Thanks to Dom Watt for pointing out this BBC clip on the limitations of the iPhone i4s when it comes to recognising voices:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-15475989
- it finds non-standard Scottish accents hilariously difficult at times, as the reporter shows when he goes around a part of Aberdeen asking people to ask the 'phone questions. (One of the interviewees refers to the local accent as Doric, which is one of its other names:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doric_dialect_%28Scotland%29 )
Interestingly, I didn't have a problem watching this news-report even though I am in the US at the moment. I thought all the BBC's online streamed video was limited to UK viewers, but clearly not.
The clip includes a second or so from a sketch about a voice-operated lift not coping with Scottish accents, which is also hilarious if you have four extra minutes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3JcHhA7M-Y
Damien
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Damien Hall
University of Kent (UK / Royaume-Uni)
Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, 'Towards a New Linguistic Atlas of France'
Projet de recherche: 'Vers un Nouvel Atlas Linguistique de la France'
English Language and Linguistics, School of European Culture and Languages
Section de Langue et Linguistique Anglaises, Faculté de la Culture et des Langues Européennes
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