Britons might speak English, but they speak many rich varieties of it. They revel in their dialects, those regional differences in language that have historically identified different areas. Microsoft is celebrating that, and is currently wrapping up a project of local dialect dictionaries which will be available for free download next month. Theidea was born in Australia last year, where Microsoft produced a dictionary of the country’s slang, known as Strine. From there it was a natural to look at Britain, where dialects canvary even within the same city, let alone from county to county. The software behemoth asked users to submit their favorite dialect words and has reportedly received thousands of responses, which itis filtering into dictionaries for different areas. It’s also been helped by the British Library, an institution that takes dialect seriously; it even hasa curator of accents and dialects. Some areas, such as Yorkshire and Lancashire, have given heavy responses. By adding the dictionaries, users will be to adapt their software. “It’s the diversity of Britain’s dialects that has led us to develop the new dictionaries. So in future, your Microsoft Outlook will be able to recognise e-mails where you ask your‘marra’ to get you a ‘buttie’ instead of inserting red lines beneath all the unfamiliar words,” explained Darren Strange, product manager for Microsoft Office 2007. The dictionaries will be available to download from July.
