This post is co-authored with Melinda Ma, Nick Zhao, Qinying Liao, Gang Wang, Binggong Ding and Sheng Zhao
Neural Text-to-Speech (Neural TTS), a powerful speech synthesis capability of Azure Cognitive Services, enables developers to convert text to lifelike speech using AI. Businesses utilize Neural TTS for voice assistants, content read aloud capabilities, accessibility tools, and more. The Azure TTS product team is continuously working on bringing new languages to the world.
We are glad to announce that two new languages are introduced to the neural TTS portfolio. With that update, we now support 147 languages/variances in total. In addition, 46 new prebuilt voices are available in preview for a growing list of languages, besides a set of new emotions enabled to many existing voices. That adds up to 449 voices in the neural TTS prebuilt voice family.
With other Cognitive Services including Speech-to-Text, OCR and Translator extended to 100+ languages, Azure AI is one big step closer to its ambition to empower every organization and everyone on the planet to achieve more, without any language barriers.
2 new languages are generally available
While there are thousands of spoken languages in the world, the top 1% (~70 language) accounts for 80%+ of the global population. Within just a few years of development, the TTS technology has been available in many commonly spoken languages and has been updated in these languages with many advanced features available. However, due to the lack of training data or business needs, there is almost nothing available for those less spoken languages. Inspired by the vision to remove the language barrier for everyone and powered by the low resource setting TTS technology, we keep working to expand our capability to support those less touched languages in the world.
Today, we are adding 2 new languages to our neural TTS portfolio. This is just a small portion compared to our goal, but we are on the way!
Check out how the voices in these languages sound like with samples below:
|
Locale |
Language |
Voice name |
Gender |
Script |
Audio |
|
eu-ES- |
Basque |
AinhoaNeural |
Female |
Euskaltzaindiak hiri honetarako onartutako euskal izen bakarra Bilbo da. |
|
|
eu-ES- |
Basque |
AnderNeural |
Male |
Neguko Olinpiar Jokoak neguko kirolak aurkezteko sortu ziren. |
|
|
hy-AM |
Armenian (Armenia) |
AnahitNeural |
Female |
Իսկ ի՞նչն եք ամենից շատ հավանել Հայաստանում: |
|
|
hy-AM |
Armenian (Armenia) |
HaykNeural |
Male |
Կանադայի հոկեյի հավաքականը դարձավ աշխարհի չեմպիոն։ |
2 new variances of Chinese are in public preview
We are glad to introduce two new language variances in Chinese that are now in public preview: Chinese (Wu, Simplified) and Chinese (Cantonese, Simplified). Hear how they go with samples below:
| Locale | Language | Voice name | Gender | Script | Audio |
| wuu-CN | Chinese (Wu, Simplified) |
XiaotongNeural | Female | 好额，全程24公里，预计通行辰光30分钟，请系好安全带。准备出发。 | |
| wuu-CN | Chinese (Wu, Simplified) | YunzheNeural | Male | 检测到侬有些疲劳，前方1公里有休息区，建议停车休息，注意安全驾驶。 | |
| yue-CN | Chinese (Cantonese, Simplified) | XiaominNeural | Female | 苏州市今日阴，气温20℃到26℃。泥水会整污糟你部爱车，唔适合洗车。 | |
| yue-CN | Chinese (Cantonese, Simplified) | YunsongNeural | Male | 建议你喺车辆无法正常断电时使用该功能，请确认是否关闭整车电源？ |
Discover the full list of supported languages for Neural Text to Speech, in addition to Microsoft Edge Read aloud.
46 new voices are in preview for some popular languages
For each language that we support with prebuilt neural TTS voices, we have provided at least one female and one male voice per locale. However, in the real world, there are scenarios that require one or more voices to reflect diversity and natural conversation. To directly address customer feedback, we work rapidly to bring a richer choice of voices in different languages. In this release, we are starting to introduce 46 new voices in preview for English (Australia), Spanish (Spain), Korean (Korea) and Japanese (Japan).
These new voices cover different personas and age groups, which can bring more choices and variety for business scenarios. These voices now are in public preview, available in 3 regions: East US, West Europe and Southeast Asia.
