The problem with Peter's answer is it doesn't work when you have a queue of speech synthesis set up. The script will put the new chunk at the end of the queue, and thus out of order. Example: https://jsfiddle.net/1gzkja90/
<script type='text/javascript' src='http://code.jquery.com/jquery-2.1.0.js'></script>
<script type='text/javascript'>
u = new SpeechSynthesisUtterance();
$(document).ready(function () {
$('.t').each(function () {
u = new SpeechSynthesisUtterance($(this).text());
speechUtteranceChunker(u, {
chunkLength: 120
}, function () {
console.log('end');
});
});
});
/**
* Chunkify
* Google Chrome Speech Synthesis Chunking Pattern
* Fixes inconsistencies with speaking long texts in speechUtterance objects
* Licensed under the MIT License
*
* Peter Woolley and Brett Zamir
*/
var speechUtteranceChunker = function (utt, settings, callback) {
settings = settings || {};
var newUtt;
var txt = (settings && settings.offset !== undefined ? utt.text.substring(settings.offset) : utt.text);
if (utt.voice && utt.voice.voiceURI === 'native') { // Not part of the spec
newUtt = utt;
newUtt.text = txt;
newUtt.addEventListener('end', function () {
if (speechUtteranceChunker.cancel) {
speechUtteranceChunker.cancel = false;
}
if (callback !== undefined) {
callback();
}
});
}
else {
var chunkLength = (settings && settings.chunkLength) || 160;
var pattRegex = new RegExp('^[\\s\\S]{' + Math.floor(chunkLength / 2) + ',' + chunkLength + '}[.!?,]{1}|^[\\s\\S]{1,' + chunkLength + '}$|^[\\s\\S]{1,' + chunkLength + '} ');
var chunkArr = txt.match(pattRegex);
if (chunkArr[0] === undefined || chunkArr[0].length <= 2) {
//call once all text has been spoken...
if (callback !== undefined) {
callback();
}
return;
}
var chunk = chunkArr[0];
newUtt = new SpeechSynthesisUtterance(chunk);
var x;
for (x in utt) {
if (utt.hasOwnProperty(x) && x !== 'text') {
newUtt[x] = utt[x];
}
}
newUtt.addEventListener('end', function () {
if (speechUtteranceChunker.cancel) {
speechUtteranceChunker.cancel = false;
return;
}
settings.offset = settings.offset || 0;
settings.offset += chunk.length - 1;
speechUtteranceChunker(utt, settings, callback);
});
}
if (settings.modifier) {
settings.modifier(newUtt);
}
console.log(newUtt); //IMPORTANT!! Do not remove: Logging the object out fixes some onend firing issues.
//placing the speak invocation inside a callback fixes ordering and onend issues.
setTimeout(function () {
speechSynthesis.speak(newUtt);
}, 0);
};
</script>
<p class="t">MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page. The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence.</p>
<p class="t">Joe waited for the train.</p>
<p class="t">The train was late.</p>
<p class="t">Mary and Samantha took the bus.</p>
In my case, the answer was to "chunk" the string before adding them to the queue. See here: http://jsfiddle.net/vqvyjzq4/
Many props to Peter for the idea as well as the regex (which I still have yet to conquer.) I'm sure the javascript can be cleaned up, this is more of a proof of concept.
<script type='text/javascript' src='http://code.jquery.com/jquery-2.1.0.js'></script>
<script type='text/javascript'>
var chunkLength = 120;
var pattRegex = new RegExp('^[\\s\\S]{' + Math.floor(chunkLength / 2) + ',' + chunkLength + '}[.!?,]{1}|^[\\s\\S]{1,' + chunkLength + '}$|^[\\s\\S]{1,' + chunkLength + '} ');
$(document).ready(function () {
var element = this;
var arr = [];
var txt = replaceBlank($(element).text());
while (txt.length > 0) {
arr.push(txt.match(pattRegex)[0]);
txt = txt.substring(arr[arr.length - 1].length);
}
$.each(arr, function () {
var u = new SpeechSynthesisUtterance(this.trim());
window.speechSynthesis.speak(u);
});
});
</script>
<p class="t">MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page. The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence.</p>
<p class="t">Joe waited for the train.</p>
<p class="t">The train was late.</p>
<p class="t">Mary and Samantha took the bus.</p>
