Huuda

Huuda is a command-line text-to-speech (TTS) utility that not only speaks Finnish from input text or text files from the command line using the public domain festvox libraries, but is also designed to humorously twist spoken output by applying Finnish phonetics to English text, resulting in a "Finglish" accent. It's perfect for anyone looking for a light-hearted way to hear text read aloud, whether for entertainment, testing TTS engines, or just for the joy of hearing Finnish-inflected English.

Features

• Convert text to speech with a Finnish accent applied to English words.
• Customize the TTS voice and volume.
• Use a word replacement feature to modify text before speech synthesis.
• Support for input text via command line or file.

Installation

To use Huuda, you need to have Python installed on your system as well as the following dependencies:

• text2wave for text-to-speech synthesis.
• sox for audio processing.
• play for audio playback.

These tools are commonly available in UNIX-like environments. Ensure you have Python installed, then set up Huuda with:

# For Debian-based systems, use:
sudo apt-get install festvox-suopuhe-lj festvox-suopuhe-mv sox play

Usage

Run huuda.py with the necessary arguments:

python huuda.py --voice <voice_option> --text "Your text here"
python huuda.py --file yourfile.txt

Or, for English/Finglish

python huuda.py --finglish --text "It's very nice here."

Options include:

--english, --eng, --en, --e, --finglish to speak in English/Finglish instead of Finnish --blast to increase the volume. --voice to set the TTS voice. --text or -tto provide text directly. --file or -f to specify a text file for input. --replacement_file to specify a custom word replacement file separately.

Word Replacement Management

• Use list_converter.py to convert a list of sed-style replacement commands into the JSON format expected by Huuda.

• Run word_adder.py to interactively add new word replacements to your JSON file.

Contributing

Contributions to Huuda are welcome! Feel free to fork the repository, make your changes, and submit a pull request.

License

This project is freely available under the "Go for it" ethos, akin to The Unlicense or WTFPL. Use, modify, and distribute as you please. Enjoy!

Acknowledgments

Thank you to all contributors and users who have made Huuda a fun project to work on! Special shoutout to ChaosWhisperer for code refactoring help.