Speech synthesis

Speech synthesis
You are encouraged to solve this task according to the task description, using any language you may know.

Render the text       This is an example of speech synthesis      as speech.

Related task

•   using a speech engine to highlight words

AutoHotkey

Works with: AutoHotkey_L

talk := ComObjCreate("sapi.spvoice")
talk.Speak("This is an example of speech synthesis.")

AutoIt

$voice = ObjCreate("SAPI.SpVoice")
$voice.Speak("This is an example of speech synthesis.")

BASIC256

say "Goodbye, World for the " + 123456 + "th time."
say "This is an example of speech synthesis."

BBC BASIC

Works with: BBC BASIC for Windows

This calls the SAPI5 API directly, it does not need an external program.

      SPF_ASYNC = 1
      ON ERROR SYS `CoUninitialize` : PRINT 'REPORT$ : END
      ON CLOSE SYS `CoUninitialize` : QUIT
 
      SYS "LoadLibrary","OLE32.DLL" TO O%
      SYS "GetProcAddress",O%,"CoInitialize" TO `CoInitialize`
      SYS "GetProcAddress",O%,"CoUninitialize" TO `CoUninitialize`
      SYS "GetProcAddress",O%,"CoCreateInstance" TO `CoCreateInstance`
 
      SYS `CoInitialize`,0
      voice% = FN_voice_create
      PROC_voice_speak(voice%, "This is an example of speech synthesis")
      PROC_voice_wait(voice%)
      PROC_voice_free(voice%)
      SYS `CoUninitialize`
      END
 
      DEF FN_voice_create
      LOCAL C%, D%, F%, I%, M%, P%, V%
      DIM C% LOCAL 15, I% LOCAL 15
      C%!0 = &96749377 : C%!4 = &11D23391 : C%!8 = &C000E39E : C%!12 = &9673794F
      I%!0 = &6C44DF74 : I%!4 = &499272B9 : I%!8 = &99EFECA1 : I%!12 = &D422046E
      SYS `CoCreateInstance`, C%, 0, 5, I%, ^V%
      IF V%=0 ERROR 100, "SAPI5 not available"
      = V%
 
      DEF PROC_voice_speak(V%, M$)
      DIM M% LOCAL 2*LENM$+1
      SYS "MultiByteToWideChar", 0, 0, M$, -1, M%, LENM$+1
      SYS !(!V%+80), V%, M%, SPF_ASYNC, 0
      ENDPROC
 
      DEF PROC_voice_wait(V%)
      SYS !(!V%+128), V%
      ENDPROC
 
      DEF PROC_voice_free(V%)
      SYS !(!V%+8), V%
      ENDPROC

Batch File

Sorry for cheating. This is Batch/JScript hybrid.

@set @dummy=0 /*
	::Batch File section
	@echo off
	cscript //e:jscript //nologo "%~f0" "%~1"
	exit /b
::*/
//The JScript section
var objVoice = new ActiveXObject("SAPI.SpVoice");
objVoice.speak(WScript.Arguments(0));

Output:

Saved as SPEAK.BAT

>SPEAK "This is an example of speech synthesis"

>

C

Following shining examples of execing external programs around here:

Library: POSIX

#include <sys/wait.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
 
void talk(const char *s)
{
	pid_t pid;
	int status;
 
	pid = fork();
	if (pid < 0) {
		perror("fork");
		exit(1);
	}
 
	if (pid == 0) {
		execlp("espeak", "espeak", s, (void*)0);
		perror("espeak");
		_exit(1);
	}
 
	waitpid(pid, &status, 0);
	if (!WIFEXITED(status) || WEXITSTATUS(status) != 0)
		exit(1);
}
 
int main()
{
	talk("This is an example of speech synthesis.");
	return 0;
}

C#

You need to 'Add Reference' to the COM "Microsoft Speech Object Library" in your Preferences.

using SpeechLib;
 
namespace Speaking_Computer
{
  public class Program
  {
    private static void Main()
    {
      var voice = new SpVoice();
      voice.Speak("This is an example of speech synthesis.");
    }
  }
}

Clojure

Library: facts/speech-synthesis

(use 'speech-synthesis.say)
(say "This is an example of speech synthesis.")

