This paper investigates the role of English in voice assistant (Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant) use from the perspective of language ideology. Major commercial companies in the voice assistant market use English as a training language for their speech technologies and offer the most optimised support for standardised varieties of English. This affects the experiences with voice assistants of speakers of non-European languages, i.e., one of the non-target audiences. Drawing on qualitative interview data from Turkish-speaking users who migrated to Germany, the present study reveals that the participants iconize English as the “standard” language in digital contexts, constructing it as the “original” language of speaking computers. By conducting an inductive analysis, the article demonstrates that not only the lack of technological support, but also specific discourses about Artificial Intelligence, impact perceptions of English. These developments have implications for our understandings of prestige and digital literacy in human-machine interactions.

中文翻译：

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“你是苹果公司，为什么用土耳其语跟我说话？”：英语在语音助手交互中的作用

本文从语言意识形态的角度探讨了英语在语音助手（Siri、Alexa、Google Assistant）使用中的作用。语音助手市场的各大商业公司都将英语作为其语音技术的训练语言，并对标准化英语品种提供最优化的支持。这会影响非欧洲语言使用者（即非目标受众之一）的语音助手体验。本研究利用移居德国的土耳其语用户的定性访谈数据显示，参与者将英语视为数字环境中的“标准”语言，并将其构建为计算机的“原始”语言。通过归纳分析，文章表明，不仅缺乏技术支持，而且有关人工智能的具体话语也影响了人们对英语的认知。这些发展对我们对人机交互中的声望和数字素养的理解产生了影响。