<silence>

The silence element is an empty element to insert pauses before or after text, or between two adjacent sentences.

One of the differences between silence and break is that a break element can be inserted anywhere in the text. Silence only works at the beginning or end of input text or at the boundary of two adjacent sentences.

The silence setting is applied to all input text within it's enclosing voice element. To reset or change the silence setting again, you must use a new voice element with either the same voice or a different voice.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<speak version="1.0"
    xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/10/synthesis"
    xmlns:mstts="http://www.w3.org/2001/mstts"
    xml:lang="en-US">
    <voice name="en-US-JennyNeural">
    <mstts:silence  type="Sentenceboundary" value="200ms"/>
        If we're home schooling, the best we can do is roll with what each day brings and try to have fun along the way.
        A good place to start is by trying out the slew of educational apps that are helping children stay happy and smash their schooling at the same time.
    </voice>
</speak>

Attributes

type

Specifies where and how to add silence. The following silence types are supported:

• Leading – Additional silence at the beginning of the text. The value that you set is added to the natural silence before the start of text.
• Leading-exact – Silence at the beginning of the text. The value is an absolute silence length.
• Tailing – Additional silence at the end of text. The value that you set is added to the natural silence after the last word.
• Tailing-exact – Silence at the end of the text. The value is an absolute silence length.
• Sentenceboundary – Additional silence between adjacent sentences. The actual silence length for this type includes the natural silence after the last word in the previous sentence, the value you set for this type, and the natural silence before the starting word in the next sentence.
• Sentenceboundary-exact – Silence between adjacent sentences. The value is an absolute silence length.
• Comma-exact – Silence at the comma in half-width or full-width format. The value is an absolute silence length.
• Semicolon-exact – Silence at the semicolon in half-width or full-width format. The value is an absolute silence length.
• Enumerationcomma-exact – Silence at the enumeration comma in full-width format. The value is an absolute silence length.

value

The duration of a pause in seconds (i.e., 2s) or milliseconds (i.e., 500ms). Valid values range from 0 to 5000 milliseconds. A value greater than the supported maximum results in the service using 5000ms.

Children

none

Parents

<voice>.

Source: Microsoft Azure Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML)