Friday, January 17, 2025

To those of you from "Bless-Your-Heart-land," (AKA the Deep South), when your accents make some words sound like other legit words (like "lock" in place of "like" and "dapper" in place of "diaper,") does that cause speech-to-text apps to give you trouble?

 

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To those of you from "Bless-Your-Heart-land," (AKA the Deep South), when your accents make some words sound like other legit words (like "lock" in place of "like" and "dapper" in place of "diaper,") does that cause speech-to-text apps to give you trouble?

LANGUAGE

If so, what words do speech-to-text apps mishear, what are you really trying to say right then, and how do you adapt?

And, bless the hearts of the devs who programmed these apps, what particular speech-to-text apps mishear you the most? How do you feel and react to their mis-texts? Any hilarious such examples you'd lock... er, like, to share?

 

 

[–]GhostOfJamesStrangBeaver Island 30 points  

I know it's off topic, but this is an obnoxious post title. 

[–]wcpm88SW VA > TN > ATL > PGH > SW VA 9 points  

Extremely obnoxious lmao

[–]Richard_Nachos 3 points  

Needs more words.

[–][deleted]  

[deleted]

[–]DucksaucenemFlorida 2 points  

Including their name, date, time, their contact info. All that shits already available Judy!

[–]scotchirishwhere the stars at night are big and bright 2 points  

And yes, it's always a Judy

[–]EvaisAchuTexas - Colorado 18 points  

Not deep south, but rural Texas. Siri only understands me completely if I turn on my customer service voice. She pisses me off regularly. 

[–]G00dSh0tJans0nNorth Carolina Texas 3 points  

"Customer service voice" yes, that's great! I usually call it "newscaster" voice.

[–]QuercusSambucusLives in Portland, Oregon, raised in Northeast Ohio 1 point  

Is that because your customer service voice pronounces things more like a standard American English accent? Do you have problems with people not from your region understanding you?

[–]EvaisAchuTexas - Colorado 2 points  

Yes, I learned to mimic a generic American accent when I was in high school and that became my customer service voice. It helps most on the phone since call quality is often not super great. Also just generally helps avoid any negative stereotypes associated with the accent.

I don’t think any native english speaker has had a hard time understanding me due to the accent, more so the words/phrasing that might be more unique. Unless I was speaking quickly.

The only people I have ever had that had issues understanding me consistently were those that spoke English as their second language. Which makes sense, they learn the generic pronunciations and not the regional ones. 

[–]No-BrowEntertainmentMoonshine Land, GA 4 points  

I saw a sketch like that once. Two Scottish guys in a voice-activated elevator. Eventually they’re like “oh this is an English lift” and they start doing these ridiculous posh accents. 

[–]Ginger_Sunset 3 points  

I might have found it! Thanks for the rec. I really needed a laugh today lol

[–]Otherwise_Trust_6369 18 points  

The Deep South is a few states south of the 35th line of latitude (SC, FL, GA, AL, MS, LA, etc.) It has nothing to do with Southern accents and on top of that the examples you list are inaccurate. Southern accents are more likely to have a pen/pin merger for example.

[–]tu-vens-tu-vensBirmingham, Alabama 7 points  

I mean, the Deep South does quite literally have to do a lot with Southern accents. Southern accents are native to those states, and differences in Southern accents follow the Deep/Upland South divide. That divide doesn’t strictly follow state lines (Montgomery is strictly Deep South; Fort Payne is not), but the state lines are a decent approximation.

[–]abbot_xPennsylvania but grew up in Virginia 2 points  

My mom is from the Virginia Tidewater and has a complete pin/pen merger. If she realizes she's created an ambiguity, she will spell the word: "Do you have a pen I can borrow, p-e-n?"

[–]G00dSh0tJans0nNorth Carolina Texas 3 points  

Wait, do some people pronounce pen and pin differently? Did you mean to say pan and pen? Or pain, pan, pen, and pin which all pretty much sound the same?

[–]sleepygrumpydocCalifornia 8 points  

Those 4 words all sound different to me if I was to say it.

[–]PersonalitySmall593 5 points  

I'm really struggling to figure out how Pen and Pin can sound different.

[–]CurmudgyMassachusetts 1 point  

Here’s a youtube video listening exercise for the difference, but I don’t know whether it actually helps people with the merger to hear the difference.

But question for you: Do pet and pit sound the same to you?

[–]PersonalitySmall593 1 point  

I can hear the difference but "Pen" sounds like someone trying to say "Pan" with an accent. Pet and Pit sound different. Pit and Pin are the same (except doe the T and N sound of course). But Pet has the "eh" sound.

[–]CurmudgyMassachusetts 1 point  

Does that help you understand the difference between pen and pin? For those of us who say them differently, pen rhymes with pet and pin rhymes with pit (as far as the vowels sound).

[–]PersonalitySmall593 1 point  

Yes, I have never heard the difference from anyone in real life so it sounds really weird to my ears.

[–]royalhawk345Chicago 0 points  

Pen has an e sound and pin has an i sound because that's how they're spelled. Which one are you saying?

The difference

[–]PersonalitySmall593 2 points  

Pen and Pin rhyme with Ten where I'm from.

