This project - funded by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) - sought to address the need for greater access to the Irish language. The project, a joint effort between 11 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and led by the University of Limerick aimed to address the need for Native-Speaking Text-to-Speech Irish Voices across a range of platforms and devices.

The Native-Speaking Text-to-Speech Irish Voices were developed on the following platforms and devices:

  • 2 x Connemara (Male & Female Connaught), Gweedore (Donegal / Ulster) and Kerry (Munster) Native-Speaking Voices for Texthelp’s Online Read & Write Gold Platform
  • 2 x Connemara (Male & Female Connaught) for the Exam Reader 2 and Reader Pen 2 by C-Pen
  • 2 x Connemara (Male & Female Connaught), Gweedore (Donegal / Ulster) and Kerry (Munster) SAPI voices that will run on Windows and work with products including Read & Write Gold (Desktop), ClaroRead (Desktop), NVDA, and freeware including Orato and Balabolka

The voices were developed for the HEIs by the Phonetics and Speech Laboratory (School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences) at Trinity College Dublin. They were chosen for the project due to their unique expertise in both the Irish language and in language speech synthesis. Examples of their previous work include the Abáir Project and the award-winning An Scéalaí online learning platform.

 

Release Dates:

The majority of voices will be available for free to download from the Abáir Applications Page on the 15th of April 2023 in conjunction with Word Voice Day. However, 2 of the SAPI voices, Gweedore and Kerry will be released within the coming weeks due to unforeseen technical difficulties. Below is a breakdown of the releases:

  • Connemara (Female Connaught) - Online Read & Write (automatically available - 15th of April)
  • Connemara (Male Connaught) - Online Read & Write (automatically available - 15th of April)
  • Gweedore (Donegal / Ulster) - Online Read & Write (automatically available - 15th of April)
  • Kerry (Munster) Online Read & Write (automatically available - 15th of April)
  • Connemara (Female Connaught) - Exam Reader 2 and Reader Pen 2 by C-Pen (downloadable Firmware update - available 15th of April)
  • Connemara (Male Connaught) - Exam Reader 2 and Reader Pen 2 by C-Pen (downloadable Firmware update - available 15th of April)
  • Connemara (Female Connaught) - SAPI voice (downloadable .msi installer file - available 15th of April)
  • Connemara (Male Connaught) - SAPI voice (downloadable .msi installer file - available 15th of April)
  • Kerry (Munster) - Currently unavailable on SAPI, release date TBC
  • Gweedore (Donegal / Ulster) - Currently unavailable, release date TBC

Please note: There is a difference in quality of voices due to the capacity and performance of the platform or device they are installed on. For example, online versions will offer the optimum quality voices due to the underlying architecture they are built on.

 

HEI Project Contributors:

  1. University of Limerick (UL) (LEAD) *
  2. Trinity College Dublin (TCD) *
  3. Technological University of Dublin (TU Dublin) *
  4. Dublin City University (DCU) *
  5. University of Galway (UG) *
  6. University College Cork (UCC) *
  7. University College Dublin (UCD) *
  8. Mary Immaculate College (MIC) *
  9. Munster Technological University - Tralee (MTU Tralee)
  10. Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI)
  11. Marino Institute of Education

* denotes financial contributor and primary