GlovePIE

if var.number=0 then // Missing out any lines of code in this code will break this code.
   var.number=1
   say("My rofl copter goes swa swa swa swa rofl rofl rofl rofl!")
endif

Go

Here's a library solution, but using a library written from scratch in Go.

package main
 
import (
    "go/build"
    "log"
    "path/filepath"
 
    "github.com/unixpickle/gospeech"
    "github.com/unixpickle/wav"
)
 
const pkgPath = "github.com/unixpickle/gospeech"
const input = "This is an example of speech synthesis."
 
func main() {
    p, err := build.Import(pkgPath, ".", build.FindOnly)
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    d := filepath.Join(p.Dir, "dict/cmudict-IPA.txt")
    dict, err := gospeech.LoadDictionary(d)
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    phonetics := dict.TranslateToIPA(input)
    synthesized := gospeech.DefaultVoice.Synthesize(phonetics)
    wav.WriteFile(synthesized, "output.wav")
}

Groovy

Mac only:

'say "This is an example of speech synthesis."'.execute()

Haskell

 
import System
 
say x = system $ "espeak " ++ show x
 
main = say "This is an example of speech synthesis."
 

JavaScript

Works with: JScript

var voice = new ActiveXObject("SAPI.SpVoice");
voice.speak("This is an example of speech synthesis.");

Julia

It seems that this and similar tasks can reduce to how the language can call an external program. Using the Julia REPL:

 
julia> a = "hello world"
"hello world"
 
julia> run(`espeak $a`)
 

Kotlin

Translation of: C

Works with: Ubuntu 16.04

Note that this code does not work on Windows 10.

Note also that Kotlin Native does not support the automatic translation of C function-like macros such as WIFEXITED and WEXITSTATUS.

Whilst it is often possible to wrap such macros in 'ordinary' C functions and then expose the latter to Kotlin via a .klib, it is not worth the effort here. I have therefore confined myself to simply reporting a non-zero error status.

// Kotlin Native v0.6.2
 
import kotlinx.cinterop.*
import platform.posix.*
 
fun talk(s: String) {
    val pid = fork()
    if (pid < 0) {
       perror("fork")
       exit(1)
    }
    if (pid == 0) {
       execlp("espeak", "espeak", s, null)
       perror("espeak")
       _exit(1)
    }
    memScoped {
        val status = alloc<IntVar>()
        waitpid(pid, status.ptr, 0)
        if (status.value > 0) println("Exit status was ${status.value}")
    }
}
 
fun main(args: Array<String>) {
    talk("This is an example of speech synthesis.")
}

Liberty BASIC

Assumes that 'espeak' is available at the path shown.

 
nomainwin
run "C:\Program Files\eSpeak\command_line\espeak  "; chr$( 34); "This is an example of speech synthesis."; chr$( 34)
end
 

Another dll has been posted to do the same job, at LB Community Wiki

Locomotive Basic

Both hardware and software-only speech synthesizers exist for the CPC. A software-only solution, Speech 1.1 by Superior Software (1986), supplies three BASIC extension commands (RSXes), "|say", "|speak", and "|pitch":

|say,"This is an example of speech synthesis."

M2000 Interpreter

For Linux, through wine, if missing Sapi5 need this: winetricks speechsdk

Using Statement Speech

 
Module UsingStatementSpeech {
      Volume 100
      Speech "This is an example of speech synthesis."
}
UsingStatementSpeech
 

Print each word as speak

 
Module UsingEvents {
      Declare WithEvents sp "SAPI.SpVoice"
      That$="This is an example of speech synthesis."
      EndStream=False
      Function sp_Word {
            Read New &StreamNumber, &StreamPosition, &CharacterPosition, &Length
            Rem: Print StreamNumber, StreamPosition, CharacterPosition, Length
            Print Mid$(That$, CharacterPosition+1, Length);" ";
            Refresh
      }
      Function sp_EndStream {
            Print
            Refresh
            EndStream=True
      }
      Const  SVEStartInputStream = 2
      Const  SVEEndInputStream = 4
      Const  SVEVoiceChange = 8
      Const  SVEBookmark = 16
      Const  SVEWordBoundary = 32
      Const  SVEPhoneme = 64
      Const  SVESentenceBoundary = 128
      Const  SVEViseme = 256
      Const  SVEAudioLevel = 512
      Const  SVEPrivate = 32768
      Const  SVEAllEvents = 33790
 
