Seymour Flops
Diamond Member
I just got my first iPhone. I never bothered with Alexa, if that's the smartphone version, but I liked a lot of the other features, so I thought I'd try Siri. Some observation:
The Irish, australian and English voices are much more American than I'd like. But I think that reflects reality. When I was a kid in the last century, accents were much more pronounced. Now it seems we have imported our accent, if not our love for personal and economic freedom.
There is a "South African" voice. It sounds very similar to the English voice to me, and I could not identify it as a Black South African. There are five American voices, but none of them have much of an accent. 1-4 seem to be youthful and mature American male and female. None of them sound like American blacks. Is the South African supposed to be that?
But number 5 . . . I suppose it is supposed to be a transgender person? It sounds like a male deliberatly changing his voice, which is the epitome of transgender.
So, why not have an African-American voice, which are a far larger percent of our population than trans folk?
The Irish, australian and English voices are much more American than I'd like. But I think that reflects reality. When I was a kid in the last century, accents were much more pronounced. Now it seems we have imported our accent, if not our love for personal and economic freedom.
There is a "South African" voice. It sounds very similar to the English voice to me, and I could not identify it as a Black South African. There are five American voices, but none of them have much of an accent. 1-4 seem to be youthful and mature American male and female. None of them sound like American blacks. Is the South African supposed to be that?
But number 5 . . . I suppose it is supposed to be a transgender person? It sounds like a male deliberatly changing his voice, which is the epitome of transgender.
So, why not have an African-American voice, which are a far larger percent of our population than trans folk?