SpeechSynthesis.speak

The speak() method of the SpeechSynthesis interface adds an utterance to the utterance queue; it will be spoken when any other utterances queued before it have been spoken.

Syntax

speechSynthesisInstance.speak(utterance);

Returns

Void.

Parameters

utterance

A SpeechSynthesisUtterance object.

Examples

This snippet is excerpted from our Speech synthesiser demo. When a form containing the text we want to speak is submitted, we (amongst other things) create a new utterance containing this text, then speak it by passing it into speak() as a parameter.

var synth = window.speechSynthesis;

  ...

inputForm.onsubmit = function(event) {
  event.preventDefault();

  var utterThis = new SpeechSynthesisUtterance(inputTxt.value);
  var selectedOption = voiceSelect.selectedOptions[0].getAttribute('data-name');
  for(i = 0; i < voices.length ; i++) {
    if(voices[i].name === selectedOption) {
      utterThis.voice = voices[i];
    }
  }
  synth.speak(utterThis);
  inputTxt.blur();
}

Specifications

Browser compatibility

[1] There is a known issue in Chrome that stops the SpeechSynthesisUtterance from speaking when used for long speeches (greater than or equal to 15 seconds, or 200-300 and more characters). See Chrome issues: 335907, 369472.

See also

• Web Speech API