# <speak>

Description

Acts as the root element for SSML, but provides no additional functionality. Note that the VoiceGenie VoiceXML interpreter automatically wraps `<speak>` tags around any text that will be synthesized into speech, and adds the XML header. Please note the important limitation below.

Syntax

    <speak
        xml:lang="language">
      child elements
    </speak>

Attributes

Attribute | Description
xml:lang | Defines the language and locale for this speak element. Optional.

Parents

None.

Children

<audio>, <break>, <emphasis>, <lexicon>, <mark>, <meta>, <metadata>, <paragraph>, <p>, <phoneme>, <prosody>, <say-as>, <sentence>, <s>, <sub>, <voice>, #PCDATA

IMPORTANT LIMITATION

Since the VoiceXML interpreter already wraps `<speak>` tags around any text that will be synthesized into speech (and adds the XML header), the application developer should never include `<speak>` tags in such text (or add the XML header). This would result in embedded `<speak>` tags, which is not allowed, and all contained text would be ignored.

So when defining SSML content within `<audio>`, `<choice>`, `<enumerate>`, `<foreach>` (within `<prompt>`), or `<prompt>`, do not include the `<speak>` tag (or the XML header).