say − Convert text to audible speech
say [−v voice] [−r rate] [−o outfile [audio format options] | −n name:port | −a device] [−f file | string ...]
This tool uses the Speech Synthesis manager to convert input text to audible speech and either play it through the sound output device chosen in System Preferences or save it to an AIFF file.
string
Specify the text to speak on the command line. This can consist of multiple arguments, which are considered to be separated by spaces.
−f file, −−input−file=file
Specify a file to be spoken. If file is − or neither this parameter nor a message is specified, read from standard input.
−v voice, −−voice=voice
Specify the voice to be used. Default is the voice selected in System Preferences. To obtain a list of voices installed in the system, specify ’?’ as the voice name.
−r rate, −−rate=rate
Speech rate to be used, in words per minute.
−o out.aiff, −−output−file=file
Specify the path for an audio file to be written. AIFF is the default and should be supported for most voices, but some voices support many more file formats.
−n name,
−−network−send=name
−n name:port,
−−network−send=name:port
−n :port,
−−network−send=:port
−n :,
−−network−send=:
Specify a service name (default "AUNetSend") and/or IP port to be used for redirecting the speech output through AUNetSend.
−a
ID ,
−−audio−device=
ID
−a name,
−−audio−device=name
Specify, by ID or name prefix, an audio device to be used to play the audio. To obtain a list of audio output devices, specify ’?’ as the device name.
−−progress
Display a progress meter during synthesis.
−i, −−interactive, −−interactive=markup
Print the text line by line during synthesis, highlighting words as they are spoken. Markup can be one of
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• |
A terminfo capability as described in terminfo(5), e.g. bold, smul, setaf 1. |
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|
• |
A color name, one of black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, or white. |
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|
• |
A foreground and background color from the above list, separated by a slash, e.g. green/black. If the foreground color is omitted, only the background color is set. |
If markup is not specified, it defaults to smso, i.e. reverse video.
If the input is a TTY, text is spoken line by line, and the output file, if specified, will only contain audio for the last line of the input. Otherwise, text is spoken all at once.
Starting in
MacOS X 10.6, file formats other than AIFF
may be specified, although not all third party synthesizers
may initially support them. In simple cases, the file format
can be inferred from the extension, although generally some
of the options below are required for finer grained control:
−−file−format=format
The format of the file to write ( AIFF, caff, m4af, WAVE ). Generally, it’s easier to specify a suitable file extension for the output file. To obtain a list of writable file formats, specify ’?’ as the format name.
−−data−format=format
The format of the audio data to
be stored. Formats other than linear PCM are
specified by giving their format identifiers (aac, alac).
Linear PCM formats are specified as a
sequence of:
Endianness (optional)
One of BE (big endian) or LE (little endian). Default is native endianness.
Data type
One of F (float), I (integer), or, rarely, UI (unsigned integer).
Sample size
One of 8, 16, 24, 32, 64.
Most available file formats only support a subset of these sample formats.
To obtain a list of audio data formats for a file format specified explicitly or by file name, specify ’?’ as the format name.
The format identifier optionally can be followed by @samplerate and /hexflags for the format.
−−channels=channels
The number of channels. This will generally be of limited use, as most speech synthesizers produce mono audio only.
−−bit−rate=rate
The bit rate for formats like AAC. To obtain a list of valid bit rates, specify ’?’ as the rate. In practice, not all of these bit rates will be available for a given format.
−−quality=quality
The audio converter quality level between 0 (lowest) and 127 (highest).
say returns 0 if the text was spoken successfully, otherwise non-zero. Diagnostic messages will be printed to standard error.
say Hello, World say −v Alex −o hi −f hello_world.txt say −−interactive=/green spending each day the color of the leaves say −o hi.aac 'Hello, [[slnc 200]] World' say −o hi.m4a −−data−format=alac Hello, World. say −o hi.caf −−data−format=LEF32@8000 Hello, World say −v '?' say −−file−format=? say −−file−format=caff −−data−format=? say −o hi.m4a −−bit−rate=?
"Speech Synthesis Programming Guide"