Was playing around with Amazon Echo and was struck by Amazon's documentation for Speech Synthesis Markup Language.<p>As I read these incredibly clear API docs for creating and contextualizing how to read out nuanced pronunciation... I have become convinced that syntax like this is the future. https://developer.amazon.com/docs/custom-skills/speech-synthesis-markup-language-ssml-reference.html
It's Speech <i>Synthesis</i> Markup Language, and, no, it won't be the next HTML; it's got a narrower niche, and most of the semantic and presentational support it provides for rendering speech is already provided between HTML and the CSS Speech Module.<p>SSML and related technologies (VoiceXML, for instance) are great for dedicated speech applications, but they aren't positioned to replace HTML.
Is it really that different from, say, VoiceXML, which has been around since the 90's?<p><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/VoiceXML" rel="nofollow">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/VoiceXML</a>