Wednesday 1 October 2014
Dr What?!
With global Englishes a hot topic in Language Change, it is worth noting that accent becomes an issue when accessing information in unfamiliar contexts. I've had problems penetrating the Geordie accent on the phone in the past... and English speakers with accents from another country must have even greater problems. Hence this article. But notice it says that accent is not the only (or even the principal) issue with Peter Capaldi's Dr Who.
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Also this skit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMS2VnDveP8
ReplyDeleteAnd this Mail article on voice recongnition software from 2008 - have things improved since, do you think? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-562830/Regional-accents-problem-centres-voice-recognition-technology-fails-understand-them.html
ReplyDeleteI was impressed with the voice reader on the scholarly articles database (in British, Australian or American English accents, no less!) though. (My A2s will know what I mean.)
ReplyDeleteAnd just to have some idea of how impenetrable an accent can be, watch this Star Trek parody: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Khrpy4V0-U4 (just to keep it in the genre of the original post!)
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