish (es-ES) | Diego | male | - | x | |
Spanish (es-ES) | Isabel | female | - | x | |
French (fr-FR) | Sebastien | male | - | x | |
French (fr-FR) | Virginie | female | - | x | |
Italian (it-IT) | Silvia | female | x | x | |
Dutch (nl-NL) | Claire | female | x | x | |
Belgian Dutch (nl-BE) | Ellen | female | - | x | |
Mandarin Chinese (zh-CN) | Mei-Ling | female | x | - | |
If no name is specified, Jill is the default voice for the US Realspeak Engine while Emily is the default voice for the UK Realspeak Engine.
Please contact your account manager if you want any of the following Realspeak voices:
Language | Name | Gender |
Dutch (da-DK) | Nanna | female |
Italian (it-IT) | Paolo | male |
Indian English (en-IN) | Sangeeta | female |
Spanish (es-ES) | Monica | female |
Basque (eu-ES) | Arantxa | female |
Japanese (ja-JP) | Kyoko | female |
Korean (ko-KR) | Narae | female |
Norwegian (no-NO) | Nora | female |
Polish (pl-PL) | Agata | female |
Russian (ru-RU) | Katerina | female |
Swedish (sv-SE) | Ingrid | female |
Hong Kong Cantonese (zh-HK) | Sin-ji | female |
For the RealSpeak Engine, this attribute MUST be used along with its corresponding xml:lang attribute if the language is not en-US (American English). For example, to hear the Mexican Spanish voice “Javier”, one must type the following:
<speak xml:lang="es-MX"><voice name="Javier">¿A ti te gusta el queso fresco?</voice></speak>
NOTE: For US speech recognition, we currently only offer American English speech recognition, Spanish speech recognition, and French-Canadian speech recognition for Plum DEV. If you are interested in any other speech recognition languages, please contact your sales representative.
NOTE: For UK speech recognition, we currently only offer American English speech recognition and British English speech recognition for Plum DEV. If you are interested in any other speech recognition languages, please contact your sales representative.
Amazon Polly
Language | Name/ID | Gender | Standard Voice | Neural Voice |
Arabic (arb) | Zeina | Female | Yes | No |
Chinese, Mandarin (cmn-CN) | Zhiyu | Female | Yes | No |
Danish (da-DK) | Naja | Female | Yes | No |
| Mads | Male | Yes | No |
Dutch (nl-NL) | Lotte | Female | Yes | No |
| Ruben | Male | Yes | No |
English (Australian) (en-AU) | Nicole | Female | Yes | No |
| Russell | Male | Yes | No |
English (British) (en-GB) | Amy | Female | Yes | Yes |
| Emma | Female | Yes | Yes |
| Brian | Male | Yes | Yes |
English (Indian) (en-IN) | Aditi* | Female | Yes | No |
| Raveena | Female | Yes | No |
English (US) (en-US) | Ivy | Female (child) | Yes | Yes |
| Joanna## | Female | Yes | Yes |
| Kendra | Female | Yes | Yes |
| Kimberly | Female | Yes | Yes |
| Salli | Female | Yes | Yes |
| Joey | Male | Yes | Yes |
| Justin | Male (child) | Yes | Yes |
| Matthew## | Male | Yes | Yes |
English (Welsh) (en-GB-WLS) | Geraint | Male | Yes | No |
French (fr-FR) | Céline/Celine | Female | Yes | No |
| Léa | Female | Yes | No |
| Mathieu | Male | Yes | No |
French (Canadian) (fr-CA) | Chantal | Female | Yes | No |
German (de-DE) | Marlene | Female | Yes | No |
| Vicki | Female | Yes | No |
| Hans | Male | Yes | No |
Hindi (hi-IN) | Aditi* | Female | Yes | No |
Icelandic (is-IS) | Dóra/Dora | Female | Yes | No |
| Karl | Male | Yes | No |
Italian (it-IT) | Carla | Female | Yes | No |
| Bianca | Female | Yes | No |
| Giorgio | Male | Yes | No |
Japanese (ja-JP) | Mizuki | Female | Yes | No |
| Takumi | Male | Yes | No |
