[Chintan Gohel]

As far as I know these countries have cortana:
USA - US English
UK - British English
Spain -Spanish
Germany - German
Italy - Italian
China - Mandarin I believe
France - French

now because of colonialism, a good number of countries adopted the same language such as Kenya adopting British English, Algeria with French, Mexico with Spanish

So why can't we get cortana even though we speak the same language?

[Zulfigar]

Governments and regulations.

[Cruachan 11]

Accents, dialects and regional variations will have a lot to do with it too. Nominally, I speak the same language as a Scot as those from the US, Canada (parts of), Australia, South Africa (parts of) and the Republic of Ireland as well as the rest of the UK, and no doubt many more I haven't mentioned.

However, all of these places have different accents, inflections and regional variations, and the same will be true of other languages, such as Spanish or Portuguese, that are used in multiple countries

[Harrie-S]

The understanding of "normal" words is not a problem. Like " What is the time" etc.
But the local "names" for example towns / streets / placed / surnames is the difficulty. Cortana needs to "understand" them and needs to "know" how to pronounce them. And should it be in "English" or the "local language".

[Chintan Gohel]

Accents, dialects and regional variations will have a lot to do with it too. Nominally, I speak the same language as a Scot as those from the US, Canada (parts of), Australia, South Africa (parts of) and the Republic of Ireland as well as the rest of the UK, and no doubt many more I haven't mentioned.

However, all of these places have different accents, inflections and regional variations, and the same will be true of other languages, such as Spanish or Portuguese, that are used in multiple countries

Some places don't have accents.

[Chintan Gohel]

The understanding of "normal" words is not a problem. Like " What is the time" etc.
But the local "names" for example towns / streets / placed / surnames is the difficulty. Cortana needs to "understand" them and needs to "know" how to pronounce them. And should it be in "English" or the "local language".

Nairobi is Nairobi, irrespective of whether spoken in English or Kiswahili

[nailzer]

Some places don't have accents.

What place doesn't have an accent ?

[Chintan Gohel]

What place doesn't have an accent ?

Many I should believe. Or at least the accents are so minor as to be indistinguishable.

[Pete]

It's not just based on language. Cortana depends on many data feeds being in place to give relevant results. There's a lot of local regulations and agreements to be drawn up and ratified. This becomes more difficult where Google have snapped up rights to data providers.

So, the problem isn't language, it's local infrastructure and legalities.

[Chintan Gohel]

It's not just based on language. Cortana depends on many data feeds being in place to give relevant results. There's a lot of local regulations and agreements to be drawn up and ratified. This becomes more difficult where Google have snapped up rights to data providers.

So, the problem isn't language, it's local infrastructure and legalities.

You're right I should think. Another thing would be reliability and relevance of local data. I'm imagining some of the data that Cortana sources for you like the nearest restaurant or the best route to take wouldn't work in most countries because local mapping data isn't up to date and extensive.

Just the other day I checked maps for the route between points A and B in Nairobi. Imagine my surprise to see it was 13km when walking and 3.2km when driving. How? In which situation can the walking distance be more than driving distance? I went using the driving route since that should also be the walking route and I got to where I needed to.

[Pete]

Here in the UK, people aren't allowed to walk along motorways or major roads, and Cortana's walking directions takes this into account. This is a good example of why the accuracy of local information is so important.

[Chintan Gohel]

Or local weather data. The few times I have checked local weather for the next day have turned out to be wrong or underestimated. Heavy showers expected tomorrow turned out to be a blazing hot day. Rains expected across several towns and cities came to nothing