Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) Reference

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You can use Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) in your output speech response to control how Alexa generates the speech. For example, you can add pauses and other speech effects.

About SSML

When the your skill returns a response to a user's request, you provide text that the Alexa service converts to speech. Alexa automatically handles normal punctuation, such as pausing after a period, or speaking a sentence ending in a question mark as a question.

However, in some cases you may want additional control over how Alexa generates the speech from the text in your response. For example, you may want a longer pause within the speech, or you may want a string of digits read back as a standard telephone number. The Alexa Skills Kit provides this type of control with Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) support.

SSML is a markup language that provides a standard way to mark up text for the generation of synthetic speech. The Alexa Skills Kit supports a subset of the tags defined in the SSML specification. The specific tags supported are listed in Supported SSML Tags.

Use SSML in your response

To use SSML, construct your output speech using the supported SSML tags. When sending back a response from your service, you must indicate that it is using SSML rather than plain text. If you construct the JSON response directly, provide the marked-up text in the outputSpeech property, but set the type to SSML instead of PlainText. Use the ssml property instead of text for the marked-up text:

You can use SSML with both the normal output speech response and any re-prompt included in the response.

If you use the Alexa Skills Kit SDK for Node.js or Alexa Skills Kit SDK for Java, you do not have to include the speak tag for the SSML you provide, as that is handled by the SDK. Otherwise, the SSML you provide must be wrapped within <speak> tags. For example:

In the JSON output for the SSML, ensure either that quotation marks within the output are escaped, or use an appropriate mix of single and double quotation marks. Here single quotation marks are used for attributes, and the entire response is wrapped in double quotation marks.

Supported SSML tags

The Alexa Skills Kit supports the following SSML tags (listed in alphabetic order):

• amazon:domain
• amazon:effect
• amazon:emotion
• audio
• break
• emphasis
• lang
• p
• phoneme
• prosody
• s
• say-as
• speak
• sub
• voice
• w

Note that the Alexa service strips out any unsupported SSML tags included in the text you provide.

Apply multiple SSML tags to the same speech

You can combine most supported tags with each other to apply multiple effects on the speech. For instance, this example uses both the say-as and amazon:emotion tags. This tells Alexa to speak the entire string in an "excited" voice, and speak the provided number as individual digits:

Incompatible tags

Not all tags can be combined. The following tags cannot be applied to the same speech:

• amazon:domain
  • You must combine <amazon:domain name="conversational"> with the <voice> tag and the Matthew or Joanna voice. The conversational style doesn't work with other voices, and it doesn't work on its own without <voice>.
  • You can combine <amazon:domain name="news"> with the <voice> tag and the Matthew, Joanna, and Lupe voices. The news style doesn't work with other voices.
  • You can't combine <amazon:domain name="long-form">, <amazon:domain name="music">, or <amazon:domain name="fun"> with <voice>.
• amazon:emotion

• speechcons

  Speechcons are implemented as the say-as tag with interpret-as set to interjection, for example: <say-as interpret-as="interjection">wow</say-as>.

  Note that say-as can be combined with other tags when you use other values for the interpret-as attribute. For example, you could combine amazon:emotion or emphasis with <say-as interpret-as="ordinal">1</say-as>.

• voice
  • You can combine voice with the amazon:domain tag with the restrictions noted previously.
  • You can't combine voice with any of the other tags listed here.
• emphasis
• prosody with the pitch attribute (for example, <prosody pitch="x-low">…</pitch>)

For example, the following examples don't work:

Invalid SSML: voice used within amazon:emotion

Invalid SSML: amazon:emotion used within voice

Incompatible voice used with conversational or news style

Invalid: Conversational style used without <voice> tag

You can use the incompatible tags in the same speak string, as long as they are not applied to the same text string. For example, the following combination is valid:

In this case, the first line is spoken in a disappointed voice, the second line is spoken in the "Kendra" voice, and the final line uses the disappointed voice again.

amazon:domain

Applies different speaking styles to the speech. The styles are curated text-to-speech voices that use different variations of intonation, emphasis, pausing, and other techniques to match the speech to the content. For example, the news style makes Alexa's voice sound like what you might expect to hear in a TV or radio newscast, and was built primarily for customers to listen to news articles and other news-based content.

