Hello.  I use to have this function in my startup file.  It would speak the
text, and I remember that it worked well.

say[s_String]:= FrontEndExecute[SpeakTextPacket[s]]

However, I have not gotten this to work in awhile.
Has anyone gotten this to work with version 5.2?

The Mathematica Journal (9-3, pg. 300) recommends the following line
first...

FrontEndExecute[SetSpeechParametersPacket[1]]

Then...

FrontEndExecute[SpeakTextPacket["Hello there."]]

However, the above no longer works.

Speech works well on my computer using Microsoft Office 2003.

I know this is an "undocumented feature," so I cannot complain.  :>0

Just wondering.  Maybe it is a version 5 thing.

Thanks.
dana.del@gmail.com