Issues with Speech-Dispatcher

[Robert Spangler]

Hello all,

I wrote to other lists concerning this issue but was told that this 
would be the most appropriate one.  I have been experimenting with 
Speech-Dispatcher, ESpeak, and Voxin-IBMTTS for the last couple of days. 
  I find that, with Voxin, I am unable to get Orca to read punctuation 
at all and Speech-Dispatcher does not honor the punctuation setting; 
however, I hear punctuation just fine with Speakup -> Speechd-up with 
IBMTTS.  I was told that ESpeak will be supported more because it is 
free software so I switched to it and find that it does indeed work 
better with Speech-Dispatcher - punctuation is honored.  Another 
problem, however, is that ESpeak has an echo to its voice whenever 
reading punctuation.  How can I remedy this as it is very annoying.  I 
just want to hear punctuation marks without any kind of effect.  I did 
find the directive in espeak.conf that allowed me to edit what marks are 
spoken if punctuation is set to most.

Thanks,
Robby