The amazon:domain tag takes the following required parameters:

Attribute	Possible Values
name	The name of the speaking style to apply to the speech. Available styles: conversational – Style voices to sound more conversational and less formal, more like how people sound when they speak to friends and family. The conversational style is available in English (US), Italian (IT), and Japanese (JP) skills. You can also use this style with Amazon Polly voices. For Amazon Polly, conversational requires the <voice> tag and the Matthew or Joanna voices. long-form – Style the speech for long-form content such as podcasts, articles, and blogs. The long-form style can't be used with the voice tag. The long-form style is available in English (US) skills. music – Style the speech for talking about music, video, or other multi-media content. The music style can't be used with the voice tag. The music style is available in English (US), English (CA), English (UK), and German (DE) skills. news – Style the speech similar to what you hear when listening to the news on the radio or television. The news style can be combined with the voice tag and the Matthew, Joanna, and Lupe voices. The news style is available in English (US) and English (AU) skills. fun – Style the speech to sound more friendly and animated in greetings, animation or children stories. The fun style is available in Japanese (JP) skills.

Examples

news

music

long-form

fun

news combined with voice

This example uses two different voices in the same response.

conversational combined with voice

The <amazon:domain name="conversational"> works with with the <voice> tag and the Matthew and Joanna voices. You can't use conversational without the <voice> tag.

You can combine amazon:domain with all other tags, except for those listed in incompatible tags.

Best practices for the amazon:domain tag

These recommendations can help you build a better customer experience with the amazon:domain tag:

• Use Alexa's default voice without the amazon:domain tag in the intro to your skill. This sets a "baseline", so the specialized speaking styled responses later have more impact.
• Don't overdo the use of Alexa's speaking styles, as this might create a poor or unpleasant user experience. For example, don't switch between different speaking styles frequently.
• Test how your responses sound with a device or the simulator in the developer console and verify that Alexa's voice and speaking style is appropriate for the response.

amazon:effect

Applies Amazon-specific effects to the speech.

Attribute	Possible Values
name	The name of the effect to apply to the speech. Available effects: whispered: Applies a whispering effect to the speech.

amazon:emotion

The amazon:emotion tag causes Alexa to express emotion when speaking. This can be useful for stories, games, news updates and other narrative content. For instance, in a game, you might use the "excited" emotion for correct answers and the "disappointed" emotion for incorrect answers.

The amazon:emotion tag takes the following required parameters:

Attribute	Possible Values
name	The name of the emotion to apply to the speech. Available emotions: excited disappointed
intensity	The intensity or strength of the emotion to express. Possible values: low medium high

Examples

Examples of amazon:emotion combined with other SSML tags

You can combine amazon:emotion with all other tags, except for those listed in incompatible tags.

For example, this adds a three-second pause in the middle of speech with the "excited" emotion:

This example uses prosody to increase the volume of the "disappointed" speech.

Best practices for the amazon:emotion tag

These recommendations can help you build a better customer experience with the amazon:emotion tag:

• Use Alexa's default voice without the amazon:emotion tag in the intro to your skill. This sets a "baseline", so the emotional responses later can have more impact.
• Don't overuse emotional responses, as this can create a poor or unpleasant customer experience. Consider these guidelines:
  • Don't switch between excited and disappointed extremely frequently.
  • Don't use the emotions in every response.
• Try the medium intensity initially, then adjust the intensity as needed. Using medium in most instances gives you more options for adjusting the intensity up or down depending on the situation.
• Test how your responses sound with a device or the simulator in the developer console and ensure that Alexa's voice is appropriate for the response.

audio

The audio tag lets you provide the URL for an MP3 file that the Alexa service can play while rendering a response. You can use this to embed short, pre-recorded audio within your service's response. For example, you could include sound effects alongside your text-to-speech responses, or provide responses using a voice associated with your brand.

Attribute

Possible Values

src

Specifies the URL for the MP3 file. Note the following requirements and limitations: The MP3 must be hosted at an Internet-accessible HTTPS endpoint. HTTPS is required, and the domain hosting the MP3 file must present a valid, trusted SSL certificate. Self-signed certificates cannot be used. The MP3 must not contain any customer-specific or other sensitive information. The MP3 must be a valid MP3 file (MPEG version 2). For your speech response, the audio file cannot be longer than 240 seconds. The combined total time for all audio files in the outputSpeech property of the response cannot be more than 240 seconds. The combined total time for all audio files in the reprompt property of the response cannot be more than 90 seconds. The bit rate must be 48 kbps. Note that this bit rate gives a good result when used with spoken content, but is generally not a high enough quality for music. The sample rate must be 22050Hz, 24000Hz, or 16000Hz. You may need to use converter software to convert your MP3 files to the required codec version (MPEG version 2) and bit rate (48 kbps).

