Is it possible to change the speech rate in OS X say command?

Question

say -v Alex "Hello"

Is there a way to change the speed of speech like there is in the speech settings of System Preferences -> Date & Time -> Clock -> Customize Voice?

Answer 1

Yes, there is. The command

say -v Alex "Hello" -r 200

will cause the voice Alex say "Hello" at a rate of 200 words/minute.

Answer 2

There is also an embedded speech command for changing the rate:

say '[[rate 200]] hello'

Answer 3

FWIW: I'm on Big Sur and the -r/--rate is simply ignored. However, the embedded command as described by @lri still works.

P.S. I see in an earlier comment that 10.13 also had that issue. Well...