This works on 98

#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use Win32::OLE::Variant;

sub init_voice{
 my $voice = Win32::OLE->new("Speech.VoiceText") or die("TTS failed");
 $voice->Register("", "$0"); 
 $voice->{Enabled} = 1;
 return $voice;
}

sub talk{
 my ($voice,$text) = @_;
 return unless $text;
 return unless $voice->{Enabled};
 $voice->Speak($text,  1);
 while ($voice->IsSpeaking()) {
  sleep .5;
 }
}

sub blab{
    my ($voice, $status) = @_;
    if ($status){
       $voice->{Enabled} = 1;
       talk($voice, "Start yapping.");
    }else{
       talk($voice, "Shutting up.");
       $voice->{Enabled} = 0;
    }
}


my $voice = init_voice();

print "Enter quit to exit.\n";
{
  print "Enter text:\n";
  my $text = <STDIN>;
  chomp($text);
  blab($voice,0) if $text eq 'shutup';
  blab($voice,1) if $text eq 'talk';
  last if $text eq 'quit';
  talk($voice,$text);
  redo;
}
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-Lee

"To be civilized is to deny one's nature."