Lost in translation: The iPhone's accents problem

[nik's note: this is funny]

SEASONAL scene somewhere in Scottish theatre land:

"Whit did ye get her fir Christmas?"

"Ah firgoat."

"Ye firgoat? Aw, did she gie ye hell?"

"Eh?"

"Well ye said ye firgoat"

"Naw, ah fir goat."

And so the pantomime joke continues, for as long as the colourfully clad dames can draw it out. Eventually the smaller, fatter ugly sister will understand that her taller, scrawnier stage sibling has given a present of a fur coat. But the confusion inevitably won't end there. "Whit fir?" The answer: "Fir tae keep her warm." Obviously. 

The Google application for iPhone, which was developed in the US, is supposed to allow users to search for information by recognising the words they say. Unfortunately, there have been some serious transatlantic translation glitches.

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