## 1 Abstract ¶

This document provides a user manual for the Festival Speech Synthesis System, version 1.4.3.

Festival offers a general framework for building speech synthesis systems as well as including examples of various modules. As a whole it offers full text to speech through a number APIs: from shell level, though a Scheme command interpreter, as a C++ library, and an Emacs interface. Festival is multi-lingual, we have develeoped voices in many languages including English (UK and US), Spanish and Welsh, though English is the most advanced.

The system is written in C++ and uses the Edinburgh Speech Tools for low level architecture and has a Scheme (SIOD) based command interpreter for control. Documentation is given in the FSF texinfo format which can generate a printed manual, info files and HTML.

The latest details and a full software distribution of the Festival Speech Synthesis System are available through its home page which may be found at

    http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/festival.html