# Regional Accents



## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

This is a very entertaining tour of Britain by dialect coach Andrew Jack






I wonder whether other European countries or the Americas have similar regional patterns. Care to share?


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I love all the accents on here. Within a few hundred miles we have all sorts of diversity, not only in speech, but also in folk music, proverbs, and some might say, outlook. Variety is the spice of life!

However, not everyone feels the same. Experiments over the years have shown that some accents like Scouse & Brummy are not generally admired & if people 'read the news' in this accent they are perceived as less authoritative, compared with received pronunciation. Curiously, a Scottish accent is perceived as *more* authoritative than RP - well, except Glasgow!

But if you want a bit of menace, a Glaswegian accent comes in handy - as when our college had some intruders from the streets, somewhat tough looking youths, but when Taggart appeared and told them to go away, they did, pronto!


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Germany has marked regional dialects that unmistakably place a speaker's regional origin, when speaking standard German.

What I found endlessly amusing was that southern Germans would place my origin in the Cologne area. No further west, I'd say. Much further. Canada!


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## Musicophile (May 29, 2015)

Well sure!

For the languages I speak:

Germany (old but very good): 





It gets worse if you add Switzerland (which claims to speak German in most of the country, but most Germans would disagree), and Austria, which both have strong national dialects of German but with regional nuances.

Italian. A French friend of mine who learned Italian in Milano was laughed at when she came to Rome for the first time sounding like a Northerner. The innocent word she used was "Gamberetti", shrimps, and the difference is mainly in the first "e".






French. This video is a bit strong, as there is, in a centralized country like France, a rather common general accent, with the South-East and South-West being the main deviators.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

In Canada, we seem to speak pretty much the same standard Canadian English. I cannot distinguish a person's regional origin by their accent, since there is none (experts might detect the vaguest hint of an aura of what might place a person's regional origin). The only real exceptions are Newfoundlanders (Newfies), who often speak in a manner amongst themselves than can be close to unintelligible; and Québecois, who speak with a strong French Canadian accent and whose English is characterized by the dropping of the final s and curious (French idiomatic) usage of articles and pronouns (some, the, he, she, etc.).

Much of the western and northwestern USA speaks much like us, except that they might use some idiomatic expressions that place them as Americans.


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## Musicophile (May 29, 2015)

By the way, does anybody have a similar video for the US? Working for a Californian company now and having worked for a Connecticut-based firm earlier in my life I'm rather fine with the West and East Coast, but whenever my counterpart is from somewhere South it gets trickier.


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## Musicophile (May 29, 2015)

brotagonist said:


> In Canada, we seem to speak pretty much the same standard Canadian English. I cannot distinguish a person's regional origin by their accent, since there is none (experts might detect the vaguest hint of an aura of what might place a person's regional origin). The only real exceptions are Newfoundlanders (Newfies), who often speak in a manner amongst themselves than can be close to unintelligible; and Québecois, who speak with a strong French Canadian accent and whose English is characterized by the dropping of the final s and curious (French idiomatic) usage of articles and pronouns (some, the, he, she, etc.).
> 
> Much of the western and northwestern USA speaks much like us, except that they might use some idiomatic expressions that place them as Americans.


For Québecois I often need subtitles.


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

German has many more spoken dialects than, say, English (where actual dialects are becoming rarer), such as Bavarian, Swäbisch, Saxon, Alemannic, Alsatian, Franconian and the dreaded Swiss German (which itself has many dialectical variants). Some of these dialects are so different to Standard German and each other that they are not aurally mutually intelligible.


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## Chris (Jun 1, 2010)

I once heard an actor explaining how to do accents. It's all to do with the point or points of tension in the mouth, nose and throat. Shift that focus and the accent will change.


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

Delicious Manager said:


> German has many more spoken dialects than, say, English (where actual dialects are becoming rarer), such as Bavarian, Swäbisch, Saxon, Alemannic, Alsatian, Franconian and the dreaded Swiss German (which itself has many dialectical variants). Some of these dialects are so different to Standard German and each other that they are not aurally mutually intelligible.


