Use Google's TTS
I made a video to go with this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msNz5Y8DYrg
Installation:
I'm running Ubuntu 18.04
sudo apt install mpg123
The proper way to use a Github repository is to fork it. Then clone it from your own copy. Once that's done, install gTTS:
pip3 install gTTS
sudo apt-get install xsel
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
copy GoogSpeech.sh ~/.local/bin/ (make sure it's executable)
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/GoogSpeech.sh
Create a keybinding
Then I create a custom keyboard shortcut for the command bash ~/local/bin/speakit.sh (usually I map it to ctrl k) Here's how to do that in Ubuntu: https://help.ubuntu.com/stable/ubuntu-help/keyboard-shortcuts-set.html.en
on POP!_OS 20.04 I had to reboot to get my new binding to work.
BTW, gtts-cli --all will list all the possible language codes.
Here's the PYPI web page for gTTS if you are interested in learning more: