Glossary
Locale
A locale is a language combined with a region, and sometimes a script, such as en-GB for English as used in the United Kingdom. Dictation and speech settings use locales because the same language can differ in spelling, punctuation and speech patterns from one region to another.
Updated October 17, 20264 cited facts, each traced to its source
Also called language variant, language and region.
A locale is a language together with the region it is meant for, such as English (United Kingdom) or Arabic (Egypt). In code and in settings, a locale is written as a language code followed by a region code, such as en-GB. Apps call it a language variant, or sometimes a language and region setting. The same language can have several locales, and each one is a separate choice in a dictation menu.
A locale combines a language with a region
The IETF standard for language tags, BCP 47, says that a region subtag is typically used to indicate variations such as regional dialects or usage, or region-specific spelling conventions 1. The tag en-GB therefore means English with the region conventions of Great Britain. The tag en-US means English with the conventions of the United States. A tag can also name a script, but a region tag is the part most dictation menus show.
Microsoft's speech documentation shows the same idea in practice. Its Arabic rows list separate locales for Egypt (ar-EG) and Morocco (ar-MA) 2, so one language appears several times in the same table.
A concrete example: English has many locales in Apple's Mac list
Apple's Dictation list for the Mac includes 15 English language and regional variants 3. They run from English (Australia) to English (United States), with English (Ireland), English (India) and English (Singapore) among them. A person who speaks English from Ireland, or who writes in British spelling, should choose the locale that matches. The choice affects which speech model the device uses and the conventions for spelling and punctuation.
Apple also lists automatic punctuation for 11 of its English variants 4. A locale can therefore decide whether punctuation is added for you, or whether you must speak the punctuation marks yourself. Check the locale when you check that feature.
Why it matters for dictation and typing
Choosing the locale is the first setting to check when dictation seems wrong. A recognizer tuned for one region may spell or pronounce a word differently from your speech, and a locale can also switch punctuation and number formats. If your language is missing from the menu, the device may offer the nearest locale, which is not always right. Our guide on how to change the dictation language on any device lists the steps for each platform, and the guide on dictation languages compares what each app supports.
A locale is a setting, not a measure of how well the system will work. A locale can be listed and still be recognized less accurately for your voice.
Locale is different from accent and dialect
A locale is a setting you choose in the device. An accent is how a person pronounces the language, and a dialect is a variety with its own vocabulary and grammar. Someone with a strong regional accent may get the best results from the locale of their country, while someone who speaks a second language may need a different one. Test both before deciding.
Related terms
- Accent: how a speaker pronounces a language, which a locale does not describe.
- Dialect: a regional or social variety of a language.
- Non-native speech: speech in a language that is not the speaker's first, often recognized best with a matching locale.
- Automatic speech recognition (ASR): the system that uses the locale to choose its models.
Guides and questions that cover it
Evidence
Every number on this page, with where it comes from. Open a fact to see the exact words in its source.
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Related terms
- Dictation Languages, Accents and Voice TranslationThe topic this term belongs to
- AccentAn accent is the way a speaker pronounces a language, shaped by where they grew up, their first language or their community. Accents change pronunciation, not vocabulary, and speech recognition error rates can differ sharply from one accent to another.
- Character error rate (CER)Character error rate (CER) is the number of character insertions, substitutions and deletions needed to turn a recognizer's output into the correct text, divided by the number of characters in the correct text. It is the usual measure where words are not separated by spaces.
- Code-switchingCode-switching is the habit of moving between two or more languages within a conversation or a single sentence. Speech recognizers built around one language often misread the switched words, so mixed speech is harder to dictate than speech in one language.
- DiacriticsDiacritics are marks added to a letter, such as the acute accent in é, the tilde in ñ or the vowel marks in Arabic, that change how a letter sounds or which word it spells. Speech tools and everyday writers often leave them out, so a dictated word can come out spelled differently from what you meant.
- DialectA dialect is a regional or social variety of a language, with its own vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. Speech recognition is usually less accurate on dialects than on the standard form, because labeled training data for dialects is often scarcer.
- Input method editor (IME)An input method editor (IME) is software that supports text input for characters that cannot be typed easily on a standard keyboard, such as many East Asian characters. Speech input can also be an input method, and Android allows only one input method to be enabled at a time.
- Low-resource languageA low-resource language is one with little digital speech and text data for training speech recognition and other language tools. There is no fixed cutoff, and a language can be well resourced for one task and poorly resourced for another.
- Modern Standard Arabic (MSA)Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), also called Fusha, is the standardized form of Arabic used in writing and formal speech, such as news broadcasts and official documents. Speakers use regional dialects in everyday conversation, and speech tools recognize formal Arabic more accurately than dialect speech.
- Non-native speechNon-native speech is speech in a language that is not the speaker's first language, often called L2 speech or foreign-accented speech. Recognizers can transcribe read non-native English well, but they handle hesitations, repetitions and revisions differently, and results depend on the system.
- PinyinPinyin, also called Hanyu Pinyin, is the system that spells Mandarin Chinese syllables with the Latin alphabet and marks the tones with diacritics. People type Chinese by spelling the sound in Pinyin and choosing the character they want, and speech tools must choose among characters that share one Pinyin spelling.
- Right-to-left (RTL) scriptA right-to-left (RTL) script is a writing system, such as Arabic, Hebrew, Persian or Urdu, whose letters run from right to left. Text that mixes these letters with digits or Latin words is bidirectional, so software needs a specific algorithm to order and display it.
- Speech translationSpeech translation converts speech in one language into the same meaning in another language, as text or as synthesized speech. Most systems first recognize the speech and then translate the text, so a recognition error carries into the translation.