Com a ajuda de David Foerster descobri que o erro mencionado acima se deve ao fato de que o Android NDK inclui seu próprio compilador C, então meu NDK estava usando o GCC 4.6 que não suporta C11 Então eu atualizei meu NDK para r16 e resultou no erro abaixo.
root@ap-vbox:~/eSpeak/espeak-master# make V=1 apk-release
cd android && ndk-build
/home/apertium/android-ndk-r-16/android-ndk-r16/prebuilt/linux-x86_64/bin/python: 10: /home/apertium/android-ndk-r-16/android-ndk-r16/prebuilt/linux-x86_64/bin/python: Syntax error: word unexpected (expecting ")")
/home/apertium/android-ndk-r-16/android-ndk-r16/prebuilt/linux-x86_64/bin/python: 10: /home/apertium/android-ndk-r-16/android-ndk-r16/prebuilt/linux-x86_64/bin/python: Syntax error: word unexpected (expecting ")")
Android NDK: WARNING: APP_PLATFORM android-14 is higher than android:minSdkVersion 1 in ./AndroidManifest.xml. NDK binaries will *not* be comptible with devices older than android-14. See https://android.googlesource.com/platform/ndk/+/master/docs/user/common_problems.md for more information.
/home/apertium/android-ndk-r-16/android-ndk-r16/prebuilt/linux-x86_64/bin/python: 10: /home/apertium/android-ndk-r-16/android-ndk-r16/prebuilt/linux-x86_64/bin/python: Syntax error: word unexpected (expecting ")")
make[1]: Entering directory '/home/apertium/eSpeak/espeak-master/android'
rm -f ./libs/arm64-v8a/* ./libs/armeabi/* ./libs/armeabi-v7a/* ./libs/mips/* ./libs/mips64/* ./libs/x86/* ./libs/x86_64/*
rm -f ./libs/arm64-v8a/gdbserver ./libs/armeabi/gdbserver ./libs/armeabi-v7a/gdbserver ./libs/mips/gdbserver ./libs/mips64/gdbserver ./libs/x86/gdbserver ./libs/x86_64/gdbserver
rm -f ./libs/arm64-v8a/gdb.setup ./libs/armeabi/gdb.setup ./libs/armeabi-v7a/gdb.setup ./libs/mips/gdb.setup ./libs/mips64/gdb.setup ./libs/x86/gdb.setup ./libs/x86_64/gdb.setup
[mips] Compile : ttsespeak <= case.c
/home/apertium/android-ndk-r-16/android-ndk-r16/toolchains/llvm/prebuilt/linux-x86_64/bin/clang -MMD -MP -MF ./obj/local/mips/objs/ttsespeak/__/__/src/ucd-tools/src/case.o.d -gcc-toolchain /home/apertium/android-ndk-r-16/android-ndk-r16/toolchains/mips64el-linux-android-4.9/prebuilt/linux-x86_64 -target mipsel-none-linux-android -fpic -ffunction-sections -funwind-tables -fstack-protector-strong -fmessage-length=0 -Wno-invalid-command-line-argument -Wno-unused-command-line-argument -no-canonical-prefixes -g -mips32 -O2 -DNDEBUG -Ijni/include -Ijni/../../src/ucd-tools/src/include -Ijni/../../src/include -Ijni -DANDROID -std=c11 -DINCLUDE_KLATT -DINCLUDE_SONIC -D__ANDROID_API__=14 -Wa,--noexecstack -Wformat -Werror=format-security --sysroot /home/apertium/android-ndk-r-16/android-ndk-r16/sysroot -isystem /home/apertium/android-ndk-r-16/android-ndk-r16/sysroot/usr/include/mipsel-linux-android -c jni/../../src/ucd-tools/src/case.c -o ./obj/local/mips/objs/ttsespeak/__/__/src/ucd-tools/src/case.o
/home/apertium/android-ndk-r-16/android-ndk-r16/toolchains/llvm/prebuilt/linux-x86_64/bin/clang: 1: /home/apertium/android-ndk-r-16/android-ndk-r16/toolchains/llvm/prebuilt/linux-x86_64/bin/clang: Syntax error: ")" unexpected
make[1]: *** [obj/local/mips/objs/ttsespeak/__/__/src/ucd-tools/src/case.o] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/apertium/eSpeak/espeak-master/android'
make: *** [jni] Error 2
Eu estava usando uma caixa virtual para isso. Mas quando eu tentei compilar o mesmo em um sistema instalado Ubuntu não houve problemas. Tudo correu bem e compilado. Então, acho que o problema foi com minha caixa virtual.