SpeechRecognition.lang

The lang property of the SpeechRecognition interface returns and sets the language of the current SpeechRecognition. If not specified, this defaults to the HTML lang attribute value, or the user agent's language setting if that isn't set either.

Syntax

var myLang = mySpeechRecognition.lang;
mySpeechRecognition.lang = 'en-US';

Value

A DOMString representing the BCP 47 language tag for the current SpeechRecognition.

Examples

This code is excerpted from our Speech color changer example.

var grammar = '#JSGF V1.0; grammar colors; public <color> = aqua | azure | beige | bisque | black | blue | brown | chocolate | coral | crimson | cyan | fuchsia | ghostwhite | gold | goldenrod | gray | green | indigo | ivory | khaki | lavender | lime | linen | magenta | maroon | moccasin | navy | olive | orange | orchid | peru | pink | plum | purple | red | salmon | sienna | silver | snow | tan | teal | thistle | tomato | turquoise | violet | white | yellow ;'
var recognition = new SpeechRecognition();
var speechRecognitionList = new SpeechGrammarList();
speechRecognitionList.addFromString(grammar, 1);
recognition.grammars = speechRecognitionList;
//recognition.continuous = false;
recognition.lang = 'en-US';
recognition.interimResults = false;
recognition.maxAlternatives = 1;

...

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
Web Speech API The definition of 'lang' in that specification.	Draft

Browser compatibility

• [1] Speech recognition interfaces are currently prefixed on Chrome, so you'll need to prefix interface names appropriately, e.g. webkitSpeechRecognition; You'll also need to serve your code through a web server for recognition to work.
• [2] Can be enabled via the media.webspeech.recognition.enable flag in about:config, although note that currently speech recognition won't work on Desktop Firefox — it will be properly exposed soon, once the required internal permissions are sorted out.

Firefox OS permissions

To use speech recognition in an app, you need to specify the following permissions in your manifest:

"permissions": {
  "audio-capture" : {
    "description" : "Audio capture"
  },
  "speech-recognition" : {
    "description" : "Speech recognition"
  }
}

You also need a privileged app, so you need to include this as well:

  "type": "privileged"

See also

• Web Speech API