Frequently Asked Questions
What is SSML?
SSML is Speech Synthesis Markup Language that allows you to control the pitch, contour, pitch range, rate, duration and volume of your synthesized speech. Normally this is added by adding SSML language around your text. The following is an example of creating an emphasis on the press 1 element.
However, our highlight technology will add the SSML for you so you do not need to write any code, simply highlight the word and choose an emphasis like speech rate “slow” or “loud” etc. and we will add the SSML in the background.
What are Neural Voices?
Amazon Polly has a Neural TTS (NTTS) system that can produce even higher quality voices than its standard voices. The NTTS system produces the most natural and human-like text-to-speech voices possible. Standard TTS voices use concatenative synthesis.
Neural voices are available in US English (es-US), and British English (es-GB), Brazilian Portuguese (pt-BR), and US Spanish (es-US).
What voices are available?
Amazon Polly provides a variety of different voices in multiple languages for synthesizing speech from text.
| Language | Name/ID | Gender | Standard Voice | Neural Voice |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arabic (arb) | Zeina | Female | Yes | No |
| Chinese, Mandarin (cmn-CN) | Zhiyu | Female | Yes | No |
| Danish (da-DK) | Naja Mads | Female Male | Yes Yes | No No |
| Dutch (nl-NL) | Lotte Ruben | Female Male | Yes Yes | No No |
| English (Australian) (en-AU) | Nicole Russell | Female Male | Yes Yes | No No |
| English (British) (en-GB) | Amy Emma Brian | Female Female Male | Yes Yes Yes | Yes Yes Yes |
| English (Indian) (en-IN) | Aditi* Raveena | Female Female | Yes Yes | No No |
| English (US) (en-US) | Ivy Joanna** Kendra Kimberly Salli Joey Justin Matthew** | Female (child) Female Female Female Female Male Male (child) Male | Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes | Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes |
| English (Welsh) (en-GB-WLS) | Geraint | Male | Yes | No |
| French (fr-FR) | Céline/Celine Léa Mathieu | Female Female Male | Yes Yes Yes | No No No |
| French (Canadian) (fr-CA) | Chantal | Female | Yes | No |
| German (de-DE) | Marlene Vicki Hans | Female Female Male | Yes Yes Yes | No No No |
| Hindi (hi-IN) | Aditi* | Female | Yes | No |
| Icelandic (is-IS) | Dóra/Dora Karl | Female Male | Yes Yes | No No |
| Italian (it-IT) | Carla Bianca Giorgio | Female Female Male | Yes Yes Yes | No No No |
| Japanese (ja-JP) | Mizuki Takumi | Female Male | Yes Yes | No No |
| Korean (ko-KR) | Seoyeon | Female | Yes | No |
| Norwegian (nb-NO) | Liv | Female | Yes | No |
| Polish (pl-PL) | Ewa Maja Jacek Jan | Female Female Male Male | Yes Yes Yes Yes | No No No No |
| Portuguese (Brazilian) (pt-BR) | Camila Vitória/Vitoria Ricardo | Female Female Male | Yes Yes Yes | Yes No No |
| Portuguese (European) (pt-PT) | Inês/Ines Cristiano | Female Male | Yes Yes | No No |
| Romanian (ro-RO) | Carmen | Female | Yes | No |
| Russian (ru-RU) | Tatyana Maxim | Female Male | Yes Yes | No No |
| Spanish (European) (es-ES) | Conchita Lucia Enrique | Female Female Male | Yes Yes Yes | No No No |
| Spanish (Mexican) (es-MX) | Mia | Female | Yes | No |
| US Spanish (es-US) | Lupe** Penélope/Penelope Miguel | Female Female Male | Yes Yes Yes | Yes No No |
| Swedish (sv-SE) | Astrid | Female | Yes | No |
| Turkish (tr-TR) | Filiz | Female | Yes | No |
| Welsh (cy-GB) | Gwyneth | Female | Yes | No |
* This voice is bilingual and can speak both English and Hindi. For more information, see Bilingual Voices.
** These voices can be used with both the Conversational and Newscaster speaking styles when used with the Neural format.
How long do you store audio in the repository?
Your audio is stored in the repository as long as your account is active and in good standing. this allows you quick access to past audio for you to easily make updates or changes to existing audio without having to recreate new audio from scratch!
What languages are supported?
| Language | Language Code |
|---|---|
| Arabic | arb |
| Chinese, Mandarin | cmn-CN |
| Danish | da-DK |
| Dutch | nl-NL |
| English, Australian | en-AU |
| English, British | en-GB |
| English, Indian | en-IN |
| English, US | en-US |
| English, Welsh | en-GB-WLS |
| French | fr-FR |
| French, Canadian | fr-CA |
| Hindi | hi-IN |
| German | de-DE |
| Icelandic | is-IS |
| Italian | it-IT |
| Japanese | ja-JP |
| Korean | ko-KR |
| Norwegian | nb-NO |
| Polish | pl-PL |
| Portuguese, Brazilian | pt-BR |
| Portuguese, European | pt-PT |
| Romanian | ro-RO |
| Russian | ru-RU |
| Spanish, European | es-ES |
| Spanish, Mexican | es-MX |
| Spanish, US | es-US |
| Swedish | sv-SE |
| Turkish | tr-TR |
| Welsh | cy-GB |
