# eSpeak NG Text-to-Speech - [Build Dependencies](#build-dependencies) - [Debian](#debian) - [Building](#building) - [Audio Output Configuration](#audio-output-configuration) - [eSpeak NG Feature Configuration](#espeak-ng-feature-configuration) - [Extended Dictionary Configuration](#extended-dictionary-configuration) - [Compiling on Windows](#compiling-on-windows) - [Testing](#testing) - [Installing](#installing) - [Documentation](#documentation) - [eSpeak for Android](#espeak-for-android) - [Historical Versions](#historical-versions) - [Bugs](#bugs) - [License Information](#license-information) ---------- The eSpeak NG (Next Generation) Text-to-Speech program is an open source speech synthesizer that supports over 70 languages. It is based on the eSpeak engine created by Jonathan Duddington. It uses spectral formant synthesis by default which sounds robotic, but can be configured to use Klatt formant synthesis or MBROLA to give it a more natural sound. See the [CHANGELOG](CHANGELOG.md) for a description of the changes in the various releases and with the eSpeak project. ## Build Dependencies In order to build eSpeak NG, you need: 1. a functional autotools system (`make`, `autoconf`, `automake`, `libtool` and `pkg-config`); 2. a functional c compiler that supports C99 (e.g. gcc or clang). Optionally, you need: 1. the pulseaudio development library to enable pulseaudio output; 2. the portaudio development library to enable portaudio output; 3. the [sonic](https://github.com/waywardgeek/sonic) development library to enable sonic audio speed up support; 4. the `ronn` man-page markdown processor to build the man pages. To build the documentation, you need: 1. the `kramdown` markdown processor. ### Debian Core dependencies: | Dependency | Install | |---------------|------------------------------------------------------------------| | autotools | `sudo apt-get install make autoconf automake libtool pkg-config` | | c99 compiler | `sudo apt-get install gcc` | Optional dependencies: | Dependency | Install | |--------------|-----------------------------------------| | pulseaudio | `sudo apt-get install libpulse-dev` | | portaudio 18 | `sudo apt-get install libportaudio-dev` | | portaudio 19 | `sudo apt-get install portaudio19-dev` | | sonic | `sudo apt-get install libsonic-dev` | | ronn | `sudo apt-get install ruby-ronn` | Documentation dependencies: | Dependency | Install | |---------------|--------------------------------------| | kramdown | `sudo apt-get install ruby-kramdown` | ## Building The first time you build eSpeak NG, or when you want to change how to build eSpeak NG, you need to run the following standard autotools commands: ./autogen.sh ./configure --prefix=/usr __NOTE:__ The `--prefix` option above will install the files to the `/usr` directory, instead of the default `/usr/local` location. You can use other standard `configure` options to control the output. For more information, you can run: ./configure --help To use a different compiler, or compiler flags, you can specify these before the `configure` command. For example: CC=clang-3.5 CFLAGS=-Wextra ./configure --prefix=/usr The `espeak-ng` and `speak-ng` programs, along with the espeak-ng voices, can then be built with: make __NOTE:__ Building the voice data does not work when using the `-jN` option. If you want to use that option, you can run: make -j8 src/espeak-ng src/speak-ng make The documentation can be built by running: make docs Specific languages can be compiled by running: make LANG where `LANG` is the language code of the given language. More information can be found in the [Adding or Improving a Language](docs/add_language.md) documentation. ### Audio Output Configuration The following `configure` options control which audio interfaces to use: | Option | Audio Interfaces | Default | |---------------------|------------------|---------| | `--with-pulseaudio` | PulseAudio | yes | | `--with-portaudio` | PortAudio | yes | | `--with-sada` | SADA (Solaris) | no | If pulseaudio and portaudio are both enabled and available, eSpeak NG will choose which one to use at runtime, trying pulseaudio first before falling back to portaudio. ### eSpeak NG Feature Configuration The following `configure` options control which eSpeak NG features are enabled: | Option | Description | Default | |-----------------|----------------------------------------------|---------| | `--with-klatt` | Enable Klatt formant synthesis. | yes | | `--with-mbrola` | Enable MBROLA voice support. | yes | | `--with-sonic` | Use the sonic library to support higher WPM. | yes | | `--with-async` | Enable asynchronous commands. | yes | __NOTE:__ The `--with-sonic` option requires that the sonic library and header is accessible on the system. ### Extended Dictionary Configuration The following `configure` options control which of the extended dictionary files to build: | Option | Extended Dictionary | Default | |----------------------|---------------------|---------| | `--with-extdict-ru` | Russian | no | | `--with-extdict-zh` | Mandarin Chinese | no | | `--with-extdict-zhy` | Cantonese | no | The extended dictionaries are taken from [http://espeak.sourceforge.net/data/](http://espeak.sourceforge.net/data/) and provide better coverage for those languages, while increasing the resulting dictionary size. ## Compiling on Windows __NOTE:__ This is currently experimental. It does not build the voice data, and may contain runtime errors and missing functionality. To build eSpeak NG on Windows, you will need a copy of Visual Studio, such as the Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2015 edition. Additionally, you will need the Windows 8.1 SDK. You can then open and build the `src/windows/espeak-ng.sln` solution in Visual Studio. ## Testing Before installing, you can test the built espeak-ng using the following command from the top-level directory of this project: ESPEAK_DATA_PATH=`pwd` LD_LIBRARY_PATH=src:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH} src/espeak-ng ... The `ESPEAK_DATA_PATH` variable needs to be set to use the espeak-ng data from the source tree. Otherwise, espeak-ng will look in `$(HOME)` or `/usr/share/espeak-data`. The `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` is set as `espeak` uses the `libespeak-ng.so` shared library. This ensures that `espeak` uses the built shared library in the `src` directory and not the one on the system (which could be an older version). ## Installing You can install eSpeak NG by running the following command: sudo make LIBDIR=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu install __NOTE:__ The `LIBDIR` path may be different to the one on your system (the above is for 64-bit Debian/Ubuntu releases that use the multi-arch package structure -- that is, Debian Wheezy or later). You can find out where espeak-ng is installed to on your system if you already have an espeak-ng install by running: find /usr/lib | grep libespeak-ng ## Documentation The [main documentation](docs/index.md) for eSpeak NG provides more information on using and creating voices/languages for for eSpeak NG. The [espeak-ng](src/espeak-ng.1.ronn) and [speak-ng](src/speak-ng.1.ronn) command-line documentation provide a reference of the different command-line options available to these commands with example usage. ## eSpeak for Android The *android* branch contains the sources for the [eSpeak for Android](http://reecedunn.co.uk/espeak-for-android) program, based on the eyes-free port of eSpeak to Android. ## Historical Versions The *historical* branch contains the available older releases of the original eSpeak that are not contained in the subversion repository. 1.24.02 is the first version of eSpeak to appear in the subversion repository, but releases from 1.05 to 1.24 are available at [http://sourceforge.net/projects/espeak/files/espeak/](http://sourceforge.net/projects/espeak/files/espeak/). These early releases have been checked into the historical branch, with the 1.24.02 release as the last entry. This makes it possible to use the replace functionality of git to see the earlier history: git replace 8d59235f 63c1c019 __NOTE:__ The source releases contain the `big_endian`, `espeak-edit`, `praat-mod`, `riskos`, `windows_dll` and `windows_sapi` folders. These do not appear in the source repository until later releases, so have been excluded from the historical commits to align them better with the 1.24.02 source commit. ## Bugs Report bugs to the [espeak-ng issues](https://github.com/espeak-ng/espeak-ng/issues) page on GitHub. ## License Information eSpeak NG Text-to-Speech is released under the [GPL version 3](COPYING) or later license.