Getting Espeakup to open the soundcard instereo

[Kyle]

Espeakup will always send a mono signal to the sound card, because the
sound eSpeak generates is 22KHz mono. It would likely require a
modification of the eSpeak source code to cause it to produce 2-channel
output. That being said, I'm not sure what is causing the sound on the
Raspberry Pi to crash, as I haven't actually messed with one yet, but it
seems to be a problem in older kernels. I have read that there is an
Arch image with Espeakup that is working without crashing, and that
image, as far as I know, runs a fairly new kernel. You may wish to try
that image, unless that's the one you are having trouble using. I don't
currently have a link in front of me, but if you need it, I can find and
copy it.
~Kyle
http://kyle.tk/
-- 
"Kyle? ... She calls her cake, Kyle?"
Out of This World, season 2 episode 21 - "The Amazing Evie"