If red lines under what you've just typed in Word documents and emails drive you up the wall, here's your chance to make sure that the next version of Microsoft's Office software speaks like a true Brit.
Microsoft is launching a project to find quirky, regional words that it can include in the downloadable dictionary for its office suite package.
So if you get in a right two-and-eight about Americanisms you can bend Microsoft's ear by emailing dialect@microsoft.com.
In charge of deciding which words make it in to the dictionary is the British Library's Jonathan Robinson.
?Britain has a rich heritage of different accents and dialects and, contrary to popular opinion, there is still a great deal of lexical diversity across the UK ? where else would you find the words 'cob', 'batch', 'bun', 'barm cake', 'stotty cake', 'scuffler' and 'bread cake', all meaning bread roll?? said Robinson.
Darren Strange of Microsoft will aid Robinson in judging the contributions to the new online dictionary.
?In future, your Microsoft Outlook will be able to recognise emails where you ask your 'marra' to get you a 'buttie' instead of inserting red lines beneath all the unfamiliar words,? said Darren Strange.
?We wanted to give everyone the chance to adapt and personalise their software, and at the same time recognise the diversity of dialects we use here in the UK that makes us completely different to any other country in the world.?
http://www.microsoft.com/
Topic: Ecky thump! Office goes local (Read 615 times)