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ReadSpeaker Text-to-Speech Offerings Now Total 245 Voices and 68 Languages

Integrated text-to-speech (TTS) provider ReadSpeaker has announced its audio library now features 245 voices and 68 languages, including some considered threatened and endangered, with new ones continually being developed by on-staff linguists and language experts. The audio library is available to both K–12 and higher education.

Digital voices can be created with less data and greater fidelity, using AI and DNN technology, the company said. Students can use ReadSpeaker's assistive technology on smartphones, tablets, computers, and other devices to hear content read in any available language. ReadSpeaker can read online documents, web content, forms, and other formats, using the speechCloud API. It will also work with the open source communication application platform Asterisk to add TTS capabilities to PBX/IVR systems.

Some of the threatened and endangered languages included in ReadSpeaker's library are Welsh, Basque, and Frisian, all classified as vulnerable languages by UNESCO. Visit this page to read the most recent version of UNESCO's "Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger." Making such languages accessible in a familiar format for students as part of their learning and coursework is an added benefit in helping to preserve and nurture cultural identity, ReadSpeaker said.

For more information on ReadSpeaker's platforms, servers, and applications, visit the ReadSpeaker site.

About the Author

Kate Lucariello is a former newspaper editor, EAST Lab high school teacher and college English teacher.

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