This post is co-authored with Nick Zhao, Qinying Liao, Binggong Ding and Sheng Zhao
Neural Text to Speech (Neural TTS), a powerful speech synthesis feature of Azure Cognitive Services for Speech, enables you to convert text to lifelike speech which isclose to human-parity.
Since its launch, Azure Neural TTS has been quickly expanded to more languages and variants. That is, however, just a small portion of 7,000+ total spoken languages on the planet today. And we have been receiving requests from our customers for more languages.
Today we are glad to announce that Speech Service's Neural TTS is now extended to support 11 more new languages/variants, which includes more variants for those languages being used across many countries/regions such as: Albanian, Arabic in Lebanon and Oman, Azerbaijani, Bosnian, Georgian, Mongolian, Nepali, Tamil in Malaysia, Sichuan and Liaoning accent Mandarin. With this update, Azure Neural TTS now supports 140 languages/variants with 400 voices out-of-box. 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 the language barrier.
Please check the few updates below:
- 9 new languages in GA: Arabic (Lebanon), Arabic (Oman), Azerbaijani (Azerbaijan), Bosnian (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Georgian (Georgia), Mongolian (Mongolia), Nepali (Nepal), Albanian (Albania), Tamil (Malaysia)
- 38 new voices in Public Preview for: Italian (Italy), Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Mexico)
- 2 new accents for Mandarin in Public Preview: Sichuan and Liaoning accents
- 3 new voices and 4 new styles for Mandarin in Public Preview.
9 new languages
While there are thousands of spoken languages in the world, the top 1% (~70 language) accounts for the 80%+ of the global population (checkreferencehere). With years' development, the TTS technology has been available in many common 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's almost nothing available for those less spoken languages. Inspired by the vision to remove the language barrier for everyone and powered by thelow resource setting TTS technology, we keep working to expand our capability to support those less touched languages in the world.
Today, we are adding 9 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 the samples below.
| Local | Locale Name | Voice Name | Scripts | Audio |
| ar-LB | Arabic (Lebanon) | LaylaNeural | ما هي أكبر دولة في العالم؟ | |
| ar-LB | Arabic (Lebanon) | RamiNeural | ما أجمل الربيع وأحلى نسماته! | |
| ar-OM | Arabic (Oman) | AbdullahNeural | عامل الناس كما تحب أن يعاملوك. | |
| ar-OM | Arabic (Oman) | AyshaNeural | إن تعداد سكان الصين الحالي حوالي 1.4 مليار نسمة. | |
| az-AZ | Azerbaijani (Azerbaijan) | BabekNeural | Soyuq su dəridə möhkəmləndirici və nəmləndirici təsir göstərir. | |
| az-AZ | Azerbaijani (Azerbaijan) | BanuNeural | Qazsız içkilərə və şəkərsiz kompotlara üstünlük verməyiniz tövsiyə olunur. | |
| bs-BA | Bosnian (Bosnia and Herzegovina) | GoranNeural | On tvrdi da i ne osjeti potrebu za izlaskom. | |
| bs-BA | Bosnian (Bosnia and Herzegovina) | VesnaNeural | Oboje su od malih nogu bili članovi dramske sekcije. | |
| ka-GE | Georgian, Georgia | EkaNeural | თავად აღმზრდელებისთვის, პირბადით მუშაობა არ არის ადვილი. | |
| ka-GE | Georgian, Georgia | GiorgiNeural | მეწარმეებს გვაქვს არჩევანის საშუალება როგორც ხარისხში, ასევე ფასში. | |
| mn-MN | Mongolian (Mongolia) | BataaNeural | Үүний гол шалтгаан нь бусад хүмүүс хэт ерөнхийлдөгт оршино. | |
| mn-MN | Mongolian (Mongolia) | YesuiNeural | Тэгвэл дээрх байдлыг яаж өөрчилж, яаж шийдэх вэ? | |
| ne-NP | Nepali (Nepal) | HemkalaNeural | आजसम्मको जीवनमा तपाईंले सिकेका सबैभन्दा ठूला चीजहरू के हुन्? | |
| ne-NP | Nepali (Nepal) | SagarNeural | आज म पोखरा जाँदैछु। | |
| sq-AL | Albanian (Albania) | AnilaNeural | Cilin vend do të dëshironit të vizitonit? | |
| sq-AL | Albanian (Albania) | IlirNeural | Ajo ka qenë ndër artistet që ka arritur të marrë vëmendje të madhe ndër vite. | |
| ta-MY | Tamil (Malaysia) | KaniNaural | பொறாமை என்பது மறுக்க முடியாத மோசமான உணர்வு. | |
| ta-MY | Tamil (Malaysia) | SuryaNaural | ஸ்டாக் முடிவதற்குள் வேண்டியதை உடனே வாங்குங்கள். |
40 more voices for popular languages
Voices variety is a common request from our customers, we have good feedback for some new voices released in early this Feb for de-DE, en-GB, and fr-FR in Public Preview. For this month, we are going to GA all those 36 voices; beside that, we are going to introduce 38 new voices for es-MX, pt-BR, it-IT; and 5 Chinese Mandarin voices with new styles, including 2 accents: Sichuan and Liaoning for Public Preview.
