Hi, I got your email about this, but might as well answer it here.
The talking thing I've used in all my projects is RB's algo, and and asm program to run the chip.
Basically, it's like a talkbot brain, but before they existed. Mine connects to a pic with a 5 bit parallel interface,
and has a signal line output to indicate it's playing in case you need to know when the current sample has finished.

These days I'd just go for the talkbot brain, and it's software, since I do believe it's open source,
should be easier to load samples, and you should be able produce your own hardware.