Yes, I speak German but have a lot of trouble understanding any of the real dialects, even after quite a bit of exposure. Swiss German is especially bad.

I guess the closest things we have in English are in northern Scotland and the West Indies, but I don't think even those dialects are as different from standard English as the German dialects are from standard German.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Taggart said:


> This is a very entertaining tour of Britain by dialect coach Andrew Jack
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I love regional accents and my favourite is probably Geordie as my Mum was a Geordie lass.


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## TurnaboutVox (Sep 22, 2013)

isorhythm said:


> Yes, I speak German but have a lot of trouble understanding any of the real dialects, even after quite a bit of exposure. Swiss German is especially bad.
> 
> I guess the closest things we have in English are in northern Scotland and the West Indies, *but I don't think even those dialects are as different from standard English* as the German dialects are from standard German.


Listen to these and see if you still think so. This is Aberdeen City, by the way - the accent changes every few miles (or used to: of course these are older speakers). But these are very similar to what I grew up hearing in the 60s and 70s.

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H09LZN8Ryq8


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## Lucifer Saudade (May 19, 2015)

This is lovely! I want to see a French one too.

I'm not a native speaker but I was absolutely_ fascinated _ with British accents so I meticulously practiced it for months on end. Eventually I could speak in a tolerably impressive ((faux, obviously)) RP accent, with a tinge of Londonesque in it when needed. It has faded away by now and now my accent is a hybrid of British, American and sometimes Russian English.

I still pull if off rather well tho, were we to gloss over the nuances 

P.S I still remember going to London on my 13th birthday and barely understanding a single word when spoken to in Cockney. I was absolutely enamo*u*red. What sort of fascinating creatures can twist the English language to such a point that it becomes absolutely incomprehensible?

I had to learn that trick


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## Lucifer Saudade (May 19, 2015)

Surprisignly few vids on usa regional accents:


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

Sometimes I hear tourists speaking a language that sounds familiar and I think what language is that. German? Danish? Dutch? then I hear that they speak English.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Why so many accents in the UK? I am puzzled.


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## Lucifer Saudade (May 19, 2015)

ArtMusic said:


> Why so many accents in the UK? I am puzzled.


Every country has a lot of regional accents, really.


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## TurnaboutVox (Sep 22, 2013)

ArtMusic said:


> Why so many accents in the UK? I am puzzled.


I think that it is to do with people not having the means, the opportunity or the motive to travel in the past, perhaps up to and for some time after World War II for most classes of people. People, working class people especially, tended to be born, grow up, live, marry and die in one community. In older generations of British people it's clearly those who had the means to travel, the opportunity (to be educated, to encounter people who spoke differently, e.g. in the armed forces like my grandfather) and the motive (to see the world beyond their home community) who speak without (or with a less pronounced) regional accent.

The English (Gloucestershire) author Laurie Lee writes well about this in his novel "As I Walked Out one Midsummer Morning".

Although you can still detect a distinct Aberdonian accent in the speech of many of today's young adults, it's no-where near as strong and many of the dialect words have disappeared. Of course, they encounter different varieties of English every day now with the influence of the oil industry and the University, and holidays abroad.

Old Scots, and the Doric dialect which I posted above, is, I understand, the historic result of a divergence from Old English due to the influence of Scandinavian-influenced Middle English-speakers from the North and Midlands of England in the 12th and 13th centuries; from Latin (used in the church and legal system), Norman French and later French due to the Auld Alliance (of Scotland and France) as well as Dutch and Middle Low German influences due to sea trade with the Low Countries. It also includes loan words from Scots Gaelic.

I have been enjoying comparing the Danish and Norwegian languages to Doric Scots on my current holiday in Denmark and Norway - there are many similarities!


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## Guest (Aug 20, 2015)

Accents in the UK can be sufficiently variable within a single conurbation, detectable by the local population. A distance away of just a few miles will identify you as a "foreigner" !!!


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Lucifer Saudade said:


> Every country has a lot of regional accents, really.


