SABLE is an XML

XML

Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....

 markup language

Markup language

A markup language is a modern system for annotating a text in a way that is syntactically distinguishable from that text. The idea and terminology evolved from the "marking up" of manuscripts, i.e. the revision instructions by editors, traditionally written with a blue pencil on authors' manuscripts...

 used to annotate texts for speech synthesis

Speech synthesis

Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. A computer system used for this purpose is called a speech synthesizer, and can be implemented in software or hardware...

. It defines tags which control the way words, numbers, and sentences are reproduced by a computer. SABLE was developed as an informal joint project between Sun Microsystems, AT&T, Bell Labs

Bell Labs

Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...

 and Edinburgh University (the initial letters of each make the word "SABLE") as an initiative to combine the three previous speech synthesis markup languages SSML

SSML

SSML is an acronym, which may stand for:*Speech Synthesis Markup Language, an XML-based markup language for speech synthesis applications.*Spartan South Midlands League, a football league in England....

, STML, and JSML.