Siri Slips Up, Leaks Upcoming Support for Japanese Language

By Tech Wire Asia | 16 February, 2012

After rumors of Apple launching support for additional Siri languages in a month’s time, Siri itself has hinted that it already knows Japanese, and support for this locale is coming soon.

Siri is the one of the main selling points of the iPhone 4S. Apple has promised additional languages within the year, although Siri itself has leaked that it already knows Japanese. (AP)

Apple has earlier confirmed that it was working on support for additional languages for its popular Siri speech-powered personal assistant. The service has been a selling point for the iPhone 4S launched in October, but there is currently no support outside of its currently-supported English, French and German languages.

A developer working with Siri’s China-based localization earlier leaked that additional languages like Chinese, Korean, Italian, Japanese and Russian were coming in a month’s time. Now, it seems Siri itself has confirmed it already knew how to understand and speak Japanese.

“What languages can you speak?” Siri was asked. It responded “I can speak French, English, Japanese and German… but I’m always learning,” reports Hana Stewart-Smith at ZDNet. Stewart-Smith further posits that Siri’s quip that it’s “always learning” might signal that additional languages might, indeed, be coming soon.

Siri currently supports various English dialects, as well, and can understand specific accents and variations, such as American, British and Australian English. Other users report to have difficulties, though, as Siri is said to struggle with understanding Scottish and Japanese accents.

With Siri leaking that it now supports Japanese, is an official release coming soon?