Include the audio tag within your text-to-speech response within the speak tag. Alexa plays the MP3 at the specified point within the text to speech. For example:

When Alexa renders this response, it would sound like this:

Alexa: Welcome to Ride Hailer.
(the specified amzn_sfx_car_accelerate_01.mp3 audio file plays)
Alexa: You can order a ride, or request a fare estimate. Which will it be?

A single response sent by your service can include multiple audio tags according to the following limits:

• No more than five audio files can be used in a single response.
• The combined total time for all audio files in the outputSpeech property of the response cannot be more than 240 seconds.
• The combined total time for all audio files in the reprompt property of the response cannot be more than 90 seconds.

Converting audio files to an Alexa-friendly format

You can use converter software to convert your MP3 files to the required codec version (MPEG version 2) and bit rate (48 kbps). One option is a command-line tool, FFmpeg.

This sample command converts the provided <input-file> to an MP3 file that works with the audio tag. This version uses 16000 as the sample rate:

You might get better quality by increasing the sample rate to 24000 like this:

See the documentation for FFmpeg for details about command line options.

Another option is Audacity:

1. Open the file to convert.
2. Set the Project Rate in the lower-left corner to 16000.
3. Click File > Export Audio and change the Save as type to MP3 Files.
4. Click Options, set the Quality to 48 kbps and the Bit Rate Mode to Constant.

This requires the Lame library, which can be found at: http://lame.buanzo.org/#lamewindl.

Hosting the audio files for your skill

The MP3 files you use to provide audio must be hosted on an endpoint that uses HTTPS. The endpoint must provide an SSL certificate signed by an Amazon-approved certificate authority. Many content hosting services provide this. For example, you could host your files at a service such as Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) (an Amazon Web Services offering).

We don't require that you authenticate the requests for the audio files. Therefore, you must not include any customer-specific or sensitive information in these audio files. For example, building a custom MP3 file in response to a user's request, and including sensitive information within the audio, is not allowed.

For optimal performance, we recommend that you host your MP3 files for SSML responses in close proximity to where your skill is hosted. For example, if the Lambda function for your skill is hosted in the US West (Oregon) region, you will get better performance if you upload your MP3s to a US West (Oregon) S3 bucket.

HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) of audio files

Alexa supports SSML audio tags that point toward HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) streams, provided that the audio data conforms to the listed specifications. Due to the streaming approach that Alexa uses, there is no benefit to using HLS streams instead of statically served MP3 files. Furthermore, unlike with statically served MP3 files, an SSML response that contains an HLS stream that violates the 240-second duration limit will fail silently. This silent failure means that the playback is stopped before the limit is hit, no error message is generated on the customer device, and the skill does not receive an error request. If your skill uses SSML responses that contain HLS streams, ensure that you take particular care to test the audio returned in its responses.

break

Represents a pause in the speech. Set the length of the pause with the strength or time attributes.

Attribute	Possible Values
strength	none: No pause should be outputted. This can be used to remove a pause that would normally occur (such as after a period). x-weak: No pause should be outputted (same as none). weak: Treat adjacent words as if separated by a single comma (equivalent to medium). medium: Treat adjacent words as if separated by a single comma. strong: Make a sentence break (equivalent to using the s tag). x-strong: Make a paragraph break (equivalent to using the p tag).
time	Duration of the pause; up to 10 seconds (10s) or 10000 milliseconds (10000ms). Include the unit with the time (s or ms).

The default is medium. This is used if you don't specify any attributes, or if you provide any unsupported attribute values.

emphasis

Emphasize the tagged words or phrases. Emphasis changes rate and volume of the speech. More emphasis is spoken louder and slower. Less emphasis is quieter and faster.

Attribute	Possible Values
level	strong: Increase the volume and slow down the speaking rate so the speech is louder and slower. moderate: Increase the volume and slow down the speaking rate, but not as much as when set to strong. This is used as a default if level is not provided. reduced: Decrease the volume and speed up the speaking rate. The speech is softer and faster.

