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2.4.11 Defining voices

You can define special voices in speechd-el that can be used in different situations, e.g. to speak different faces in different voices (see Text Properties) or to set different punctuation modes for different kinds of buffers (see Multiple Connections). speechd-el voices define not only basic voice characteristics, but also speech characteristics like pitch or rate and special properties like punctuation reading or capital character signalization.

Voice definition is contained in the following variable:

speechd-voices

Alist of voice identifiers and their parameters.

Each element of the list is of the form (voice-id . parameters), where voice-id is a symbol under which the voice will be accessed and parameters is an alist of parameter identifiers and parameter values. Valid parameter names are the following symbols: language, gender, age, style, name, rate, pitch, volume, punctuation-mode, capital-character-mode, message-priority, output-module. Please note that any parameter entry present will change the corresponding parameter, even if the parameter value is nil or empty; if you don’t want to change the parameter in any way by the voice, don’t put it to the list (and don’t enable its entry in customize).

name value is a string identifying Speech Dispatcher voice name. If it is not given, the parameters gender, age, and style are considered to select a Speech Dispatcher voice. gender value can be one of the symbols male, female, neutral. age can be one of the symbols middle-adult, child. neutral. style can be one of the numbers 1, 2, 3 (style values are likely to be changed in future).

The message-priority parameter sets priority of any message of the voice. Its value is any of the message priority symbols.

See the corresponding speechd-set-* functions for valid values of other parameters.

The voice named nil is special, it defines a default voice. Explicit definition of its parameters is optional.


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