 | |
| Original author(s) | Jonathan Duddington |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Alexander Epaneshnikov et al. |
| Initial release | February 2006 |
| Stable release | 1.51[1] 
/ 2 April 2022 |
| Repository | github |
| Written in | C |
| Operating system | Linux Windows macOS FreeBSD |
| Type | Speech synthesizer |
| License | GPLv3 |
| Website | github |
eSpeak is a free and open-source, cross-platform, compact, software speech synthesizer. It uses a formant synthesis method, providing many languages in a relatively small file size. eSpeakNG (Next Generation) is a continuation of the original developer's project with more feedback from native speakers.
Because of its small size and many languages, eSpeakNG is included in NVDA[2] open source screen reader for Windows, as well as Android,[3] Ubuntu[4] and other Linux distributions. Its predecessor eSpeak was recommended by Microsoft in 2016[5] and was used by Google Translate for 27 languages in 2010;[6] 17 of these were subsequently replaced by proprietary voices.[7]
The quality of the language voices varies greatly. In eSpeakNG's predecessor eSpeak, the initial versions of some languages were based on information found on Wikipedia.[8] Some languages have had more work or feedback from native speakers than others. Most of the people who have helped to improve the various languages are blind users of text-to-speech.
- ^ "Release 1.51".
- ^ "Switch to eSpeak NG in NVDA distribution · Issue #5651 · nvaccess/nvda". GitHub.
- ^ "eSpeak TTS for Android".
- ^ "espeak-ng package : Ubuntu". Launchpad. 21 December 2023.
- ^ "Download voices for Immersive Reader, Read Mode, and Read Aloud".
- ^ Google blog, Giving a voice to more languages on Google Translate, May 2010
- ^ Google blog, Listen to us now, December 2010.
- ^ "eSpeak Speech Synthesizer". espeak.sourceforge.net.
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