Korean (ko-KR) | Seoyeon | Female | Yes | No |
Norwegian (nb-NO) | Liv | Female | Yes | No |
Polish (pl-PL) | Ewa | Female | Yes | No |
| Maja | Female | Yes | No |
| Jacek | Male | Yes | No |
| Jan | Male | Yes | No |
Portuguese (Brazilian) (pt-BR) | Camila | Female | Yes | Yes |
| Vitória/Vitoria | Female | Yes | No |
| Ricardo | Male | Yes | No |
Portuguese (European) (pt-PT) | Inês/Ines | Female | Yes | No |
| Cristiano | Male | Yes | No |
Romanian (ro-RO) | Carmen | Female | Yes | No |
Russian (ru-RU) | Tatyana | Female | Yes | No |
| Maxim | Male | Yes | No |
Spanish (European) (es-ES) | Conchita | Female | Yes | No |
| Lucia | Female | Yes | No |
| Enrique | Male | Yes | No |
Spanish (Mexican) (es-MX) | Mia | Female | Yes | No |
Spanish (US) (es-US) | Lupe | Female | Yes | Yes |
| Penélope/Penelope | Female | Yes | No |
| Miguel | Male | Yes | No |
Swedish (sv-SE) | Astrid | Female | Yes | No |
Turkish (tr-TR) | Filiz | Female | Yes | No |
Welsh (cy-GB) | Gwyneth | Female | Yes | No |
Notes:
* This voice is bilingual and can speak both English and Hindi. For more information, see Bilingual Voices https://docs.aws.amazon.com/polly/latest/dg/bilingual-voices.html.
## These voices can be used with both the Conversational and Newscaster speaking styles when used with the Neural format. For more information, see NTTS Speaking Styles https://docs.aws.amazon.com/polly/latest/dg/ntts-speakingstyles.html.
If the Amazon Polly TTS is specified, and neither a <speak> nor <voice> tag are specified, Plum Voice uses the en_US, standard, female voice Joanna by default.
The <speak> tag should be used to specify the desired language through the attribute xml:lang=”lg-CN”, where lg-CN is the language-country pair specified in the Language column from that table of supported languages here: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/polly/latest/dg/voicelist.html.
Please note that each voice has an associated language. Selecting a language that is not associated with the voice will result in unpredictable behavior; however, in many cases, you will hear the language the text was written in accented by that voice’s associated language.
The <voice> tag should be used to specify the desired voice through the attribute name=”name”, where name is the voice specified in the Name/ID column for the table of supported voices here: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/polly/latest/dg/voicelist.html.
If another voice is desired, it should specified using the <speak> and <voice> tags as follows within the prompt block:
<?xml version="1.0"?><vxml version="2.0"><form><block><prompt><speak xml:lang=”es-MX”><voice name="Mia" variant=”1”>Hello, thank you for calling Plum Voice.</voice></speak></prompt></block></form></vxml>
To sequentially use multiple languages and voices within a <prompt> block, use multiple <speak> and <voice> blocks. For example:
<?xml version="1.0"?><vxml version="2.0"><form><block><prompt><speak xml:lang="en-US"><voice name="Joanna" variant="2">Press one to continue in English.</voice></speak><speak xml:lang="es-US"><voice name="Lupe" variant="2">Presione dos para continuar en español.</voice></speak><speak xml:lang="fr-FR"><voice name="Celine" variant="standard">Appuyez sur trois pour continuer en français.</voice></speak></prompt></block></form></vxml>
If you have an onsite system, please contact your sales account manager for which of these languages you have installed on your server.
