This is good love my HomePod sounds great and Siri is great as well, hears me from around the corner and facing away from it.
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HomePod Now Supports French, German, and Canadian English, While Canadian French Coming Later This Year
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LOL, Apple continues to fail in offering significant services outside of the US...
Australian is the same as Canadian? You must not be a native speaker if you think so. Australian is close to some British dialects but by no stretch of imagination is it close to Canadian.
Canadian English is very close to American English. Canadian English has it's own pronunciation patterns in different parts of Canada, though. I can recognize people from Ontario pretty easily by the way they pronounce "about" (like "a boat"). But, I've met Americans from the areas adjacent to Ontario whose pronunciation is exactly the same as residents of Ontario.
Canadians from the West Coast (in Vancouver and Victoria, BC) speak exactly like Americans who live on the West Coast (in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, etc.). The only real difference between the Canadian and American English is the spelling, which in Canada mostly follows British standards.
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American spelling was intentionally changed by Noah Webster following the American Revolution. Canadians mostly follow British spelling rules, except for in some words American spelling is acceptable as well.
As a non-native speaker I have to say that Canadian English is among the easiest to understand. Australian English along with some dialects from the British Isles is among the hardest to understand (only looking at places where English is the first language, ie, excluding places like Nigeria or India).
Canadian French however is a wholly different matter. I completely understand why it Siri is taking longer to learn to understand it.
I'm not an expert in French, but my son is in French immersion school and is fluent in French at the age of 8. He has had teachers from France, Belgium, and Quebec. I've read up on the differences between Metropolitan French and Quebec French, and it doesn't seem that there is that much of a difference. Some words are different, like the word for blueberry is different in France and in Quebec, and of course, the infamous ARRET in Quebec used differently from the way it's used in France. Also, I remember reading that the word for getting out of the car in Quebec is the same word as the word for getting off a ship, whereas in France it's the same word as for getting off a horse. But, French as spoken by educated French speakers in Quebec is completely standard and fully mutually comprehensible with Metropolitan French. Now, when you go to remote areas of Quebec, then all bets are off, but I'm sure it's the same thing in France. I believe that the differences between standard Quebec French (as it's spoken in Montreal and Quebec City) and standard Metropolitan French (e.g as it's spoken in Paris) are minimal. They are two standard dialects of the same language, with the differences between the two being similar to those between standard British English and standard American English.As a non-native speaker I have to say that Canadian English is among the easiest to understand. Australian English along with some dialects from the British Isles is among the hardest to understand (only looking at places where English is the first language, ie, excluding places like Nigeria or India).
Canadian French however is a wholly different matter. I completely understand why it Siri is taking longer to learn to understand it.
I can see a reason fo adapting Siri to Quebec French; however, I see no point whatsoever in Siri making a distinction between Canadian and American English. They should name it North American English and call it a day.
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North American English has a number of sub-dialects, and Siri has to deal with all of them. In the USA, there are a number of significantly different regional sub-dialects, as well as some ethnic dialects. Canada, consisting of its own regions, would have its own regional sub-dialects. Overall they are not much different from some of the US dialects; however, by checking "Canadian English", the user helps Siri make a more educated guess as to which sub-dialect is in play. It's a hint that makes Siri's guesses more reliable. Why they don't also offer for people to select "Alabama English", I can only speculate. It may just be more politically acceptable to ask people what their nationality is, than to suggest they speak some regional dialect.
Well that's the point, you shouldn't have to. In the morning when I tell Siri on the HomePod to stop the alarm, she doesn't understand but Google Assistant does
I would say that Siri needs to be adapted to the Southern dialect of American English as well as to the New England dialect of American English much more than it needs to be adapted to Canadian English. Funny enough, Southern dialect of American English as it's spoken in rural Alabama sounds to me much closer to Australian English than it does to American English.
American Siri doesn't say sorry. American Siri pulls out a gun and tells you to repeat the question very carefully.
Canada doesn’t follow British spelling but for a few words. Most incongruencies in spelling between English and American side with American.
All it is is a few -re words and -our words. That’s it. British spelling incongruences to American far exceed that small deviance. Categorising them all would take pages and pages. If you own an oxford dictionary of English and bracket it against a Collins or other Canadian dictionary it would be obvious. Merely reading the BBC would show the many differences, again which can’t me minimised to -re and -our spellings.
For example? What British spelling does it not follow? Categorise instead of categorize. Travelling instead of traveling. Favour instead of favor. Centre instead of center. Practise (as a verb) instead of practice. Give me one example when British spelling is considered incorrect in Canada.
Are you referring to words like learned or burned instead of learnt and burnt? Well, the spelling of these words is based on pronunciation, and pronunciation in Canada is North American. However, in the UK “learned” and “burned” is used quite often too (about 30%).
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Those spellings are not accepted generally in university, nor are they taught in school, nor are governmental papers spelled according to British English. They are spelled according to Canadian, which takes from a few British accepted spelling lists and applies them.
You could take a look at this list for example which goes from A to Z, or again, juxtapose accepted spellings, of tire/tyre for instance. Canadian is American with a few exceptions. That's it.
Edit: I should have noted words that end in -tte, which are a crap shoot in Canadian, and words like cheque, for instance, but again, the variance against British is _at least_ 50% in favour of American, and more like 75%, and that doesn't take into account words that aren't used in Canadian. Canadian is another language against British English, and only barely follows the British spelling where deviance occurs.
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I looked at the list you linked to, and the Canadian spelling is about 80% same as British. Tire/tyre is one if the few exceptions.
Almost all the -ize/ise worse and their -yse -yze variants go to American. I already gave the -our and -re words as those are Canadianisms. Remove those as they are givens and read that list again.
Well, even if the words used are the same (they're not), the way they're pronounced is VERY DIFFERENT.
Paris French sounds very different than even how educated people around Quebec would speak (I'm an Engineer and got my degrees from Polytechnique, HEC and McGill). I'm french Canadian and I've lived in France for years (and in the US too) and even dated a french guy for 5 years so I think I'm well versed on the differences.
Of course, we can understand Paris French (cause it's the one mostly used in French movies), but that doesn't mean the different is not significant enough to make speech recognition difficult.
Anyone who thinks Canadian English sounds like US English has a very poor ear for dialects.
It doesn't sound the same as upstate NY, NYC, Connecticut, Massachusetts or Michigan or Illinois.
So, where on earth does it sound similar as?
Just listen to say, the CBC or CTV or GLOBAL national news and tell me it sounds the same as CNN, ABC, CBS news... Come on.
Does this mean the Home Pod will apologize when its Quebecois owners drop 'tabarnak' every three or four words in a fit of rage at why it's not working correctly?
Won't happen cause they'll would use ostie instead and oh, it will work fine... So it won't happen.
"Thank you, Keirasplace. I'll order "toasted macadamias right now for you." Thank you for using the Siri order function. Good day."