You can combine emphasis with all other tags, except for those listed in incompatible tags.

lang

Use lang to specify the language model and rules to speak the tagged content as if it were written in the language specified by the xml:lang attribute. Words and phrases in other languages usually sound better when enclosed with the lang tag. This is useful for short phrases in other languages, such as the names of restaurants or shops.

For example, here is how to pronounce "Paris" using the language code fr-FR (which refers to the French language as spoken in France).

Alexa adapts the pronunciation to use the sounds available in the original language of the skill, so it may not sound exactly like a native speaker. To achieve a more natural voice than what you get with the lang tag alone, use the lang tag and the voice tag together. With the voice tag, you can select a voice customized for a specific language. Thus, ensure the language of the tagged text matches the lang attribute, and that the voice attribute represents the language of the text also.

For example, consider the French phrase "J'adore chanter" in an English (US) skill, using the lang tag without the voice tag. Alexa speaks the phrase with English-like pronunciation.

No <lang> Tag	With <lang> Tag Set to French
<speak>J'adore chanter</speak>	<speak> <lang xml:lang="fr-FR">J'adore chanter</lang> </speak> Here, Alexa uses French pronunciation with sounds available in English for a "French-like" pronunciation: A perfect French pronunciation would include a uvular trill (/R/) in the word "adore." The French-like English pronunciation achieved with the lang tag uses the corresponding /r/ sound instead.

Supported locales for the xml:lang attribute

The following locales are supported:

• de-DE
• en-AU
• en-CA
• en-GB
• en-IN
• en-US
• es-ES
• es-MX
• es-US
• fr-CA
• fr-FR
• hi-IN
• it-IT
• ja-JP
• pt-BR

p

Represents a paragraph. This tag provides extra-strong breaks before and after the tag. This is equivalent to specifying a pause with <break strength="x-strong"/>.

phoneme

Provides a phonemic/phonetic pronunciation for the contained text. For example, people may pronounce words like "pecan" differently.

Attribute	Possible Values
alphabet	Set to the phonetic alphabet to use: ipa: The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). x-sampa: The Extended Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet (X-SAMPA).
ph	The phonetic pronunciation to speak. See below for a list of supported symbols in each of the supported skill languages.

When using this tag, Alexa uses the pronunciation provided in the ph attribute rather than the text contained within the tag. However, you should still provide human-readable text within the tags. In the following example, the word "pecan" shown within the tags is never spoken. Instead, Alexa speaks the text provided in the ph attribute:

Additional examples of writing words with a phonetic alphabet:

Word	IPA	X-SAMPA
bottle	ˈbɑ.təl	"bA.t@l
frozen	ˈfɹoʊ.zən	"fr\oU.z@n
blossom	ˈblɑ.səm	"blA.s@m

Supported symbols

The following tables list the supported symbols for use with the phoneme tag. The symbols are specific to the skill's language.

• Arabic (SA)
• English (AU)
• English (CA)
• English (IN)
• English (UK)
• English (US)
• French (CA)
• French (FR)
• German (DE)
• Hindi (IN)
• Italian (IT)
• Japanese (JP)
• Portuguese (BR)

prosody

Modifies the volume, pitch, and rate of the tagged speech.

Attribute	Possible Values
rate	Modify the rate of the speech: x-slow, slow, medium, fast, x-fast: Set the rate to a predefined value. n%: specify a percentage to increase or decrease the speed of the speech: 100% indicates no change from the normal rate. Percentages greater than 100% increase the rate. Percentages below 100% decrease the rate. The minimum value you can provide is 20%.
pitch	Raise or lower the tone (pitch) of the speech: x-low, low, medium, high, x-high: Set the pitch to a predefined value. +n%: Increase the pitch by the specified percentage. For example: +10%, +5%. The maximum value allowed is +50%. A value higher than +50% is rendered as +50%. -n%: Decrease the pitch by the specified percentage. For example: -10%, -20%. The smallest value allowed is -33.3%. A value lower than -33.3% is rendered as -33.3%. Note: When you modify the speech with the pitch tag, Alexa uses a legacy text-to-speech system, which might change the speech sound quality.
volume	Change the volume for the speech: silent, x-soft, soft, medium, loud, x-loud: Set volume to a predefined value for current voice. +ndB: Increase volume relative to the current volume level. For example, +0dB means no change of volume. +6dB is approximately twice the current amplitude. The maximum positive value is about +4.08dB. -ndB: Decrease the volume relative to the current volume level. For example, -6dB means approximately half the current amplitude.