The following languages are supported by their respective engines:
Language | Code Value | US | UK |
German | de_de | x | x |
British English | en_uk | x | x |
American English | en_us | x | x |
Spanish | es_us | x | x |
French | fr_fr | x | x |
Language | Code Value | US | UK |
American English | en_us | x | x |
Language | Code Value | US | UK |
American English | en-US | x | - |
Mexican Spanish | es-MX | x | - |
Canadian French | fr-CA | x | - |
German | de-DE | x | x |
British English | en-GB | x | x |
French | fr-FR | - | x |
Spanish | es-ES | - | x |
Belgian Dutch | nl-BE | - | x |
Dutch | nl-NL | x | x |
Please contact your account manager if you want any of the following Realspeak languages:
Language | Code Value |
Danish | da-DK |
Swiss German | de-CH |
Australian English | en-AU |
Indian English | en-IN |
Basque | eu-ES |
Belgian French | fr-BE |
Swiss French | fr-CH |
Swiss Italian | it-CHC |
Italian | it-IT |
Japanese | ja-JP |
Korean | ko-KR |
Norwegian | no-NO |
Polish | pl-PL |
Brazilian Portuguese | pt-BR |
Portuguese | pt-PT |
Russian | ru-RU |
Swedish | sv-SE |
Mandarin Chinese | zh-CN |
Hong Kong Cantonese | zh-HK |
Note that different syntax is used for the xml:lang attribute for the RealSpeak Engine. For example, <voice xml:lang=“fr-FR”> would have to be typed to hear a French speaker. For the AT&T Natural Voices Engine and Cepstral Engine, one would type <voice xml:lang=“en_us”> to hear an American speaker.
An “x” marks that the Child Tag is supported by the speech engine. An asterisk (*) means that there are notes to explain the difference between the speech engines.
For more details on these SSML tags as they relate to Amazon Polly, please visit: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/polly/latest/dg/supportedtags.html.
Note that Plum Voice does not currently support all the tags listed on Amazon's website.
Child Tag | AT&T Natural Voices | Cepstral Engine | RealSpeak Engine | Amazon Polly |
<break>* | x | x | x | |
<emphasis> | | | | x |
<enumerate> | x | x | x | |
<mark> | | | | |
<paragraph>* | x | x | x | |
<phoneme>* | x | | x | x |
<prosody>* | x | x | x | x |
<say-as>* | x | x | x | x |
<sentence>* | x | x | x | |
<speak> | x | x | x | |
<sub> | x | x | x | x |
<value> | x | x | x | |
AT&T Natural Voices and RealSpeak Engine:
The break element works fine for these engines.
Cepstral Engine:
The “size” attribute of the break element does not work for this engine.
Cepstral Engine:
The “xml:lang” attribute does not work with the paragraph element.
Cepstral and RealSpeak Engine:
This element is not supported.
AT&T Natural Voices:
The phoneme element works fine using the Phoneme Set shown below.
Phoneme Set for AT&T Natural Voices:
Phoneme | Example | Transcription |
aa | Bob | b aa b 1 |
ae | bat | b ae t 1 |
ah | but | b ah t 1 |
ao | bought | b ao t 1 |
aw | down | d aw n 1 |
ax | about | ax 0 b aw t 1 |
ay | bite | b ay t 1 |
b | bet | b eh t 1 |
ch | church | ch er ch 1 |
d | dig | d ih g |
dh | that | dh ae t 1 |
dx | butter | b ah 1 dx er 0 |
eh | bet | b eh t 1 |
em | Chatham | ch ae 1 dx em 0 |
en | satin | s ae 1 q en 0 |
er | bird | b er d 1 |
