<lang>
This tag is supported by generative, long-form, neural, and standard TTS formats.
Specify another language for a specific word, phrase, or
sentence with the <lang> tag. Foreign language words and
phrases are generally spoken better when they are enclosed
within a pair of <lang> tags. To specify the
language, use the xml:lang attribute. For a
complete list of available languages, see Languages in Amazon Polly.
Unless you apply the <lang> tag, all of
the words in the input text are spoken in the language of the
voice specified in the voice-id. If you apply the
<lang> tag, the words are spoken in that
language.
For example, if the voice-id is Joanna (who
speaks US English), Amazon Polly speaks the following in the Joanna
voice without a French accent:
<speak>
Je ne parle pas français.
</speak>If you use the Joanna voice with the <lang>
tag, Amazon Polly speaks the sentence in the Joanna voice in
American-accented French:
<speak>
<lang xml:lang="fr-FR">Je ne parle pas français.</lang>.
</speak>Because Joanna is not a native French voice, pronunciation is based on her native language, US English. For example, although perfect French pronunciation features an uvual trill /R/ in the word français, Joanna's US English voice pronounces this phoneme as the corresponding sound /r/.
If you use the voice-id of Giorgio, who speaks
Italian, with the following text, Amazon Polly speaks the sentence in
Giorgio's voice with an Italian pronunciation:
<speak>
Mi piace Bruce Springsteen.
</speak>If you use the same voice with the following
<lang> tag, Amazon Polly pronounces Bruce
Springsteen in Italian-accented English:
<speak>
Mi piace <lang xml:lang="en-US">Bruce Springsteen.</lang>
</speak>This tag can also be used as a substitute for the optional DefaultLangCode option when synthesizing speech. However, doing so requires that you format your text using SSML.
