SPEAK (I) 2/1/73 SPEAK (I)
NAME speak -- word to voice translator
SYNOPSIS speak [ - ] [ vocabulary ]
DESCRIPTION speak turns a stream of ascii words into utter-
ances and outputs them to a voice synthesizer.
It has facilities for maintaining a vocabulary.
It receives, from the standard input
- working lines - text of words separated by
blanks
- phonetic lines - strings of phonemes for one
word preceded and separated by commas. The
phonetic code is given in vsp(VII).
- empty lines
- command lines - beginning with !. The follow-
ing forms are recognized:
!r file replace coded vocabulary from file
!w file write coded vocabulary on file
!p print phonetics for working word
!l list vocabulary on standard output
with phonetics
!c word copy phonetics from working word to
specified word
!s file (save) append working word and phonet-
ics to file in style of !l
Each working line replaces its predecessor. Its
first word is the "working word". Each phonetic
line replaces the phonetics stored for the work-
ing word. Each working line, phonetic line or
empty line causes the working line to be uttered.
The process terminates at the end of input.
Unknown words are spelled as strings of one-
letter words. Unknown one-letter words burp.
A phonetic line of comma only will delete the en-
try for the working word.
speak is initialized with a coded vocabulary
stored in file /etc/speak.m. The vocabulary op-
tion substitutes a different file for speak.m.
The - option suppresses all utterances.
FILES /etc/speak.m
SEE ALSO vsp(VII), speakm(V), vt(IV)
BUGS Vocabulary overflow is unchecked. Excessively
long words cause dumps. Space is not reclaimed
from deleted entries.