We encourage you to try the new languages and voices below. Feedback is welcomed to help inform which voices will be made for General Availability in all regions, depending on customer satisfaction.
|
Locale |
Language |
Voice name |
Gender |
Script |
Audio |
|
en-AU |
English (Australia) |
AnnetteNeural |
Female |
They each accounted for less than 5% of the urinary metabolites. |
|
|
en-AU |
English (Australia) |
CarlyNeural |
Female |
What a lovely bouquet of flowers! |
|
|
en-AU |
English (Australia) |
DarrenNeural |
Male |
I have something here for little Edward. |
|
|
en-AU |
English (Australia) |
DuncanNeural |
Male |
I have come to ask your pardon. |
|
|
en-AU |
English (Australia) |
ElsieNeural |
Female |
Click through to learn more! |
|
|
en-AU |
English (Australia) |
FreyaNeural |
Female |
You need to use about 10 grammes of sugar. |
|
|
en-AU |
English (Australia) |
JoanneNeural |
Female |
The programme teaches you how to eventually run 5 km with ease. |
|
|
en-AU |
English (Australia) |
KenNeural |
Male |
The development site is situated within a new 12 kilometre touristic zone. |
|
|
en-AU |
English (Australia) |
KimNeural |
Female |
It's almost as if it is a lifetime goal. |
|
|
en-AU |
English (Australia) |
NeilNeural |
Male |
I think you have been asleep. |
|
|
en-AU |
English (Australia) |
TimNeural |
Male |
You need to use about 10 grammes of sugar. |
|
|
en-AU |
English (Australia) |
TinaNeural |
Female |
It is a beautiful day, but yesterday it was cold. |
|
|
es-ES |
Spanish (Spain) |
AbrilNeural |
Female |
Tu cumpleaños es el once de noviembre. |
|
|
es-ES |
Spanish (Spain) |
ArnauNeural |
Male |
Desde mañana lunes, se podrán celebrar reuniones al aire libre entre seis personas. |
|
|
es-ES |
Spanish (Spain) |
DarioNeural |
Male |
En dos días el 70 % pasará a la fase 2. |
|
|
es-ES |
Spanish (Spain) |
EliasNeural |
Male |
El Ejecutivo tiene un plan de recuperación del turismo. |
|
|
es-ES |
Spanish (Spain) |
EstrellaNeural |
Female |
Los establecimientos tendrán que firmar una declaración responsable de compromiso. |
|
|
es-ES |
Spanish (Spain) |
IreneNeural |
Female |
Su portátil es de marca H P. |
|
|
es-ES |
Spanish (Spain) |
LaiaNeural |
Female |
Eso no significa que no vaya a haber campaña. |
|
|
es-ES |
Spanish (Spain) |
LiaNeural |
Female |
¿Es la digitalización la clave de nuestro futuro? |
|
|
es-ES |
Spanish (Spain) |
NilNeural |
Male |
Además, está planteando emprender acciones legales. |
|
|
es-ES |
Spanish (Spain) |
SaulNeural |
Male |
Ese es uno de sus grandes objetivos. |
|
|
es-ES |
Spanish (Spain) |
TeoNeural |
Male |
Empezó a trabajar en esta empresa el 17 de septiembre de 2015. |
|
|
es-ES |
Spanish (Spain) |
TrianaNeural |
Female |
El denunciante aseguró que el detenido transportaba un envío. |
|
|
es-ES |
Spanish (Spain) |
VeraNeural |
Female |
Los precios han subido un 30 % desde el año pasado. |
|
|
ja-JP |
Japanese (Japan) |
AoiNeural |
Female |
冬の雪山でスノーボードして休暇を楽しみたい。 |
|
|
ja-JP |
Japanese (Japan) |
DaichiNeural |
Male |
ジョギングするために、必要な服装を準備する。 |
|
|
ja-JP |
Japanese (Japan) |
MayuNeural |
Female |
植物を植えるのは面白い。 |
|
|
ja-JP |
Japanese (Japan) |
NaokiNeural |
Male |
冷蔵庫が壊れたのでカスタマサービスに電話する。 |
|
|
ja-JP |
Japanese (Japan) |
ShioriNeural |
Female |
流行りのアプリを使ってみよう。 |
|
|
ko-KR |
Korean (Korea) |
BongJinNeural |
Male |
동작을 최소화하는 것도 필요하다. |
|
|
ko-KR |
Korean (Korea) |
GookMinNeural |
Male |
내일 저녁 6시에 회의를 진행 할 예정입니다. |
|
|
ko-KR |
Korean (Korea) |
JiminNeural |
Female |
자극의 위치가 크게 바뀌었다는 사실을 발견했다. |
|
|
ko-KR |
Korean (Korea) |
SeoHyeonNeural |
Female |
마라톤 동호인들이 참여하였다. |
|
|
ko-KR |
Korean (Korea) |
SoonBokNeural |
Female |
평균 37%의 완화도를 보인 걸로 나타났다. |
|
|
ko-KR |
Korean (Korea) |
YuJinNeural |
Female |
충분한 영양 섭취는 건강에 중요하다 |
New styles / emotions are available in more voices
Customers often request the voices to be able to express different styles and emotions based on different content. To address this most frequent ask, we are bringing the multi-style capability to more and more voices and languages.
