Google translate text-to-speech in British

Question

I'm using the (unofficial) Google translate TTS api to retrieve mp3s to support disabled learners to read web pages. It all works fine, however we have an American accent (we're in the UK!). When I use Google translate however, it fetches the mp3 with a British accent - how do I invoke this behavior?

I've used the same GET request URL so I can assume it's not that:

http://translate.google.com/translate_tts?q=testing+1+2+3&tl=en

(I've played with other language codes (en-gb) with no luck - fr works for french however.)

Many thanks

CupawnTae · Answer 1 · 2014-12-10T22:17:47.543

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You can specify a regional variation in the tl parameter after an _ character, e.g.

http://translate.google.com/translate_tts?q=testing+1+2+3&tl=en_us

http://translate.google.com/translate_tts?q=testing+1+2+3&tl=en_gb

http://translate.google.com/translate_tts?q=testing+1+2+3&tl=en_au

edited Dec 10 '14 at 22:17

answered Dec 21 '12 at 19:34

CupawnTae

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A weird side-effect using this approach with 'en_au', it reads a comma as pronounced 'comma'. – Codebeat Dec 11 '13 at 22:41

score 14 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 14 '12 at 12:37

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By using google's ".co.uk" translate site's GET request, you can generate British English. So for example: translate.google.co.uk/translate_tts?q=Your+soundcard+works+perfectly&tl=en

answered Jun 14 '12 at 12:37

yhyrcanus

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Works most of the time, but not always. See http://stackoverflow.com/a/13996110/78234 – Tal Weiss Oct 07 '14 at 11:56

Google translate text-to-speech in British

2 Answers2