Oxford University Press Selects ScanSoft RealSpeak to Teach Proper Pronunciation to Language Students and Travelers

Comprende? The Answer is 'Yes' with Innovative Text-to-Speech CD-ROM Bundled with Best Selling Bilingual Dictionaries

PEABODY, Mass, and MERELBEKE, Belgium, February 18, 2003 - ScanSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT), a leading provider of imaging, speech and language solutions, today announced that Oxford University Press (OUP) has selected ScanSoft's RealSpeak™ in French, German, Castilian and Mexican Spanish languages for inclusion in its innovative pronunciation CD-ROMs. Beginning April 2003, these CD-ROMS will be included at no additional charge with the new Oxford Spanish Dictionary, the Oxford-Hachette French Dictionary, and the Oxford-Duden German Dictionary*.

The CD-ROMs incorporate ScanSoft RealSpeak, the market-leading product for converting text to human-sounding speech. This revolutionary technology helps students, business professionals, translators and language students to improve pronunciation, intonation and comprehension by listening to text read by a virtual native speaker. Users can type or paste in a word, phrase, or even a whole paragraph and hear it spoken back in perfect Spanish, French, or German.

"We're very excited about this collaboration with ScanSoft," said Vivian Marr, Publishing Manager, Bilingual Dictionaries, OUP. "Its cutting edge technology is a perfect complement to OUP's highly acclaimed, bilingual dictionaries and will revolutionise the way customers use them. We look forward to working on future projects with ScanSoft in the area of dictionary publishing."

ScanSoft RealSpeak is the market-leading product for converting text into human-sounding synthesized speech. The text-to-speech solution is used for a wide range of applications, including implementing voice portals, delivering emails for unified messaging systems, providing prompts for interactive voice response (IVR) applications, and speech-enabling mobile, automotive, game and PC/multi-media applications.

"In a growing global economy, the ability to speak multiple languages is becoming a requirement. Speech technologies significantly enhance foreign language learning by making it interactive and natural sounding. Our text-to-speech solutions accelerate the development of language skills, such as pronunciation and intonation, because students are able to listen to a virtual native speaker," said Peter Hauser, senior vice president and general manager international for ScanSoft. "Additionally, it places ScanSoft's speech products in the best position to speech-enable a wide range of educational and commercial applications."

RealSpeak offers a single, standardised application programming interface (API) that supports the creation of speech-enabled applications in 19 languages: English & US English, German, French, Dutch & Belgian Dutch, Castilian and Mexican Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, Danish, Cantonese & Mandarin Chinese, Korean and Japanese.

About the Oxford Dictionaries

Oxford Dictionaries is the world's greatest dictionary brand. The third edition of the Oxford Spanish Dictionary (ISBN 0-19-860475-0) will be published on 16 April 2003. It covers over 300,000 words and phrases, and 500,000 translations and now contains more than 10,000 new English words and 10,000 new Spanish words. The Oxford Spanish Dictionary is an Open University set text. The Oxford-Hachette French Dictionary (ISBN 0-19-860744-x) covers over 360,000 words and phrases, and 550,000 translations; and the Oxford-Duden German Dictionary (0-19-860743-1) covers more than 320,000 words and phrases, and 520,000 translations. For more information on Oxford Dictionaries please visit www.askoxford.com

*Registration is required by 1 April 2004. Offer applies to UK, Europe, and USA only.

About ScanSoft Inc.

ScanSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT) is a leading supplier of imaging, speech and language solutions that are used to automate a wide range of manual processes - saving time, increasing worker productivity and improving customer service. For more information regarding ScanSoft® products and technologies, please visit www.scansoft.com

Trademark reference: ScanSoft and RealSpeak are registered trademarks or trademarks of ScanSoft Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other company names or product names referenced herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

ScanSoft notes that the statements in this release that relate to future plans, events, or performance, including without limitation projected shipment dates or customers' opting to upgrade to newer or more fully featured products, are forward-looking statements subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause the ScanSoft's actual results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, market acceptance, engineering delays, quality assurance testing delays, contractual negotiations, successful completion of beta site testing, the scheduling of orders, changes in operating systems, a significant change in the competitive environment, timely delivery by component suppliers and other risks detailed from time to time in the ScanSoft's SEC reports. Readers are cautioned not to place undo reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof.

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