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<Say>

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The element reads text to the caller using a text-to-speech engine. is good to use with dynamic data, while may be a better choice for static information or prompts. The text to be read is nested within the element.
###Element Attributes

AttributeDescription
voice
optional 		The language, type, and gender of the voice that will read the text to the caller
Valid values: See the voice example below
loop
optional 		The amount of times the spoken text should be repeated
Valid values: integer greater than or equal to 1.
Default value: 1
type
optional		The way to make responses seem more like natural speech using Speech Sythesis Markup Language (SSML)
Valid value SSML

Nesting

In addition to the default element, the element can also be nested within the verb.

The element cannot nest any other elements within itself. It must only nest the text which will be read to the caller.

General Example

The InboundXML below will first say "Hello" in a woman's voice three times, then "Hello, my name is Jane" in a woman's voice one time, then "Now I will not stop talking" repeated until the caller hangs up.

<Response>
 <Say loop='3' voice='woman'>Hello</Say>
 <Say voice='woman'>Hello, my name is Jane.</Say>
 <Say loop='1'>Now I will not stop talking.</Say>
</Response>

Voice Example

The InboundXML below contains all the currently available voice options.

<response>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'nl-nl-standard-female-1' >standard female. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'en-us-standard-female-1' >american standard female 1. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'en-us-standard-female-2' >american standard female 2. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'en-us-standard-male-1' >american standard male 1. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'en-us-standard-male-2' >american standard male 2. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'en-au-standard-female-1' >australian standard female 1. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'en-au-standard-female-2' >australian standard female 2. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'en-au-standard-male-1' >australian standard male 1. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'en-au-standard-male-2' >australian standard male 2. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'en-gb-standard-female-1' >british standard female 1. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'en-gb-standard-female-2' >british standard female 2. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'en-gb-standard-male-1' >british standard male 1. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'en-gb-standard-male-2' >british standard male 2. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'fr-ca-standard-female-1' >canadain standard female 1. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'fr-ca-standard-female-2' >canadain standard female 2. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'fr-ca-standard-male-1' >canadain standard male 1. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'fr-ca-standard-male-2' >canadain standard male 2. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'fr-fr-standard-female-1' >french standard female 1. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'fr-fr-standard-female-2' >french standard female 2. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'fr-fr-standard-male-1' >french standard male 1. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'fr-fr-standard-male-2' >french standard male 2. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'de-de-standard-female-1' >german standard female 1. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'de-de-standard-male-1' >german standard male 1. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'it-it-standard-female-1' >italian standard female 1. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'ja-jp-standard-female-1' >japanese standard female 1. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'ko-kr-standard-female-1' >korean standard female 1. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'pt-br-standard-female-1' >portuguese standard female 1. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'es-es-standard-female-1' >spanish standard female 1. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'nl-nl-standard-female-1' >standard female. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'sv-se-standard-female-1' >swedish standard female 1. </say>
 <say loop='1' voice = 'tr-tr-standard-female-1' >turkish standard female 1. </say>
 <say loop='1' >this is the default voice to be used when a voice hasn't been specified. </say>
</response>

SSML Example

The InboundXML below contains many of the elements that can be used when using Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML). Learn more about the additional elements available via SSML at https://docs.ytel.com/docs/ssml.

<response>  
 <say type='ssml'>
  here are <say-as interpret-as="characters">ssml</say-as> samples.
  i can pause <break time="3s"/>.
  i can play a sound <audio src="https://www.thesoundarchive.com/austinpowers/evilinfo.wav">did not get your mp3 audio file</audio>.
  i can speak in cardinals. your number is <say-as interpret-as="cardinal">10</say-as>.
  or i can speak in ordinals. you are <say-as interpret-as="ordinal">10</say-as> in line.
  or i can even speak in digits. the digits for ten are <say-as interpret-as="characters">10</say-as>.
  i can also substitute phrases, like the <sub alias="world wide web consortium">w3c</sub>.
  finally, i can speak a paragraph with two sentences.
 <p><s>this is sentence one.</s><s>this is sentence two.</s></p>
 </say>
</response>

📘

Tip

may speak things such as abbreviations or times differently than you expect. Be sure to double check for correct pronunciation.

Updated almost 4 years ago