Can you understand my accent?
You have an incredibly pleasing dialect.
So began my Saturday morning discussion with my Google Home Mini.
Another apocalyptic story about language and another call for linguists to do some myth-busting, then.
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One issue is practical.
(Warning, contains adult language)
People with non-standard accents are more likely to encounter difficulties communicating when interacting with their smart speakers.
The other issue is social.
But whats important to note is that our virtual assistants are not inherently biased.
Theyre simply replicating the human biases on whichthey are modeled.
Do you like the way I speak?
Sorry, I cant judge.
But I can play you some music.
The internet abounds with clips and complaints.
Will smart speakers stamp out regional accents?
Sorry, I dont understand.
Here are just a few reasons why.
Calm down
Human-to-robot interactions are much less frequent than human-to-human interactions.
The majority of our everyday talk is designed for other humans.
Changing our speech a few times a day to interact with smart speakers wont influence our accents more generally.
Our smart-speaker accents resemble accents that we already use on a regular basis.
We tend not to change our accents drastically when talking to smart speakers.
We might raise our volume, speak more slowly and enunciate more.
We might pronounce things differently but only slightly.
Will you make us all speak like robots, Siri?
Wecreate and enact our identities through languageand other social practices.
Through our speech, we might emphasize our professionalism in some prefs, and our street-cred in others.
Our accents are often a source of regional pride andlinked with a sense of in-group loyalty and belonging.
Were not robots using an input-output model of language.
We speak in certain ways because its meaningful to do so.
So, fear not, the end of rich and varied British accents is not nigh.
If anything, voice-activated artificial intelligence makes regional speech an increasingly important feature of everyday interactions.
Do you prefer to speak with a particular accent?
Im afraid youll have to put up with this one for now.
If we look at their ability to produce language, smart speakers have undoubtedly come a long way.
This article was originally published onThe ConversationbyErin Carrie, Senior Lecturer in Linguistics,Manchester Metropolitan UniversityRead theoriginal article.
