eSpeak-NG

Category

Description of App

The eSpeak NG is a compact open source software text-to-speech synthesizer. It supports more than 100 languages and accents. It is based on the eSpeak engine created by Jonathan Duddington.

This app adds a compatibility layer between eSpeak NG library and Apple VoiceOver.

Version

1.0

Free or Paid

Free

Apple Watch Support

No

Device(s) App Was Tested On

iPhone

iOS Version

16.1.1

Accessibility Comments

The app has been optimized for VoiceOver and the user doesn't need to open it once eSpeak-NG settings have been altered and adjusted.

VoiceOver Performance

VoiceOver reads all page elements.

Button Labeling

All buttons are clearly labeled.

Usability

The app is fully accessible with VoiceOver and is easy to navigate and use.

Recommendations

6 people have recommended this app

Most recently recommended by Amir 2 months 1 week ago

Options

Comments

By Karok on Wednesday, November 23, 2022 - 17:35

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?

By Dennis Long on Wednesday, November 23, 2022 - 17:35

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

By Amir on Wednesday, November 23, 2022 - 17:35

Dennis, no to both. The Eloquence dictionary can't be ported to eSpeak-NG, and despite what some people believe about eSpeak-NG's Klat voices, they never sound similar to Eloquence. eSpeak-NG should be appreciated as is because of its multilingual aspects, clarity, the light resources it requires, etc. Of course, it does support dictionaries, but the format isn't similar to that of Eloquence.

By Country music fan on Wednesday, November 23, 2022 - 17:35

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

By Nikola Jovic on Wednesday, November 23, 2022 - 17:35

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.

By techluver on Wednesday, November 23, 2022 - 17:35

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

By wiljames on Wednesday, November 23, 2022 - 17:35

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

By LBM on Friday, December 23, 2022 - 17:35

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

By Josh Kennedy on Thursday, March 23, 2023 - 17:35

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.

By Ekaj on Thursday, March 23, 2023 - 17:35

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.

By Daniel Parker on Saturday, December 16, 2023 - 17:35

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

By Daniel Angus M… on Saturday, December 16, 2023 - 17:35

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

By Daniel Parker on Saturday, December 16, 2023 - 17:35

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!

By Ekaj on Tuesday, April 2, 2024 - 17:35

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.

By gailisaiah on Tuesday, April 2, 2024 - 17:35

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.