Three Nations Divided By A Common Language Says Speech Experts SpinVox

Business Wire, June 24, 2009

Voxgeist tracks cultural variations for everyday words, highlighting the differences across UK, US and Canada.

LONDON & NEW YORK -- SpinVox, a global leader in voice to text messaging has conducted a survey among Americans, Brits and Canadians that highlights the vast differences in the everyday words that we choose although we think we all speak the same language.

Despite nearly 400 million people speaking English as a first language there are oceans of difference between the different forms of English that exist across the globe. English as spoken in the UK, America and Canada is incredibly dynamic, with new words coming into the vernacular at a staggering rate each day. These new words are being picked up and learned by VMCS – SpinVox automated speech to text conversion system - as people start to use them in their everyday conversations, as such they represent the `Voxgeist` of the way people actually speak today.

The Top Ten Most Confused Words with the same meaning between Americans and Brits are:

1. Cellphone vs Mobile

2. Pantyhose vs Tights

3. Subway vs Tube

4. Soccer vs Football

5. Fanny vs Bottom

6. Suspenders vs Braces

7. Trunk vs Boot

8. Coat vs Jacket

9. Faucet vs Tap

10. Diaper vs Nappy

The Top Ten Most Confused Words with the same meaning between Canadians and Brits are:

1. Washroom vs Toilet

2. Chesterfield vs Sofa

3. Entrée vs Starter

4. Hydro vs Electricity

5. Runners vs Trainers

6. Serviette vs Napkin

7. Touque vs Beanie hat

8. Knapsack vs Backpack

9. Pogey vs Dole

10. Pants vs Trousers

“More than 3,000 people from across these countries were asked which words they preferred to use to denote the same item,” says Christina Domecq, co-founder and CEO, SpinVox. “It’s clear from the lists above that even though we claim to speak the same language, we do have differences which can serve to confuse unless they are understood. Speech remains one of the few things we’re able to use to differentiate ourselves and this is reflected in the particularly dynamic evolution of the English language in each country.”

SpinVox Services

With SpinVox you can receive voicemail messages by text and email and make verbal notes to yourself on the go with the SpinVox Memo service. With SpinVox, you can also speak your blog posts and social network updates by simply dialling a number on your mobile phone and leaving a message which will be automatically converted to text and posted on your chosen site. For users with several blogs and networks, a new ‘Ping through SpinVox’ service is available which simultaneously broadcasts spoken updates to thirty of the most popular social networking sites.

SpinVox is free to anyone wishing to use the service to update their blog or social network. Visit www.spinvox.com for more. You can also Ping through SpinVox by signing up at www.ping.fm/signup/spinvox

For more information about SpinVox visit www.spinvox.com.

About SpinVox

SpinVox® is the world's largest privately-held speech technology company, providing the only voice to text messaging services which are used daily by millions of people and whose user base has grown over twenty-fold in the last 12 months.

Through significant innovations in voice and network technologies which are protected by over 70 patents worldwide, SpinVox has converged the two most natural forms of communication - voice and text - to create the fastest-growing form of messaging: Voice-to-Content™.

SpinVox services are available directly from www.spinvox.com, through leading carriers, new media (Web 2.0), Unified Communications and other service providers globally.

Implemented as a carrier-class hosted network feature, SpinVox creates significant new value from everyday natural user behaviour.

At the heart of SpinVox is its ground-breaking Voice Message Conversion System™ (VMCS), which has built the world’s largest spoken corpus by combining state-of-the-art speech technologies with a live-learning language process, giving it unprecedented conversion accuracy, reliability, speed and scale. Developed by the Cambridge, UK- based SpinVox Advanced Speech Group, VMCS now serves users across five continents in English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese and Italian.

SpinVox is now live with Alltel, Cincinnati Bell, Sasktel, Rogers Wireless, Telus, Telstra, Vodacom South Africa, Vodafone Spain, Movistar Chile, Skype and Livejournal.