Here are some voices that we have recently enabled to perform a more casual chat style or a more cheerful emotional style, besides their default general tone.
|
Locale |
Language |
Voice name |
Gender |
Style |
Script |
Audio |
|
en-GB |
English (UK) |
RyanNeural |
Male |
Chat |
I can chill out a little in such a hot summer. Are you good at swimming? |
|
|
en-GB |
English (UK) |
RyanNeural |
Male |
Cheerful |
I'd be happy knowing you're safe. |
|
|
en-GB |
English (UK) |
SoniaNeural |
Female |
Cheerful |
I am as happy as Larry because my sister is coming to see me. |
|
|
en-GB |
English (UK) |
SoniaNeural |
Female |
Sad |
Jane’s heart sank when she found out that she had lost her job. |
|
|
es-MX |
Spanish (Mexico) |
JorgeNeural |
Male |
Chat |
Platica conmigo cuando tengas tiempo. |
|
|
es-MX |
Spanish (Mexico) |
JorgeNeural |
Male |
Cheerful |
Carla es una chica muy alegre y siempre sonríe. |
|
|
fr-FR |
French (France) |
HenriNeural |
Male |
Cheerful |
Elle est radieuse, la grossesse lui va bien. |
|
|
fr-FR |
French (France) |
HenriNeural |
Male |
Sad |
Je ne sais pas pourquoi, mais j’ai le cafard. |
|
|
it-IT |
Italian (Italy) |
IsabellaNeural |
Female |
Chat |
Okay, mi va bene. In quel periodo ho anche io le vacanze. Avete già prenotato i biglietti? |
|
|
it-IT |
Italian (Italy) |
IsabellaNeural |
Female |
Cheerful |
Il colloquio è andato alla grande, sono proprio soddisfatto. |
New voices and styles for American English and other languages are generally available
In May 2022, we announced 5 new voices and 10 styles on en-US in preview offering, and later in June 2022, we introduced more voices for it-IT, pt-BR and es-MX for preview. After several months' evaluation, these voices and styles are stable in service and had been used by many customers in their user cases. And we are glad to bring these voices and styles generally available to all service regions.
- en-US voices: DavisNeural, JaneNeural, JasonNeural, NancyNeural, TonyNeural. And the styles supported include Cheerful, Sad, Angry, Hopeful, Friendly, Unfriendly, Terrified, Excited, Whisphering and Shouting.
- es-MX voices: CecilioNeural, GerardoNeural, LibertoNeural, LucianoNeural, PelayoNeural, YagoNeural, BeatrizNeural, CarlotaNeural, NuriaNeural, CandelaNeural, LarissaNeural, RenataNeural, MarinaNeural
- it-IT voices: PierinaNeural, FabiolaNeural, ImeldaNeural, PalmiraNeural, FiammaNeural, IrmaNeural, BenignoNeural, CataldoNeural, LisandroNeural, GianniNeural, CalimeroNeural, RinaldoNeural
- pt-BR voices: DonatoNeural, FabioNeural, JulioNeural, NicolauNeural, ValerioNeural, LeticiaNeural, BrendaNeural, ElzaNeural, ManuelaNeural, GiovannaNeural, LeilaNeural, YaraNeural, HumbertoNeural
Neural TTS and Responsible AI
We are excited about the future of Neural TTS with human like, diverse and delightful quality under the high level architecture of XYZ-Code AI framework. Our technology advancements are also guided by Microsoft’s Responsible AI process, and our principles of fairness, inclusiveness, reliability & safety, transparency, privacy & security, and accountability. We put these ethical standards into practice through the Office of Responsible AI (ORA), which sets our rules and governance processes, the AI, Ethics, and Effects in Engineering and Research (Aether) Committee, which advises our leadership on the challenges and opportunities presented by AI innovations, and Responsible AI Strategy in Engineering (RAISE), a team that enables the implementation of Microsoft responsible AI rules across engineering groups.
Get started
Azure AI Neural TTS offers over 440 neural voices across over 140 languages and locales. In addition, the Custom Neural Voice capability enables organizations to create a unique brand voice in multiple languages and styles.
For more information
- Try the demo
- See our documentation
- Check out our sample code
- Check out the code of conduct for integrating neural TTS to your apps
