If You're Scottish, Good Luck Trying To Get Siri To Understand You
by Joe White
October 26, 2011
Apple claims that Siri is compatible with English when spoken by native members of the UK, along with several other countries and languages. However, since the launch of iPhone 4S countless Scottish Apple fans have been reporting that talking to Siri is kind of like talking to somebody who is incredibly hard of hearing.
The voice recognition service (and self-confessed "humble personal assistant") isn't engineered to understand the Scottish accent, it seems. In an article recently published by The Times, the matter is discussed in depth, and various examples are given.
According to the newspaper:
Simple words in a broad accent confound the phone and exasperate the user. One Glaswegian, who habitually signed off with “Cheers” was stunned when it became “Chairs”. And “Can you get me a fish supper on the way home?” prompts: “Jayne, I don’t understand ‘rubber fissionable’.”It might sound funny on the surface, but for a lot of Scottish Apple fans, Siri is little more than a feature they cannot use. In The Times' article, terms like "linguistic imperialism" are thrown about by a language specialist called James Robertson. “If the phone doesn’t recognise a simple word like ‘cheers’ it won’t recognise much,” he notes, adding: “People are obliged to moderate their voices to make themselves understood by machines. It has the effect of modulating everyone’s voice towards the most powerful, dominant people in the world.” I think rather Siri just has trouble with some of the more "diverse" accents out there. Even my own northern English (or, if you like, "geordie-slash-yorkshire") accent leaves Siri stumped at times. Speaking slower helps, though there are always going to be certain region-specific words that the service doesn't understand. Also, remember that Siri is technically in its beta phase of development, though Apple has unleashed the personal assistant upon the world. In the near future, we're likely to see performance enhancements made and support for other languages (and dialects?) added. In the meantime, let us know if Siri understands your regional accent in the comments.