ey | bait | b ey t 1 |
f | fog | f ao g 1 |
g | got | g aa t 1 |
hh | hot | h aa t 1 |
ih | bit | b ih t 1 |
iy | beat | b iy t 1 |
jh | jump | jh ah m p 1 |
k | cat | k ae t 1 |
l | lot | l aa t 1 |
m | Mom | m aa m 1 |
n | nod | n aa d 1 |
ng | sing | s ih ng 1 |
ow | boat | b ow t 1 |
oy | boy | b oy 1 |
p | pot | p aa t 1 |
q | button | b ah 1 q en 0 |
r | rat | r ae t 1 |
s | sit | s ih t 1 |
sh | shut | sh ah t 1 |
t | top | t aa p 1 |
th | thick | th ih k 1 |
uh | book | b uh k |
uw | boot | b uw t 1 |
v | vat | v ae t 1 |
w | won | w ah n 1 |
y | you | y uw 1 |
z | zoo | z uw 1 |
zh | measure | m eh 1 zh er |
Symbol | Example | Transcription |
p | padre | p a 1 d r e |
b | vino | b i 1 n o |
t | tomo | t o 1 m o |
d | donde | d o n 1 d e |
k | casa | k a 1 s a |
g | gata | g a 1 t a |
tS | mucho | m u 1 tS o |
jj | hielo | jj e 1 l o |
f | fácil | f a 1 s i l |
B | cabra | k a 1 B r a |
th | cinco | th i N 1 k o |
T | cinco | T i N 1 k o |
s | sala | s a 1 l a |
x | mujer | m u x e r 1 |
G | luego | l w e 1 G o |
m | mismo | m i 1 s m o |
n | nunca | n u n 1 k a |
J | año | a 1 J o |
l | lejos | l e 1 x o s |
ll | caballo | k a b a 1 ll o |
L | caballo | k a b a 1 L o |
r | puro | p u 1 r o |
rr | torre | t o 1 rr e |
j | rei | rr e 1 j |
j | pie | p j e 1 |
w | deuda | d e 1 w d a |
w | muy | m w i 1 |
i | pico | p i 1 k o |
e | pero | p e 1 r o |
a | valle | b a 1 L e |
o | toro | t o 1 r o |
u | duro | d u 1 r o |
Phoneme | Example | Transcription |
p | point | p OI n t 1 |
b | big | bIg1 |
t | team | t i: m 1 |
d | dare | de@1 |
k | case | k eI s 1 |
g | good | gUd1 |
dZ | ginger | dZ I n 1 dZ @ 0 |
tS | check | tS e k 1 |
f | fool | f u: l 1 |
v | vest | vest1 |
D | this | DIs1 |
T | thick | TIk1 |
s | sell | sel1 |
z | zeal | z i: l 1 |
S | shoot | S u: t 1 |
Z | measure | me1Z@0 |
h | house | h aU s 1 |
m | main | m eI n 1 |
n | name | n eI m 1 |
N | sing | sIN1 |
l | life | l aI f 1 |
@l | bottle | b Q 1 t @l 0 |
r | right | r aI t 1 |
j | yes | jes1 |
w | wood | wUd1 |
i: | beat | b i: t 1 |
I | bit | bIt1 |
eI | bait | b eI t 1 |
e | bet | bet1 |
A: | father | f A: 1 D @ 0 |
{ | bat | b{t1 |
@U | boat | b @U t 1 |
O: | bought | b O: t 1 |
Q | boss | bQs1 |
u: | boot | b u: t 1 |
U | book | bUk1 |
V | but | bVt1 |
3: | bird | b 3: d 1 |
aU | bout | b aU t 1 |
OI | boy | b OI 1 |
aI | bite | b aI t 1 |
@ | scallop | sk{1l@p0 |
I | believe | b I 0 l i: v 1 |
Key
0 Unstressed 1 Primary stress 2 Secondary stress & Word boundary
Phoneme Set for Nuance RealSpeak:
Phoneme | Example | Transcription |
i | feel | ' f i l |
I | fill | ' f I l |
E | fell | ' f E l |
@ | cat | ' k @ t |
A | got | ' g A t |
^ | cut | ' k ^ t |
O | fall | ' f O l |
U | full | ' f U l |
u | fool | ' f u l |
$ | allow | $ . ' l a+U |
E0 | curt | ' k E0 R= t |
O | door | ' d O R= |
e+I | fail | ' f e+I l |
O+I | foil | ' f O+I l |
a+I | file | ' f a+I l |
a+U | foul | ' f a+U l |
o+U | goal | ' g o+U l |
j | yes | ' j E s |
w | why | ' w a+I |
R= | rip | ' R= I p |
l | lip | ' l I p |
p | pit | ' p I t |
t | top | ' t A p |
k | cat | ' k @ t |
b | bit | ' b I t |
d | dig | ' d I g |
g | got | ' g A t |
? | eat | ' ? i t |
