Ey up, Alexa, fancy a brew and a bit of tiffin?
Amazon’s voice assistant has hundreds of regional words added in an effort to diversify its vocabulary
IF YOU were to ask Alexa what to do if you got a cheeselog in your scuffler, chances are she would not be able to understand you.
The answer, as people from Surrey or West Yorkshire would probably know, is to put your bread roll in the bin, as it has a woodlouse in it.
Regional accents are a problem that has long flummoxed Amazon’s voice assistant, but now the language experts who develop the AI technology hope to change that by adding hundreds of regional words to its vocabulary.
Words and phrases will include “ta-ra” or “toodle pip” for goodbye and the greeting “ey up”. The voice assistant will even learn that slaters, gramersows, woodpigs and granny greys are all different names for terrestrial isopods, or woodlice.
The extensive vocabulary update will mean that if users fancy a cup of tea or “brew” in Manchester, Alexa will understand them – and even the Cockney rhyming slang, “rosy lee”.
That is, of course, not to be confused with “tea”, otherwise known as “dinner” down south and “supper” by some, all of which the assistant will now register. Long gone will be the confusion over bread rolls, with Alexa able to pro- vide details on “baps” in Scotland and the North East, “barms” in the North West and “cobs” in the Midlands.
Those who speak Cockney rhyming slang will also be able to order “strides” if they mean trousers and tell Alexa that they’re “hank marvin” or starving.
Elevenses, munchies, afters and nibbles will all be part of the new vocabulary update as well as tiffin (which has origins in India), snap (used in the East Midlands and parts of Yorkshire and derived from a snap tin used by miners), bait (used across the country to mean everything from a packed lunch to a short break for food) and lowence and looances (both from Yorkshire).
While many will disagree about the exact meanings and use of some of the terms, if Alexa users are still fed up that she can’t follow them, they can tell her that she’s talking nonsense with the words rubbish, tosh, twaddle, tripe, keech or poppycock.
The move will come as welcome news after a 2018 report from the Life Science Centre in Newcastle warned that voice assistant technology could threaten regional accents.
The report claimed that four-fifths of speakers with regional accents deliberately adjusted the way they spoke when using voice recognition systems.
Users are encouraged to persevere, as Amazon says that machine-learning means the more people talk to Alexa, the more she gets to know their voice.
The latest additions are part of a collaboration with lexicographer Susie Dent. She said: “Nowhere is the diversity of English vocabulary more apparent than in Britain. Our local languages are constantly evolving and changing.
“It is virtually impossible for people to learn every single phrase and utterance, but with technology getting smarter all the time, perhaps one day assistants like Alexa will understand everything from ‘dabberlick’ (tall and skinny) to ‘crumpsy’ (grumpy).”
Language experts at Amazon’s Cambridge development centre will also train Alexa on regional dialects, but it’s not just voice assistants that struggle with them – a poll by Amazon Alexa showed 34 per cent of people found it difficult to comprehend British dialects, with 52 per cent saying they just “nod along” when they do not understand.