      Const SVSFDefault = 0&
      Const SVSFlagsAsync = 1&
      Const SVSFPurgeBeforeSpeak=2&
 
      With sp, "EventInterests", SVEWordBoundary+SVEEndInputStream
      Method sp, "Speak", That$, SVSFlagsAsync
      While Not EndStream {Wait 10}
}
UsingEvents
 

Mathematica

Speak["This is an example of speech synthesis."]

PARI/GP

Define a function that is using espeak package from Linux.

speak(txt,opt="")=extern(concat(["espeak ",opt," \"",txt,"\""]));

Now let it speak:

speak("This is an example of speech synthesis")

A monster speech tongue-twister:

speak("The seething sea ceaseth and thus the seething sea sufficeth us.","-p10 -s100")

A foreign language "Zungenbrecher":

speak("Fischers Fritz fischt frische Fische.","-vmb/mb-de2 -s130")

Perl

use Speech::Synthesis;
 
($engine) = Speech::Synthesis->InstalledEngines();
($voice) = Speech::Synthesis->InstalledVoices(engine => $engine);
 
Speech::Synthesis
  ->new(engine => $engine, voice => $voice->{id})
  ->speak("This is an example of speech synthesis.");

Perl 6

run 'espeak', 'This is an example of speech synthesis.';

PicoLisp

(call 'espeak "This is an example of speech synthesis.")

PowerShell

 
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Speech
 
$anna = New-Object System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeechSynthesizer
 
$anna.Speak("I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.")
$anna.Dispose()
 

Python

 
import pyttsx
 
engine = pyttsx.init()
engine.say("It was all a dream.")
engine.runAndWait()
 

Racket

Should work on all platforms.

 
#lang racket
(require racket/lazy-require)
(lazy-require [ffi/com (com-create-instance com-release com-invoke)])
(define (speak text)
  (cond [(eq? 'windows (system-type))
         (define c (com-create-instance "SAPI.SpVoice"))
         (com-invoke c "Speak" text)
         (com-release c)]
        [(ormap find-executable-path '("say" "espeak"))
         => (λ(exe) (void (system* exe text)))]
        [else (error 'speak "I'm speechless!")]))
(speak "This is an example of speech synthesis.")
 

REXX

Works with: Windowx/XP or later

Programming note:   This REXX program uses a freeware program   NIRCMD   to interface with the Microsoft Windows speech synthesizer program   SAM,   a text to speech using a male voice.   SAM can possibly be configured to use other voices with later releases of Windows.   More recent Microsoft Windows have another speech synthesizer program:   ANNA.

/*REXX program uses a command line interface to invoke Windows SAM for speech synthesis.*/
parse arg t                                      /*get the (optional) text from the C.L.*/
if t=''  then exit                               /*Nothing to say?    Then exit program.*/
dquote= '"'
rate= 1                                          /*talk:   -10 (slow)   to   10 (fast). */
                                                 /* [↓]  where the rubber meets the road*/
'NIRCMD'  "speak text"  dquote  t  dquote   rate /*NIRCMD  invokes Microsoft's Sam voice*/
                                                 /*stick a fork in it,  we're all done. */

Note:   The name of the above REXX program is   speak.rex
usage   using the command:

speak This is an example of speech synthesis. 

