Do Alexa, Google and Siri understand Suffolk accents? We put them to the test

The revolutionary voice recognition technology can answer questions, tune into radio stations and help organise our lives - without us even having to lift a finger.

However, a survey by SEO agency Spike Digital of 2,000 smart hub users has revealed that 33% of East Anglians find it hard to be understood because of their accent.

To put Amazon’s Alexa hub to the test, Suffolk dialect expert and cartoonist Charlie Haylock checked to see if it could understood some famous Suffolk phrases.

Unfortunately, Alexa did not fare well - struggling to understand what ‘Sloightly on the huh’ and ‘on the drag’ meant while getting utterly confused by ‘I’m frawn o’cold’ and ‘a rum owd dew’.

A special entry into Charlie's News Quips this week, courtesy of a miscommunication Google Home smartspeaker. Picture: CHARLIE HAYLOCK (Image: Archant)

The hi-tech device tried to help - listing haulage companies in Kidderminster and definitions of unrelated words.

Mr Haylock, who authored In a Manner of Speaking: The Story of Spoken English and the famous Sloightly on the Huh, said he wishes there was a Suffolk version of the gadget.

“Some of the answers it was giving were hilariously funny in how inaccurate they were,” he said. “It may be worth buying one just for a laugh.

“I think what will happen is they either the people will stop using these machines or they will have to cater for the different dialects.

There has been a new survey released that reveals 33% of East Anglians struggle to be understood by Siri, Alexa and Google Home devices (Image: Archant)

“I can see the potential but they need to work on dialect.

“I think they need to make a Suffolk one.”

Although East Anglian accents seem to confuse the smart home devices the Welsh struggle the most with the technology, with 45.3% saying they couldn’t be understood.

Rob Powell, from Spike Digital, said: “At least in the good old days – that is, about two years ago – none of this was an issue.

There has been a new survey released that reveals 33% of East Anglians struggle to be understood by Siri, Alexa and Google Home devices (Image: Archant)

“If you wanted to know something from your smartphone or computer, you simply typed it.

“There’s no denying, however, that being able to say requests out loud is much quicker and easier. It seems that smart home devices will just have to learn to wrap their ears around our unique variety of accents.”

There has been a new survey released that reveals 33% of East Anglians struggle to be understood by Siri, Alexa and Google Home devices (Image: Archant)

Do Alexa, Google and Siri understand Suffolk accents? We put them to the test (Image: Charlie Haylock)