[–]QuercusSambucusLives in Portland, Oregon, raised in Northeast Ohio 1 point  

My wife can hear the difference but can't distinguish in her own speech. Her family is from SC and TN. I'm from Ohio and it's clear as day.

They are different sounds. Your ears aren't tuned to distinguish them.

[–]royalhawk345Chicago -1 points  

Weird. Are all short i words like that? Do you say "Ellenois?"

[–]PersonalitySmall593 2 points  

Illinois is pronounced "ill-eh-noi" older generations tend to say the S at the end,

Is this how you pronounce pen?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDTQ5si6VA8

[–]royalhawk345Chicago 0 points  

Gross

[–]sleepygrumpydocCalifornia 0 points  

Does gin rhyme with Pen where you are from? If not gin and pin sound the same minus the first sound.

[–]PersonalitySmall593 2 points  

Yep.  Gin, pen, pin....  all rhyme to me

[–]No-BrowEntertainmentMoonshine Land, GA 5 points  

Yes, other dialects of English pronounce pen and pin differently. The same goes for cot and caught. British English tends to separate them more afaik.

The vowel sounds in pan, pen and pin are all close to the front of the mouth, but get progressively higher. Pain has a diphthong.

[–]G00dSh0tJans0nNorth Carolina Texas 2 points  

What about ten and tin? Those are the same to me. Also if I’m two beers deep tin, ten, and tan all pronounced the same

[–]abbot_xPennsylvania but grew up in Virginia 4 points  

You have the pin/pen merger . . . not much else to say!

[–]No-BrowEntertainmentMoonshine Land, GA 1 point  

Standard English pronounces pin, tin, and bin with the jaw slightly higher and the corners of the mouth slightly raised compared to pen, ten and been.

The former uses /ɪ/ for its vowel and the latter uses /ɛ/. Both are front vowels but /ɪ/ is higher.

[–]G00dSh0tJans0nNorth Carolina Texas 1 point  

Maybe in England but this is Murica and here we speak Merican Where, dare, hair, bear, dear, beer all rhyme.

[–]curlyhead2320 1 point  

From Murica. My Merican: where, dare, hair, bear rhyme. Dear, deer, and beer rhyme with each other but not with the others. Ten and tin are different.

[–]Big-Detective-19Georgia 2 points  

Yes I encountered it a lot in the mid-Atlantic, especially over my pronunciation of Pennsylvania. My cousin, also from Georgia, went to boarding school in New Hampshire and she was made fun of for saying pen and pin the same. This was in the 80s so it could have changed since.

[–]WashuOtakuNorth Carolina 0 points  

pAEIn, pAAAn, pAEn, pIEn. They all sound different.

[–]G00dSh0tJans0nNorth Carolina Texas 1 point  

To some people that might be the case

[–]SteampunkExplorer 8 points  

I can't really comment on text-to-speech apps, but I'm in the "shallow south", and we also say "bless your heart". 🙃

[–]Remarkable_Table_279Virginia 3 points  

“Shallow South” love it 

[–]CurmudgyMassachusetts 1 point  

I don’t know what that means.

[–]Jackalope_Sasquatch 3 points  

Yes, it misinterprets things for me and I don't even have that strong of a southern accent anymore. There are several words that it gets tripped up on; the only example I can think of at the moment is "they are" for "there." 

[–]Appropriate-Fold-485Texas 4 points  

I've never used voice to text or speech recognition, but I also don't pronounce diaper as dapper or like as lock. Never met anyone from the South who says that.

[–][deleted] 7 points  

does that cause speech-to-text apps to give you trouble?

Yes until I switch to my telephone voice.

[–]DOMSdeluiseTexas 2 points  

my southern accent is pretty mild but I also don't use text to speech apps so this has never ben a problem

[–]HorseFeathersFurSouthern Appalachia 4 points  

Speech to text is not meant for anyone who doesn’t have a Hollywood accent … nope can’t use it

[–]0le_Hickory 1 point  

Yes

[–]Help1TedFlorida 1 point  

I’ve asked my mother-in-law who has a pretty thick accent why she doesn’t use these options on her phone to text. She claims there’s something wrong with them. But I have witnessed it on her phone and it just hears the words that it sounds like she is saying, and not the words she’s trying to say. For example owl and Al are the same. Bell sounds like bail or bale. It’s the vowels that are the problem. Mostly they just get elongated and possibly another syllable or more gets added.

But it’s not just texting apps that have the issue. I’ve seen people having problems communicating in real life. Especially when outside of their specific area.

[–]flying_wrenchesGa➡️IN➡️GA 1 point  

Yes.

I have an Amazon Alexa I use for stuff around the house, and the tiny bit of southern drawl I picked up (I have my parents northern accent) makes it fairly difficult to use.

The trigger word of “computer” is a pain..

[–]jaebassistAL -> CT -> TN -> CA -> TX -> MD -> MO 1 point  

I'd answer this if I could read

[–]ProfessionalAir445 1 point  

Is this some kind of challenge to write the longest and most convoluted title possible

[–]ProfessionalAir445 1 point  

Wait, add “corniest” to that also 

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