Localisation and linguistic anomalies

Interactive systems may seek to accommodate users whose first language is not English. Usually, this entails a focus on translation and related features of localisation. While such motivation is worthy, the results are often less than ideal. In raising awareness of the shortcomings of localisation, we hope to improve the prospects for successful second-language support. To this end, the present paper describes three varieties of linguistic irregularity that we have encountered in localised systems and suggests that these anomalies are direct results of localisation. This underlines the need for better end-user guidance in managing local language resources and supports our view that complementary local resources may hold the key to second language user support.