Ruby

Using this module to encapsulate operating system lookup

module OperatingSystem
  require 'rbconfig'
  module_function
  def operating_system
    case RbConfig::CONFIG["host_os"]
    when /linux/i
      :linux
    when /cygwin|mswin|mingw|windows/i
      :windows
    when /darwin/i
      :mac
    when /solaris/i
      :solaris
    else
      nil
    end
  end
  def linux?;   operating_system == :linux;   end
  def windows?; operating_system == :windows; end
  def mac?;     operating_system == :mac;     end
end

Library: win32-utils

Works with: Ruby version 1.9

Uses espeak on Linux, say on Mac, and the win32 SAPI library on Windows.

load 'operating_system.rb'
 
def speak(text)
  if OperatingSystem.windows?
    require 'win32/sapi5'
    v = Win32::SpVoice.new
    v.Speak(text)
  elsif OperatingSystem.mac?
    IO.popen(["say"], "w") {|pipe| pipe.puts text}
  else
    # Try to run "espeak". No OperatingSystem check: "espeak" is
    # for Linux but is also an optional package for BSD.
    IO.popen(["espeak", "-stdin"], "w") {|pipe| pipe.puts text}
  end
end
 
speak 'This is an example of speech synthesis.'

Scala

Library: FreeTTS version 1.2

import javax.speech.Central
import javax.speech.synthesis.{Synthesizer, SynthesizerModeDesc}
 
object ScalaSpeaker extends App {
 
  def speech(text: String) = {
    if (!text.trim.isEmpty) {
      val VOICENAME = "kevin16"
 
      System.setProperty("freetts.voices", "com.sun.speech.freetts.en.us.cmu_us_kal.KevinVoiceDirectory")
      Central.registerEngineCentral("com.sun.speech.freetts.jsapi.FreeTTSEngineCentral")
 
      val synth = Central.createSynthesizer(null)
      synth.allocate()
 
      val desc = synth.getEngineModeDesc match {case g2: SynthesizerModeDesc => g2}
 
      synth.getSynthesizerProperties.setVoice(desc.getVoices.find(_.toString == VOICENAME).get)
      synth.speakPlainText(text, null)
 
      synth.waitEngineState(Synthesizer.QUEUE_EMPTY)
      synth.deallocate()
    }
  }
 
  speech( """Thinking of Holland
            |I see broad rivers
            |slowly chuntering
            |through endless lowlands,
            |rows of implausibly
            |airy poplars
            |standing like tall plumes
            |against the horizon;
            |and sunk in the unbounded
            |vastness of space
            |homesteads and boweries
            |dotted across the land,
            |copses, villages,
            |couchant towers,
            |churches and elm-trees,
            |bound in one great unity.
            |There the sky hangs low,
            |and steadily the sun
            |is smothered in a greyly
            |iridescent smirr,
            |and in every province
            |the voice of water
            |with its lapping disasters
            |is feared and hearkened.""".stripMargin)
}

Sidef

func text2speech(text, lang='en') {
    Sys.run("espeak -v #{lang} -w /dev/stdout #{text.escape} | aplay");
}
text2speech("This is an example of speech synthesis.");

Swift

OS X comes with a program called "say," that does speech.

import Foundation
 
let task = NSTask()
task.launchPath = "/usr/bin/say"
task.arguments = ["This is an example of speech synthesis."]
task.launch()

Tcl

This just passes the string into the Festival system:

exec festival --tts << "This is an example of speech synthesis."

Alternatively, on MacOS X, you'd use the system say program:

exec say << "This is an example of speech synthesis."

On Windows, there is a service available by COM for speech synthesis:

Library: tcom

package require tcom
 
set msg "This is an example of speech synthesis."
set voice [::tcom::ref createobject Sapi.SpVoice]
$voice Speak $msg 0

Putting these together into a helper procedure, we get:

proc speak {msg} {
    global tcl_platform
    if {$tcl_platform(platform) eq "windows"} {
        package require tcom
        set voice [::tcom::ref createobject Sapi.SpVoice]
        $voice Speak $msg 0
    } elseif {$tcl_platform(os) eq "Darwin"} {
        exec say << $msg
    } else {
        exec festival --tts << $msg
    }
}
speak "This is an example of speech synthesis."

UNIX Shell

Here we use the open source espeak tool:

Works with: Bourne Shell

Works with: bash

#!/bin/sh
espeak "This is an example of speech synthesis."

VBScript

 
Dim message, sapi
message = "This is an example of speech synthesis."
Set sapi = CreateObject("sapi.spvoice")
sapi.Speak message
 

ZX Spectrum Basic

This example makes use of the Currah Speech Synthesizer peripheral device.

10 LET s$="(th)is is an exampul of sp(ee)(ch) sin(th)esis":PAUSE 1