Readspeaker, a voice-enabling websites solution from VoiceCorp that enables visitors to listen to text rather than read it themselves have added a brand new voice to their available provision for Welsh-language websites. The new voice, Owen, developed by the speech technology company Bitlips (another SALT Cymru member) using resources created at Bangor University, is a significant improvement on existing Welsh voices in terms of its naturalness and legibility. But don’t take our word for it – SALT Cymru extended an invitation to a number of speech enabling companies to promote the technology by implementing their speech enabling solutions on the SALT Cymru website, and VoiceCorp responded by implementing ReadSpeaker’s bilingual solution now found on the website.

To hear Bitlips‘ Owen voice in action powered by ReadSpeaker’s voice-enabling solution, simply change the language of this post to Welsh using the language switch found on the top right of the screen, below the Bangor University logo, then click on the blue ‘Gwrando’ button and the article will be read aloud using Owen’s voice (please ensure your speakers are working and that your volume is set to an appropriate level!). Note that smaller sections of the text can be selected to be read aloud by simply highlighting the required text and then pressing play within the controller interface that appears once the ‘Gwrando’ button has been clicked.

Please get in touch with us via our contact page if you have any questions regarding speech technology or any other language technology. If you would like to register as a SALT Cymru member, you’re welcome to do so here.

More information about Owen, the new Welsh-language voice from Bitlips can be found in this article.