It looks like SpeechSynthesizer.GetInstalledVoices returns something like an array, and you converted that to a hash pointing to array indexes. Why not simply use the array, and let List::Util's first give you the index directly? For your problem with index 0, replace the first array element with something unmatchable, and if first returns undef, it's the case where you have to use 0 anyway.
my @voices = ...(whatever you do to get the voices array)
my $voicezero = $voices[0]; # if name of voice needed later
$voices[0] = 'least-liked';
my $voice = first { m/$language/ } @voices || 0;
$voices[0] = $voicezero; # if name of voice needed later

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In reply to Re: Alternative to sort Hash by soonix
in thread Alternative to sort Hash by IB2017

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