UK dialects to be added to Office dictionary

Your Microsoft Office spell checker might be a little different in future - the software behemoth wants you to send it quirky dialect words to include in its dictionary. Quite why you'd be writing such slang in a word document is beyond us but hey, we quite fancy the idea of it.

So here we go with the inevitable 'token use of slang' paragraph. If you know your 'dannies' (hands) from your 'neb' (nose), or your 'buttie' (sandwich) from your 'tatties' (potatoes) then you need to send your entries to dialect@microsoft.com with details of where you live and where the word is from (if you know). Send them to us too as we'll round up the best in a blog.

Microsoft is offering five copies of Microsoft Office 2007 Professional as prizes.

The submissions will first be picked through by language expert 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?" Robinson is an expert in accents and dialects at The British Library.

Microsoft says the update will be available to download for those interested, so you can banish red lines from your, er, regional writing.