Check out the new voices with the audio samples below
| Local | Locale Name | Voice Name | Scripts | Audio |
| es-MX | Spanish (Mexico) | CecilioNeural | ¿Cuál es su equipo de futbol favorito? | |
| es-MX | Spanish (Mexico) | GerardoNeural | La gratitud es la memoria del corazón. | |
| es-MX | Spanish (Mexico) | LibertoNeural | Nada más puedo pedir, contigo lo tengo todo. | |
| es-MX | Spanish (Mexico) | LucianoNeural | Se espera un cielo despejado con sensación de 22°. | |
| es-MX | Spanish (Mexico) | PelayoNeural | Lo mejor de este año, haberte conocido. | |
| es-MX | Spanish (Mexico) | YagoNeural | No me gustan las despedidas, y las de ti, menos. | |
| es-MX | Spanish (Mexico) | BeatrizNeural | El sabio crea, los demás copian. | |
| es-MX | Spanish (Mexico) | CarlotaNeural | Deja atrás lo que no te conduce hacia adelante. | |
| es-MX | Spanish (Mexico) | NuriaNeural | El avión estaba programado para despegar a las 9:30 de la mañana. | |
| es-MX | Spanish (Mexico) | CandelaNeural | El agua hierve a los 100°. | |
| es-MX | Spanish (Mexico) | LarissaNeural | Aprobé el examen de ingreso con el puntaje del 83%. | |
| es-MX | Spanish (Mexico) | RenataNeural | Las crisis no quitan amigos, sólo los selecciona. | |
| es-MX | Spanish (Mexico) | MarinaNeural | Que tu fe sea mayor que tus problemas. | |
| it-IT | Italian (Italy) | PierinaNeural | Il cinema tornerà in attività il prima possibile. | |
| it-IT | Italian (Italy) | FabiolaNeural | Sarà una gara di grande fascino. | |
| it-IT | Italian (Italy) | ImeldaNeural | Il codice di avviamento postale di Torre del Greco è 80059. | |
| it-IT | Italian (Italy) | PalmiraNeural | Si tratta di persone in buone condizioni di salute. | |
| it-IT | Italian (Italy) | FiammaNeural | I giocatori sono professionisti e molto motivati. | |
| it-IT | Italian (Italy) | IrmaNeural | Il film presenta uno scenario magico. | |
| it-IT | Italian (Italy) | BenignoNeural | I giocatori sono professionisti e molto motivati. | |
| it-IT | Italian (Italy) | CataldoNeural | Vincenzo D'Aguanno è di Marsala. | |
| it-IT | Italian (Italy) | LisandroNeural | Si tratta di persone in buone condizioni di salute. | |
| it-IT | Italian (Italy) | GianniNeural | I tempi di caricamento non sono un problema. | |
| it-IT | Italian (Italy) | CalimeroNeural | Il concerto inizierà prima del tramonto. | |
| it-IT | Italian (Italy) | RinaldoNeural | Sarà una gara di grande fascino. | |
| pt-BR | Portuguese (Brazil) | DonatoNeural | O ônibus sai às 15 horas. | |
| pt-BR | Portuguese (Brazil) | FabioNeural | O abacate é uma fruta muito nutritiva. | |
| pt-BR | Portuguese (Brazil) | JulioNeural | Vamos alugar 2 carros para a nossa viagem. | |
| pt-BR | Portuguese (Brazil) | NicolauNeural | Controlar sua vida é questão importante para o ser humano. | |
| pt-BR | Portuguese (Brazil) | ValerioNeural | Essas crises tendem a variar de intensidade. | |
| pt-BR | Portuguese (Brazil) | LeticiaNeural | Como se diz abóbora em espanhol? | |
| pt-BR | Portuguese (Brazil) | BrendaNeural | A data de nascimento dele é dia 25/03/2010. | |
| pt-BR | Portuguese (Brazil) | ElzaNeural | O que você quer ganhar de presente de Natal? | |
| pt-BR | Portuguese (Brazil) | ManuelaNeural | A temperatura máxima de hoje será de 30 graus Celsius. | |
| pt-BR | Portuguese (Brazil) | GiovannaNeural | Quem fez esse pedido de suco de uva? | |
| pt-BR | Portuguese (Brazil) | LeilaNeural | Nossa tarefa já está 70% concluída. | |
| pt-BR | Portuguese (Brazil) | YaraNeural | A primeira coisa a se fazer é não tentar evitá-la. | |
| pt-BR | Portuguese (Brazil) | HumbertoNeural | O resultado do jogo foi 3 a 1. | |
| zh-CN-liaoning | Chinese (Liaoning accent Mandarin, Simplified) | XiaobeiNeural | 那天我摔了，磕的老邪乎了，还是一个不认识的老大爷帮我喊的救护车。 | |
| zh-CN-sichuan | Chinese (Sichuan accent Mandarin, Simplified) | YunxiSichuanNeural | 勒个火锅吃起巴适安逸得很。 | |
| zh-CN | Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified) | YunfengNeural | 哎，可惜现在咱们家里也穷了，不然姨父这腿，帮不帮得上忙的，总得帮一把 |
Check out these new styles as below
| Locale | Language | Style | Voice name | Script | |
| zh-CN | Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified) | sports-commentary | YunjianNeural | 博尔特的启动加速非常完美 | |
| zh-CN | Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified) | sports-commentary-excited | YunjianNeural | 刘翔赢了，刘翔创造了历史，一个黑头发黄皮肤的中国人成了世界飞人 | |
| zh-CN | Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified) | Advertisement-Upbeat | YunhaoNeural | 商场真情回馈，优惠8折 | |
| zh-CN | Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified) | Poetry-reading | XiaoxiaoNeural | 月既不解饮，影徒随我身 |
Get started
With these updates, we're excited to be powering natural and intuitive voice experiences for more customers. Text to Speech offers 400 neural voices across over 140 languages and locales, which can serve you and your customers in different markets around the world.
In addition, the Custom Neural Voice capability enable 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