f | fat | ' f @ t |
T | thin | ' T i n |
s | seal | ' s i l |
S | ship | ' S i p |
v | vat | ' v @ t |
D | then | ' D e n |
z | zeal | ' z i l |
Z | leisure | ' l iZ $ R= |
h | hat | ' h @ t |
t+S | catch | ' k @ t+S |
d+Z | journey | ' d+Z E0 R= . n i |
m | man | ' m @ n |
n | nut | ' n ^ t |
nK | ring | ' R= I nK |
r6 | butter | ' b ^ . r6 $ R= |
i0 | sanity | s @ . n i0 . t i |
Phoneme | Example | Transcription |
i | vivo | ' b i . B o |
e | peso | ' p e . s o |
a | casa | ' k a . s a |
o | bobo | ' b o . B o |
u | cuñado | k u . ' n~ a . D o |
p | pepa | ' p e . p a |
b | cambio | ' k a m . b j o |
t | tía | ' t i . a |
d | dedo | ' d e . D o |
k | kilo | ' k i . l o |
g | hangar | a n . ' g a r6 |
m | amo | ' a . m o |
n | nene | ' n e . n e |
n~ | niño | ' n i . n~ o |
nK | cinco | ' s i nK . k o |
r | carro | ' k a . r o |
r6 | caro | ' k a . r6 o |
B | bobo | ' b o . B o |
f | fin | ' f i n |
D | dedo | ' d e . D o |
s | seso | ' s e . s o |
z | desde | ' d e z . D e |
J | mayo | ' m a . J o |
x | ajo | ' a . x o |
G | agua | ' a . G w a |
j | ciego | ' T j e . G o |
w | cuenta | ' k w e n . t a |
l | lata | ' l a . t a |
t+S | chico | ' t+S i . k o |
d+Z | yo | ' d+Z o |
S | Washington | ' w a . S i n . t o n |
Phoneme | Example | Transcription |
i | minute | m i . ' n Y t |
I | pipe | ‘ p I p |
e | été | e . ' t e |
E | très | ' t R E |
a | bas | ' b a |
A | pâte | ' p A t |
O | morte | ' m O R t |
o | beau | ' b o |
u | nous | ' n u |
U | coupe | ' k U p |
y | fût | ' f y |
Y | jupe | ' Z Y p |
e= | deux | ' d e= |
E= | soeur | ' s E= R |
$ | le | ' l $ |
e%~ | bain | ' b e%~ |
@%~ | blanc | ' b l @%~ |
o%~ | bon | ' b o%~ |
e=%~ | un | ' e=%~ |
p | pas | ' p A |
b | bas | ' b A |
t | tas | ' t A |
t&s | tigre | ' t&s i . g R $ |
d | do | ' d o |
d&z | rendu | R @%~ . ' d&z y |
k | qui | ' k i |
g | gomme | ' g O m |
? | antiharpon | @%~ . t i . ? a R . ' p o%~ |
f | faim | ' f e%~ |
v | vol | ' v O l |
s | sac | ' s a k |
z | zéro | z e . ' R o |
S | charme | ' S a R . m $ |
Z | jardin | Z a R . ' d e%~ |
m | mot | ' m o |
n | nous | ' n u |
n~ | agneau | a . ' n~ o |
nK | smoking | s m o . ' k i nK |
l | la | ' l a |
R | rond | ' R o%~ |
j | briller | b r i . ' j e |
w | oui | ' w i |
h\ | ui | l h\ i |
Phoneme | Example | Transcription |
i | minute | m i . ' n y t |
e | été | e . ' t e |
E | très | ' t R E |
a | bas | ' b a |
A | pâte | ' p A t |
O | morte | ' m O R t |
o | beau | ' b o |
u | nous | ' n u |
y | fût | ` f y |
e= | deux | ' d e= |
E= | soeur | ' s E= R |
$ | le | ' l $ |
E%~ | bain | ' b E%~ |
A%~ | blanc | ' b l A%~ |
O%~ | bon | ' b O%~ |
E=%~ | un | ' E=%~ |
p | pas | ' p a |
b | bas | ' b a |
t | tas | ' t a |
d | do | ' d o |
k | qui | ' k i |
g | gomme | ' g O m |
? | antiharpon | A%~ . t i . ? a R . ' p O%~ |
f | faim | ' f E%~ |
v | vol | ' v O l |
s | sac | ' s a k |
z | zéro | z e . ' R o |
S | charme | ' S a R . m $ |
Z | jardin | Z a R . ' d E%~ |
m | mot | ' m o |
n | nous | ' n u |
n~ | agneau | a . ' n~ o |
nK | smoking | s m O . ' k i nK g |
l | la | ' l a |
R | rond | ' R O%~ |
j | briller | b R i . ' j e |
w | oui | ' w i |
h\ | lui | ' l h\ i |
Key
