“Let your computer do the talking. Install eSpeak and you can
make your computer say anything, in a wide variety of
languages.Looking for a lightweight text to speech program? Whether you
want to listen to your favorite blog while doing the dishes, or
just make your computer say naughty words to your friends so you
can giggle like schoolchildren, eSpeak is a great tool for the job.
It’s “a compact open source software speech synthesizer for English
and other languages” according to its website. You can use official
versions of eSpeak on Linux