Speech Synthesis Markup Language Reference
Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) is an XML-based markup language that application developers use to control various characteristics of synthetic speech (text-to-speech, or TTS) output including voice, pitch, rate, volume, pronunciation, and other characteristics.
The Microsoft implementation of SSML is based on World Wide Web Consortium Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) Version 1.0.
All SSML elements belong to the ssml namespace. The following elements are implemented in System.Speech.
SSML Element |
Description |
Usage |
Attributes |
|---|---|---|---|
Supports the insertion of recorded audio files. |
Optional |
src |
|
An empty element used to control the prosodic boundaries (pauses) between words. |
Optional |
strength, time |
|
Indicates the level of stress (prominence) with which the contained text is spoken. |
Optional |
level |
|
Specifies a lexicon document that contains the pronunciations for the content of the document. |
Optional |
uri, type |
|
Designates a specific reference point in the text sequence. This element can also be used to mark an output audio stream for asynchronous notification. |
Optional |
name |
|
Denote the paragraph and sentence structure of the document. |
Optional |
xml:lang |
|
Indicates the phonetic pronunciation for the contained text. Overrides the pronunciations in the lexicon, if one is specified. |
Optional |
ph, alphabet |
|
Specifies the pitch, contour, range, rate, duration, and volume for speaking the contained text. |
Optional |
pitch, contour, range, rate, duration, volume |
|
Indicates the type of text contained in the element (such as acronym, number, and date). |
Optional |
interpret-as, format, detail |
|
The required root element for all SSML documents. |
Required |
version, xmlns, xml:lang |
|
Specifies a string of text that should be pronounced in place of the text contained in the element. |
Optional |
alias |
|
Specifies a voice and its attributes, to be used for synthesized speech, often used to change from one voice to another. |
Optional |
xml:lang, gender, age, variant, name |