1. A method of identifying language of text in a handheld electronic device having at least one application for receiving text from a source external to the handheld electronic device and having available thereto a plurality of indicator lists with each indicator list comprising a number of linguistic objects which are indicative of a preselected language and which are in a different language from the linguistic objects of the other indicator lists, the method comprising: analyzing received text for frequency of use of characters in the received text to at least preliminarily determine an encoding of the received text; comparing linguistic objects of the received text to at least some of the linguistic objects of at least two of the indicator lists to determine if a proportion of the quantity of linguistic objects of the received text that are found in a particular indicator list reaches a preselected threshold; upon determining that the preselected threshold has been reached, identifying a language of the received text; verifying the correctness of the encoding when the preselected threshold is reached or exceeded; and adding new words of the received text to a word list associated with the language of the received text, to facilitate generation of text using disambiguation.