You can combine prosody with all other tags when you set the rate and/or volume attributes. When you use the pitch attribute, you cannot combine prosody with the tags shown in incompatible tags.

s

Represents a sentence. This tag provides strong breaks before and after the tag.

This is equivalent to:

• Ending a sentence with a period (.).
• Specifying a pause with <break strength="strong"/>.

say-as

Describes how the text should be interpreted. This lets you provide additional context to the text and eliminate any ambiguity on how Alexa should render the text. Indicate how Alexa should interpret the text with the interpret-as attribute.

Attribute	Possible Values
interpret-as	characters, spell-out: Spell out each letter. cardinal, number: Interpret the value as a cardinal number. ordinal: Interpret the value as an ordinal number. digits: Spell each digit separately . fraction: Interpret the value as a fraction. This works for both common fractions (such as 3/20) and mixed fractions (such as 1+1/2). unit: Interpret a value as a measurement. The value should be either a number or fraction followed by a unit (with no space in between) or just a unit. date: Interpret the value as a date. Specify the format with the format attribute. time: Interpret a value such as 1'21" as duration in minutes and seconds. telephone: Interpret a value as a 7-digit or 10-digit telephone number. This can also handle extensions (for example, 2025551212x345). address: Interpret a value as part of street address. interjection: Interpret the value as an interjection. Alexa speaks the text in a more expressive voice. For optimal results, only use the supported interjections and surround each speechcon with a pause. For example: <say-as interpret-as="interjection">Wow.</say-as>. Speechcons are supported for the languages listed below. expletive: "Bleep" out the content inside the tag.
format	Only used when interpret-as is set to date. Set to one of the following to indicate format of the date: mdy dmy ymd md dm ym my d m y Alternatively, if you provide the date in YYYYMMDD format, the format attribute is ignored. You can include question marks (?) for portions of the date to leave out. For instance, Alexa would speak <say-as interpret-as="date">????0922</say-as> as "September 22nd".

Note that the Alexa service attempts to interpret the provided text correctly based on the text's formatting even without this tag. For example, if your output speech includes "202-555-1212", Alexa speaks each individual digit, with a brief pause for each dash. You don't need to use <say-as interpret-as="telephone"> in this case. However, if you provided the text "2025551212", but you wanted Alexa to speak it as a phone number, you would need to use <say-as interpret-as="telephone">.

Supported speechcons

Speechcons are language specific. See the following pages for the available speechcons for each skill language:

• English (AU)
• English (CA)
• English (IN)
• English (UK)
• English (US)
• French (CA)
• French (FR)
• German (DE)
• Hindi (IN)
• Italian (IT)
• Japanese (JP)
• Portuguese (BR)
• Spanish (ES)
• Spanish (MX)
• Spanish (US)

speak

This is the root element of an SSML document. When using SSML with the Alexa Skills Kit, surround the text to be spoken with this tag.

sub

Pronounce the specified word or phrase as a different word or phrase. Specify the pronunciation to substitute with the alias attribute.

Attribute	Possible Values
alias	The word or phrase to speak in place of the tagged text.

This example replaces the abbreviated chemical elements with the full words:

voice

Use the voice tag to speak the text with the specified Amazon Polly voice. Each listed voice has its own individual character. See Best Practices for Using Amazon Polly Voices for advice on how to use different voices in your skill to create a good customer experience.

You can combine voice with all other tags, except for those listed in incompatible tags.

Attribute

Possible Values

name

The name of a supported Amazon Polly voice. Voice are specific to locale. To speak content in the same language as your skill, choose a voice supported for the locale of your skill. To speak content in a different language, combine the voice tag with the lang tag. For example, in an English (US) skill, use an en-US voice for English content. For French content, you can use an fr-FR voice, but combine the voice tag with lang to speak the content properly in French. For the list of supported voices for each locale, see Supported Amazon Polly voices.

Supported Amazon Polly voices

This table lists the Amazon Polly voices supported by Alexa. Voice names don't contain accented characters. Use a voice supported for the skill locale or use the voice with the lang tag.

To comply with Alexa skill policies, don't expose the Amazon-assigned name of a Polly voice to users.