Symbol | Meaning | Example | Transcription |
_ | word delimeter | nut butter | ' n ^ t _ ' b ^ . r6 $ R= |
' | primary word stress | record (verb) | R= I . ' k O R= d |
'2 | secondary word stress | explanation | ' 2 E k . s p l $ . ' n e+I . S $ n |
“ | sentence accent | There are TWO ACCENTS in this sentence | D E R= _ A R= _ ” t u _ “ @ k . s E n t s _ ? I n _ D I s _ ' s E n . t $ n s |
. | syllable boundary | syllable | ' s I . l $ . b $ l |
# | silence (pause) | I said: don't do it | ? a+I ” s E d # d o+U n t “ d u _ I t |
Amazon Polly:
The Amazon Polly engine provides granular control over volume, rate, and pitch. For detailed information about how to use this tag, consult https://docs.aws.amazon.com/polly/latest/dg/supportedtags.html#prosody-tag.
AT&T Natural Voices:
The prosody element works fine for this engine. You can specify a preset rate (“fast”, “medium”, “slow”, or “default”). However, using a preset rate is not recommended because it either sets the voice rate to too slow or too fast. The “rate” attribute can also be set to an integer value such as “100.0” or “50.0”. A normal voice rate should be set to around “150.0”. These values are not in accordance with the SSML spec, where rates are specified relative to 1. Additionally, you can also adjust the voice rate by using percentages. To increase the rate you could type ”+50%“ to make the voice rate 50% faster or ”-50%“ to make the voice rate 50% slower. Note that the “pitch” attribute does not work for this engine.
Cepstral Engine:
The prosody element works fine for the Cepstral Engine. Also, the “pitch” attribute only works for the Cepstral Engine. Note that you cannot specify the “rate” value as an integer using this engine, but pecentages and the presets rates (“fast”, “medium”, “slow”, or “default”) work as expected.
RealSpeak Engine:
When using a Realspeak TTS voice, the talking speed of the TTS voice does not revert back to the normal speed after the <prosody> tag has been used. To revert it back to normal, you must use the <prosody> tag again with the attribute of “volume” set to “100.0” and the attribute of “rate” set to “default”. Note that the “pitch” attribute is not supported in this engine. Also, you cannot specify the “rate” value as an integer using this engine, but pecentages and the presets rates (“fast”, “medium”, “slow”, or “default”) work as expected.
The table below shows the <say-as> tag types and the speech engines that support them. An “x” marks that the <say-as> tag is supported by the speech engine.
Say-as Tag Types | AT&T Natural Voices | Cepstral Engine | RealSpeak Engine |
acronym* | x | x | |
address | x | x | x |
number | x | x | x |
number: cardinal | x | x | x |
number: ordinal | | x | x |
number: digits | | x | x |
number: decimal | x | x | x |
number: fraction | x | x | x |
number: telephone | x | x | x |
date | x | x | x |
date:dmy* | x | x | x |
date:mdy* | x | x | x |
date:ymd* | x | x | x |
date:ym* | | x | x |
date:my* | x | x | x |
date:md* | x | x | x |
date:dm* | x | x | x |
date:y* | x | x | x |
date:m | | x | x |
date:d | | | x |
date:day | | | x |
digits | | | x |
duration | | | x |
duration:h | | | x |