Ubax
Somali Text to Speech and AI Voice Generator
Somali text to speech in the standard Latin spelling: type or paste a script, pick a voice and press Play to hear it.
Hear it in Somali
No account needed353 / 500
Voice
Edit the text, pick a voice and press Play. Listen as often as you like before you sign up. Double every long vowel, as in maanta and hooyo, because a single letter is read as a short sound.
2 voices
Somali text to speech voices, male and female
Listen2It has 2 Somali voices, 1 male and 1 female. Press Use this voice to load one into the tool. Filter by gender.
Gender
Muuse
Proof
Used by teams and publishers
.svg)
“In the biggest languages, the voices sound nearly human.”
Review on Capterra , 1 December 2022
“…an impressive natural-like array of voices and great customer support.”
Review on Capterra , 27 September 2022
Somali has been written in the Latin alphabet since 1972, and some letters stand for sounds English does not have. C is made deep in the throat, like the Arabic ayn, and x is a breathy h from the same place. Q sits far back in the mouth, and dh is a d with the tongue curled back. Keep these spellings exactly: Cabdi, Xamar and Muqdisho only sound right with them.
Long vowels are written double: aa, ee, ii, oo and uu. Drop one letter and you may get a different word, so check vowel length before you preview. An apostrophe marks a short catch in the voice, as in su'aal (question). Pitch is never written either. Inan means boy or girl depending on which syllable rises, so play back lines where that matters. Foreign names can be given a fixed reading in the pronunciation dictionary.
Write in standard Somali, the form heard on national radio and taught in schools, which grew from the northern dialects. Benadiri speakers in Mogadishu and Maay speakers in the south say many words differently, so test a line before you aim a script at them. Diaspora scripts often mix in English words such as appointment or council. Keep them few, and preview each one so the sentence still flows.
What people make with Somali voice over
Community notices for the diaspora
Councils, clinics and schools in Minneapolis, London or Toronto can voice a Somali version of a health notice or an enrolment reminder for families who prefer to listen.
Radio-style news and podcasts
Produce a short bulletin or a weekly podcast intro for listeners in Hargeisa, Mogadishu or Djibouti, and redo one segment when a story moves on.
Lessons for children learning Somali
Weekend schools abroad can turn alphabet drills and short stories into audio, so children hear c, x and dh said the way their grandparents say them.
Poetry and storytelling
Read a gabay or a folk tale for a social post, keeping each line on its own row so the rhythm survives in playback.
Three steps
How to convert Somali text to speech in three steps
Add your script
Type or paste Somali text, or import a .txt, .docx or .pdf file up to 500KB, or a web page by URL.
Pick a voice and shape the delivery
Play the samples, choose a voice, add pauses where the listener needs a breath, and set how any word is read with the pronunciation dictionary.
Generate and download
Export an MP3, a voice and music mix, or SRT captions.
What's free
Free plan
Everything you need to hear your script
- The Free plan costs $0.
- Every voice is included.
- Preview voices as often as you like.
- A free account gets 2,500 credits once, not every month. That is about 2,500 words of text to speech.
- Download your audio as an MP3.
- The Free plan is for personal and evaluation use. Paid plans add commercial rights.
Answers
Frequently asked questions
Yes. You can play any voice on this page before you sign up. The full library has 1,411 voices across 160 languages and dialects.
Write or import your Somali script, choose a voice and press Generate. To download the MP3, create a free account: downloads work on the Free plan. You can also export a voice and music mix or SRT captions.
Yes. The Free plan costs $0 and includes every voice, with a one-time allowance of 2,500 credits, about 2,500 words. It is for personal and evaluation use.
Yes. Somali has 1 male and 1 female voices. Use the gender filter above the voice list and try a few with your own first line.
Yes, on a paid plan: paid plans include commercial rights, and the Free plan is for personal and evaluation use only. Starter costs $5 for the first month, then $19 a month.
Preview the line first. If a number, date or abbreviation comes out wrong, write it the way it should be spoken, or add it to the pronunciation dictionary, which is on every plan. One entry fixes that word across the whole project.
Type it in the Latin alphabet. Somali has been written in Arabic script and in Osmanya, a script created for the language in the 1920s, but the Latin spelling adopted in 1972 is what schools, media and phones use today. Latin text gives the voice the clearest guide to each sound. Keep Arabic-script phrases, such as a religious greeting, to a minimum and preview them.
They read standard Somali, which most Somalis understand from radio and school. Maay, spoken widely in southern Somalia, differs enough in sounds and vocabulary that many linguists treat it as a separate language, and its spelling is less settled. Benadiri sits closer to the standard. For a Maay audience, write in standard Somali, or preview a Maay script carefully before relying on it.
The rest of the studio
More with Listen2It
Turn your Somali script into a voice over
Paste your script into the tool above, pick a voice and hear it before you sign up.
Try it with your script No account needed to listen 2 Somali voices