Samantha says Alabama when saying Al

By Bruce 62, 18 February, 2016

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Using my iPad Mini The voice Samantha in VO using both the default and enhanced versions says Alabama when the name Al is read (when a large A is read with a small l). This is also occuring when Al Qaeda or another Arabic name of a publication from the Arab world is read. It became so annoying that I am now using Alex instead of Samantha. I do prefer Samantha because her pronunciation of names and places is superior to Alex.

I have already reported this problem to Apple Accessability and there is no fix as of yet. Has anyone else come across this problem with Samantha? The rep at Apple Accessability stated that I was only the second person that had reported this problem. I had reported this problem just before Christmas 2015.

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Comments

By Brian Unitt on Thursday, February 25, 2016 - 20:28

I had no idea the name Al appears so often in the things I read until this bug cropped up. It is truly annoying, and I agree that other than this bug, I much prefer Samantha over Alex.

By Roxann Pollard on Thursday, February 25, 2016 - 20:28

My girlfriend's husband is named Al. Of course, his name has been changed to Alabama, at least as far as Samantha is concerned. Other than that annoyance, I also much prefer Samantha default voice. To my ear, it is the cleanest sounding.

By Troy on Thursday, February 25, 2016 - 20:28

She has done this as far back as I can remember but she says Tornado torwado if the t in tornado is capitalized, but if not she says it normal.

By MissThea on Thursday, February 25, 2016 - 20:28

This completely drives me nuts! I've looked through settings to find a 'turn off abbreviations' choice, but there is none. Get over yourself, USA! I tried Alex, but he pronounces "Maurice" as "Morris". By the way, I hear there's an African-American voice called Seriqua. I want it but can't find it. They have all these voices; why have they not come out with African-American? Most of all, please cut out these United States abbreviations. The next time I hear Siri say "Alabama Jarreau" ...

By Joe on Thursday, February 25, 2016 - 20:28

Last time I checked the USA didn't creat the Iphone. Get over yourself, USA. Someone's a little jelly.

By DPinWI on Thursday, February 25, 2016 - 20:28

While the Alabama thing bothers me, the mispronunciation of capital B really irks me.

Not familiar with the term. My bad, then. I was pretty certain Voice-Over, Siri, or something like that was US-made. Still, I wish someone had thought that "Al" and "Cal" are proper names, and if I went looking for "Alan Jarreau" in Apple Music, I'd get a "no search results" found. The English voices pronounce "Al" right, but they mispronounce "Maurice" as "Morris"--two different names. I couldn't even get the English voices to pronounce my own name right. It would insist on saying "The'" instead of "Thea". I followed instructions, and it still wouldn't cooperate. In other news, I found that Siriqua was a hoax, someone's idea of a fun video. There are no African-American voices to be had, and I'd really like one.