Installation

Python requirement

PiperG2P supports Python 3.10 and newer.

Install the package

python -m pip install piperg2p

The core package depends on espeakng-runtime for eSpeak infrastructure and phrasplit for sentence segmentation. It does not depend on Piper, Spokenform, or Numeralform.

eSpeak runtime choices

Text voices do not invoke eSpeak. For eSpeak voices, espeakng-runtime discovers and manages the native library or CLI fallback. The espeak-direct extra enables its bundled-loader support where supported:

python -m pip install "piperg2p[espeak-direct]"

See eSpeak modes and capability inspection for backend behavior and configuration precedence.

Optional extras

Extra	Purpose
`lexphon`	Managed installed pronunciation assets
`lexicons`	Alias-equivalent convenience extra for `lexphon`
`g2lex`	Direct local `.g2lex` files
`espeak-direct`	Bundled `espeakng-runtime` loader support
`reference`	Reference/phonetic benchmark tooling
`docs`	Sphinx, MyST Parser, and RTD theme
`dev`	Tests, lint, type-check, and package build tools

Lexicon data is provisioned separately and is never downloaded by PiperG2P at runtime. See lexicon provisioning.

Termux / Android

Install the system eSpeak package and PiperG2P:

pkg install espeak
python -m pip install piperg2p

Do not use the desktop/server bundled loader merely to obtain eSpeak on Android. Use inspect_espeak() to see whether an exact-capable native library is available. espeak_mode="auto" selects native operation when the required capability is present and otherwise falls back to CLI. Capability discovery handles system package changes without relying on a hard-coded eSpeak version.

Development and documentation

From a source checkout, install the development tools and run the checks:

python -m pip install -e ".[dev]"
python -m pytest -q

For documentation work, include the docs extra:

python -m pip install -e ".[dev,docs]"
python docs/make.py html

PiperG2P consumes prepared, speakable text rather than verbalizing written numbers, dates, units, and similar semantics. See the canonical prepared-text guide for that boundary and optional composition.