espeak has some discussion here:
https://sourceforge.net/p/espeak/activity/?page=0&limit=100#607d55a49379ff7f9ae85640
But looking at the developers names, 2 of those people are running espeak-ng now:
https://github.com/orgs/espeak-ng/people
So perhaps you could contact them most easily by opening an issue on espeak-ng, explaining it was about original espeak:
https://github.com/espeak-ng/espeak-ng/issues
You might try to rebuild the espeak package aginst the new alsa-lib version, which is pretty simple to do:
$ cd /tmp
$ git clone https://gitea.artixlinux.org/packagesE/espeak
$ cd espeak/trunk/
$ makepkg -sir
Then I installed espeakup and espeakup-openrc and enabled that service and rebooted.
$ espeak
hello there
ALSA lib pcm.c:2660:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.rear
ALSA lib pcm.c:2660:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.center_lfe
ALSA lib pcm.c:2660:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.side
ALSA lib pcm_route.c:877:(find_matching_chmap) Found no matching channel map
ALSA lib pcm_route.c:877:(find_matching_chmap) Found no matching channel map
ALSA lib pcm_route.c:877:(find_matching_chmap) Found no matching channel map
ALSA lib pcm_route.c:877:(find_matching_chmap) Found no matching channel map
connect(2) call to /dev/shm/jack-1000/default/jack_0 failed (err=No such file or directory)
attempt to connect to server failed
Expression 'framesAvail' failed in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 3629
Expression 'PaAlsaStreamComponent_GetAvailableFrames( self, &framesAvail, xrun )' failed in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 3989
Expression 'PaAlsaStreamComponent_RegisterChannels( &self->playback, &self->bufferProcessor, &playbackFrames, &xrun )' failed in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 4118
Expression 'PaAlsaStream_SetUpBuffers( stream, &framesGot, &xrun )' failed in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 4359
Artix is great!
Expression 'framesAvail' failed in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 3629
Expression 'PaAlsaStreamComponent_GetAvailableFrames( self, &framesAvail, xrun )' failed in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 3989
Expression 'PaAlsaStreamComponent_RegisterChannels( &self->playback, &self->bufferProcessor, &playbackFrames, &xrun )' failed in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 4118
Expression 'PaAlsaStream_SetUpBuffers( stream, &framesGot, &xrun )' failed in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 4359
After I tried that I got a bunch of errors too when I tried to run espeak, and it just said the first letter of the word, although I don't really know how to use it or set it up, but it does look like there could be a real problem there as you say.