speechmarkdown-js

Speech Markdown grammar, parser, and formatters for use with JavaScript.

Supported platforms:

• amazon-alexa
• amazon-polly
• amazon-polly-neural
• apple-avspeechsynthesizer
• google-assistant
• ibm-watson
• microsoft-azure
• microsoft-sapi
• w3c
• samsung-bixby
• elevenlabs

Find the architecture here

Platform-specific SSML notes are tracked in docs/platforms. Use npm run docs:update-voices to refresh the auto-generated voice maps in src/formatters/data when vendor credentials are available.

Quick start

SSML - Amazon Alexa

Convert Speech Markdown to SSML for Amazon Alexa

const smd = require('speechmarkdown-js');

const markdown = `Sample [3s] speech [250ms] markdown`;
const options = {
  platform: 'amazon-alexa',
};

const speech = new smd.SpeechMarkdown();
const ssml = speech.toSSML(markdown, options);

The resulting SSML is:

<speak>
Sample <break time="3s"/> speech <break time="250ms"/> markdown
</speak>

SSML - Google Assistant

Convert Speech Markdown to SSML for Google Assistant

const smd = require('speechmarkdown-js');

const markdown = `Sample [3s] speech [250ms] markdown`;
const options = {
  platform: 'google-assistant',
};

const speech = new smd.SpeechMarkdown();
const ssml = speech.toSSML(markdown, options);

The resulting SSML is:

<speak>
Sample <break time="3s"/> speech <break time="250ms"/> markdown
</speak>

SSML - Microsoft Azure

Convert Speech Markdown to SSML for Microsoft Azure with automatic MSTTS namespace injection

const smd = require('speechmarkdown-js');

const markdown = `(This is exciting news!)[excited:"1.5"] The new features are here.`;
const options = {
  platform: 'microsoft-azure',
};

const speech = new smd.SpeechMarkdown();
const ssml = speech.toSSML(markdown, options);

The resulting SSML is:

<speak xmlns:mstts="https://www.w3.org/2001/mstts">
<mstts:express-as style="excited" styledegree="1.5">This is exciting news!</mstts:express-as> The new features are here.
</speak>

Azure supports 27 express-as styles including emotional styles (excited, disappointed, friendly, cheerful, sad, angry, etc.) and scenario-specific styles (newscaster, customerservice, chat, etc.). See Azure platform documentation for complete details.

Plain Text

Convert Speech Markdown to Plain Text

const smd = require('speechmarkdown-js');

const markdown = `Sample [3s] speech [250ms] markdown`;
const options = {};

const speech = new smd.SpeechMarkdown();
const text = speech.toText(markdown, options);

The resulting text is:

Sample speech markdown

More

Options

You can pass options into the constructor:

const smd = require('speechmarkdown-js');

const markdown = `Sample [3s] speech [250ms] markdown`;
const options = {
  platform: 'amazon-alexa',
};

const speech = new smd.SpeechMarkdown(options);
const ssml = speech.toSSML(markdown);

Or in the methods toSSML and toText:

const smd = require('speechmarkdown-js');

const markdown = `Sample [3s] speech [250ms] markdown`;
const options = {
  platform: 'amazon-alexa',
};

const speech = new smd.SpeechMarkdown();
const ssml = speech.toSSML(markdown, options);

Available options are:

• platform (string) - Determines the formatter to use to render SSML. Valid values are:

  • "amazon-alexa"
  • "amazon-polly"
  • "amazon-polly-neural"
  • "apple-avspeechsynthesizer"
  • "google-assistant"
  • "ibm-watson"
  • "microsoft-azure"
  • "microsoft-sapi"
  • "w3c"
  • "samsung-bixby"
  • "elevenlabs"

• includeFormatterComment (boolean) - Adds an XML comment to the SSML output indicating the formatter used. Default is false.

• includeSpeakTag (boolean) - Determines if the <speak> tag will be rendered in the SSML output. Default is true.

• includeParagraphTag (boolean) - Determines if the <p> tag will be rendered in the SSML output. Default is false.

• preserveEmptyLines (boolean) - keep empty lines in markdown in SSML. Default is true.

• escapeXmlSymbols (boolean) - Currently only for amazon-alexa and microsoft-azure. Escape XML text. Default is false.

• voices (object) - give custom names to voices and use that in your markdown:

  {
    "platform": "amazon-alexa",
    "voices": {
      "Scott": { "voice": { "name": "Brian" } },
      "Sarah": { "voice": { "name": "Kendra" } }
    }
  }

  {
    "platform": "google-assistant",
    "voices": {
      "Brian": {
        "voice": { "gender": "male", "variant": 1, "language": "en-US" }
      },
      "Sarah": {
        "voice": { "gender": "female", "variant": 3, "language": "en-US" }
      }
    }
  }

Working on this project?

Grammar

The biggest place we need help right now is with the completion of the grammar and formatters.

Short Format

• [x] break
• [x] emphasis - strong
• [x] emphasis - moderate
• [x] emphasis - none
• [x] emphasis - reduced
• [x] ipa
• [x] sub

Short-form examples:

• (pecan)/'pi.kæn/ → <phoneme alphabet="ipa" ph="'pi.kæn">pecan</phoneme>
• (Al){aluminum} → <sub alias="aluminum">Al</sub>
• /ˈdeɪtə/ → <phoneme alphabet="ipa" ph="ˈdeɪtə">ipa</phoneme>

Standard Format

• [x] address
• [x] audio
• [x] break (time)
• [x] break (strength)
• [x] characters / chars
• [x] date
• [x] defaults (section)
• [x] disappointed
• [x] disappointed (section)
• [x] dj (section)
• [x] emphasis
• [x] excited
• [x] excited (section)
• [x] expletive / bleep
• [x] fraction
• [x] interjection
• [x] ipa
• [x] lang
• [x] lang (section)
• [x] mark
• [x] newscaster (section)
• [x] number
• [x] ordinal
• [x] telephone / phone
• [x] pitch
• [x] rate
• [x] sub
• [x] time
• [x] unit
• [x] voice
• [x] voice (section)
• [x] volume / vol
• [x] whisper

Available scripts

• clean - remove coverage data, Jest cache and transpiled files,
• build - perform all build tasks
• build:ts - transpile TypeScript to ES5
• build:browser - creates single file ./dist.browser/speechmarkdown.js file for use in browser,
• build:minify - creates single file ./dist.browser/speechmarkdown.min.js file for use in browser,
• watch - interactive watch mode to automatically transpile source files,
• lint - lint source files and tests,
• test - run tests,
• test:watch - interactive watch mode to automatically re-run tests

License

Licensed under the MIT. See the LICENSE file for details.