Locale	Supported voices
English, American (en-US)	Ivy, Joanna, Joey, Justin, Kendra, Kimberly, Matthew, Salli
English, Australian (en-AU)	Nicole, Russell
English, British (en-GB)	Amy, Brian, Emma
English, Indian (en-IN)	Aditi, Raveena
English, Welsh (en-GB-WLS)	Geraint
French, Canadian (fr-CA)	Chantal
French, France (fr-FR)	Celine, Lea, Mathieu
German (de-DE)	Hans, Marlene, Vicki
Hindi (hi-IN)	Aditi
Italian (it-IT)	Carla, Giorgio, Bianca
Japanese (ja-JP)	Mizuki, Takumi
Portuguese, Brazilian (pt-BR)	Vitoria, Camila, Ricardo
Spanish, American (es-US)	Penelope, Lupe, Miguel
Spanish, Castilian (es-ES)	Conchita, Enrique, Lucia
Spanish, Mexican (es-MX)	Mia

Example–Standard Alexa voice and a specified Amazon Polly voice

In this example, assume this sample is from an en-US skill, and because "Kendra" is an en-US voice, no lang tag is required. If this sample was from a skill that does not have an en-US locale, then the lang tag should be added and set to en-US.

Example–two voices used in a dialog

This example provides a dialog between an en-US voice and an en-GB voice, such as might occur if a story with two different characters were being read. The standard Alexa voice, which varies by locale, speaks the first and last sentence.

In the following example, the default Alexa voice is for an en-US skill. If the skill were for en-GB, the default Alexa voice would correspond to that.

Example–French content in an English skill

In this example, assume the locale of this skill is for an English-speaking region. Because "Celine" is an "fr-FR" voice, and you want Celine's content spoken in French, lang should be specified as "fr-FR".

Tips for using Amazon Polly voices

Although all Amazon Polly voices use approximately the same volume, some voices may be perceived as louder or quieter than Alexa voices. Use the prosody tag to modify the volume, rate, and pitch of the voice you have chosen. Other SSML tags supported by Alexa may also be used to modify the spoken output.

Developers can enhance their skills with responses that include one or more Amazon Polly voices, as well as the default Alexa voice, and can choose specific voices for specific responses. Refer to User Experience Guidelines for the Use of Amazon Polly Voices in Your Skills for guidance on using Amazon Polly voices in your skills.

There is no charge for Alexa developers to use Amazon Polly voices.

The locale of a skill refers to a combination of region and language, and all of the Amazon Polly voices are tagged with a locale. For example, the "en-AU" locale refers to the English language in Australia, whereas "en-IN" refers to the English language in India. You select the locale of your skill when you first create it.

To achieve the best results, if the voice you select is for a different locale than that specified by your skill, use the lang tag to specify the language in which the content will be spoken. See more about the lang tag.

Be mindful of the customer experience if you combine voices from different locales in your skill responses.

Node.js sample code for voice

If building a Node.js skill, this switchVoice function can be used to wrap speech output with voice tags to get a specific voice. If you use the Alexa Skills Kit SDK for Node.js, you do not need to wrap the speech output in <speak> tags, as that is handled by the SDK.

Here is some sample speech output from a skill using multiple voices with the switchVoice function.

If you want all of the skill responses to be in a particular voice, ensure that all speech outputs from the skill are specified as SSML and are wrapped with the appropriate voice tag.

w

Similar to say-as, this tag customizes the pronunciation of words by specifying the word's part of speech.

Attribute

Possible Values

role

Set to one of the following amazon:VB: Interpret the word as a verb (present simple). amazon:VBD: Interpret the word as a past participle. amazon:NN: Interpret the word as a noun. amazon:SENSE_1: Use the non-default sense of the word. For example, the noun "bass" is pronounced differently depending on meaning. The "default" meaning is the lowest part of the musical range. The alternate sense (which is still a noun) is a freshwater fish. Specifying <speak><w role="amazon:SENSE_1">bass</w>"</speak> renders the non-default pronunciation (freshwater fish).

Note that these tags previously used the ivona namespace in the attribute names. The tags are backwards compatible, so existing SSML written with the ivona namespace continues to work.

Related topics

• Alexa Skills Kit Sound Library
• Best Practices for Alexa Polly Voices
• Speechcons

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Last updated: Oct 05, 2022