The abbreviation handling is poor, with no easy way to turn it off. For example, in these two examples:
Mr. Smith
Mr Smith
The sound changes depending on whether the period is present or not.
To me, the one with the period pauses before "Smith". Is this what you are hearing? Ideally, it should either not pause in both cases or pause briefly in both.
This is it. Ideally, it probably shouldn't pause in either case.
If a sentence doesn't start with a capital letter, there's no pause after the last one. for example in this one. This makes sentences run together if they're not written correctly.
This annoys me as well. It is typically a lack of a period. The complication here is where do you insert the pauses without it sounding stilted in other cases.
Lack of a period? In this case, there is one. It should pause after "one". One isn't an abbreviation.
What is eSpeak trying to optimize for here? Are there examples where you wouldn't want it to pause at the period (assuming the last word isn't something like mr.)?