According to a new rumor, Siri may gain support for Japanese, Mandarin, and Russian as early as next month.

Image composite by Joe Aimonetti

The news comes from a Chinese technology news site, DoNews (via Penn Olson), claiming to have spoken to an Apple engineer working on the Chinese-language version of Apple's voice-controlled personal assistant, Siri. The source told DoNews that internal testing has already begun and should result in a public product by next month.

With Apple widely expected to release a new iPad model next month (one that should include Siri functionality), having Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese, and Russian in Siri's arsenal should help broaden the already popular appeal of the iPad (and future iPhones).

The rumor also suggests that Siri will be capable of providing local information and navigation, a function that is currently only available in the U.S.

Right now, Siri speaks English, German, and French, but Apple has promised support for Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, and Spanish sometime in 2012.

Given Apple's focus on the Asian markets, it's no surprise that Apple would want to get Siri compatible with Asian languages as quickly as possible.

In what languages would you most like to see Siri function? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!