---
title: "Speech becomes garbled when VoiceOver reads a specific sentence using the Kyoko (Enhanced) Japanese voice"
description: "A bug report about VoiceOver's Japanese text-to-speech output."
publishedAt: 2026-09-09
platform: iOS 26.6.1
feedbackId: "FB24713945"
attachments:
  - https://media.feedbackvo.com/3/kyoko.wav
  - https://media.feedbackvo.com/3/otoya.wav
---

# Overview

When the following sentence is read aloud, the pronunciation becomes garbled and unintelligible. Because the pronunciation itself is corrupted, slowing down the speaking rate does not make it understandable.

```text
Appleが9月10日未明に新製品発表へ Siri AIの対応機種と折りたたみiPhoneが焦点
```

# Steps to reproduce

Paste the sentence above into any suitable text field. Then move VoiceOver focus to the sentence to have it read aloud. I have attached recordings of the actual speech output for reference.

Kyoko (Enhanced) is not the only voice affected by this issue. Otoya (Enhanced) also exhibits the same problem.

This issue is not limited to iOS. Reading the same sentence on the latest version of macOS produces the same issue. This appears to be an issue with the speech synthesis system shared across Apple products.

# Expected fix from Apple

The sentence should be read aloud correctly.

# Temporary workaround

This issue can be avoided by switching to another voice, such as the lower-quality standard version of Kyoko or Otoya. However, this is not a permanent solution. I hope Apple will fix it.