diff --git a/src/libespeak-ng/readclause.c b/src/libespeak-ng/readclause.c
index bdc3e601..ed9448c8 100644
--- a/src/libespeak-ng/readclause.c
+++ b/src/libespeak-ng/readclause.c
@@ -807,22 +807,6 @@ static wchar_t *GetSsmlAttribute(wchar_t *pw, const char *name)
 	return NULL;
 }
 
-static int attrnumber(const wchar_t *pw, int default_value, int type)
-{
-	int value = 0;
-
-	if ((pw == NULL) || !IsDigit09(*pw))
-		return default_value;
-
-	while (IsDigit09(*pw))
-		value = value*10 + *pw++ - '0';
-	if ((type == 1) && (ucd_tolower(*pw) == 's')) {
-		// time: seconds rather than ms
-		value *= 1000;
-	}
-	return value;
-}
-
 static int attrcopy_utf8(char *buf, const wchar_t *pw, int len)
 {
 	// Convert attribute string into utf8, write to buf, and return its utf8 length
diff --git a/src/libespeak-ng/ssml.c b/src/libespeak-ng/ssml.c
index b2851a7a..a69a0e54 100644
--- a/src/libespeak-ng/ssml.c
+++ b/src/libespeak-ng/ssml.c
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@
 
 int attrcmp(const wchar_t *string1, const char *string2);
 int attrlookup(const wchar_t *string1, const MNEM_TAB *mtab);
+int attrnumber(const wchar_t *pw, int default_value, int type);
 
 int attrcmp(const wchar_t *string1, const char *string2)
 {
@@ -74,3 +75,19 @@ int attrlookup(const wchar_t *string1, const MNEM_TAB *mtab)
 	return mtab[ix].value;
 }
 
+int attrnumber(const wchar_t *pw, int default_value, int type)
+{
+	int value = 0;
+
+	if ((pw == NULL) || !IsDigit09(*pw))
+		return default_value;
+
+	while (IsDigit09(*pw))
+		value = value*10 + *pw++ - '0';
+	if ((type == 1) && (ucd_tolower(*pw) == 's')) {
+		// time: seconds rather than ms
+		value *= 1000;
+	}
+	return value;
+}
+