You are right, my country( The Netherlands) people from the north are speaking their own languages (Fries).
In the south the have what we called a soft g, so those two are just examples .
Even the people from Rotterdam versus Amsterdam (only 75 km) are very proud of there own accent.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

dogen said:


> Accents in the UK can be sufficiently variable within a single conurbation, detectable by the local population. A distance away of just a few miles will identify you as a "foreigner" !!!


None more so in my county - in some areas a journey of about ten miles (or maybe less) can take you into another soundworld completely.


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

TurnaboutVox said:


> I have been enjoying comparing the Danish and Norwegian languages to Doric Scots on my current holiday in Denmark and Norway - there are many similarities!


When I listened to the video, I spotted many influences (both in vocabulary and pronunciation) from the Scandinavian languages (presumably Old Norse originally).


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## Guest (Aug 20, 2015)

elgars ghost said:


> None more so in my county - in some areas a journey of about ten miles (or maybe less) can take you into another soundworld completely.


Indeedy. I once walked into a small pub 12 miles from home and when I spoke at the bar to order drinks I got the impression the whole pub suddenly stopped talking and looked at me (no one had noticed me until I spoke) 
Slightly disturbing!


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

dogen said:


> Indeedy. I once walked into a small pub 12 miles from home and when I spoke at the bar to order drinks I got the impression the whole pub suddenly stopped talking and looked at me (no one had noticed me until I spoke)
> Slightly disturbing!


Sorry about that - I'll tell the lads not to do it next time you walk in. :lol:


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## Guest (Aug 20, 2015)

elgars ghost said:


> Sorry about that - I'll tell the lads not to do it next time you walk in. :lol:


I'd appreciate that!!

(At least I was from the same county. Aliens from beyond the border would have been put in the cellar. With Big Mungo.)


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

As for 'mutually intelligible' - it's pretty difficult within England sometimes.

I remember going to a southern seaside resort, Worthing & the tide was in, leaving nothing but a line of pebbles. I saw a local woman and asked her if, at low tide, the beach had s*a*nd (short Northern vowel *a*).

I had to repeat this several times before finally the penny dropped: 'Oh, you mean s-*a-ye-ee*-nd!' (Well, that's what the vowel sounded like to me.) :lol:


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

I actually was in Aberdeen once, with another American friend, and a group of locals on the street asked us if we had the time. They had to repeat themselves three or four times before we figured out what they were saying.


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

For the most part, the whole West of the United States speaks the same neutral "Western" accent of American English. That said, there are some unique features of California English, which I apparently speak with. I once recorded my voice online and a person from Wales was able to correctly identify that I was from California by listening to me speak.

One feature is the fronting of the /u/ sound, so much so that words like "food" and "dude" (a common California word) are pronounced with a /u/ sound that resembles the German "ü" or the French "u" ("fewd" and "dewd" lol). Another is that words like "but" and "fun" sound almost like "buh-it" and "fuh-in". Also, apparently the short "e" sound (as in "bet") is moving toward the short "a" sound (as in "bat"), so that when I say a word like "Western", it sounds almost halfway between "Western" and "Wastern".

I also make no distinction between "Mary", "merry", and "marry", and no distinction between "caught" and "cot". Oh, and I say "hella" and "yadidimean" a lot 



Lucifer Saudade said:


> Every country has a lot of regional accents, really.


True, but older countries tend to have more. In America, for example, there are more regional accents in the East than in the West. As English-speaking people moved Westward and settled the West, their accents began to blend together and a single accent is spoken throughout much of the Western U.S. compared with the more variety in the East.


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## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

For some reason I find any kind of British accent impossible to imitate (even half-assedly). Non-native accents are usually easy on the other hand.


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## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

Some years ago I had a shunt in a car that more or less wrote it off. I called the AA. Although the shunt happened near Bedford the AA man originally hailed from somewhere in County Durham. I could not understand one single word he addressed to me. Luckily I had a friend from Newcastle with me who was able to "translate". Thus the AA chap would go "hadda yadda wadda" and my chum would then say, "You like sausages (or whatever the topic was at that instant), don't you?" to me and I would nod or whatever. This went on for an hour or so. God knows what I would have done if I had been stuck in the cab of the lorry on my own. Even my Geordie friend said he had difficulty understanding some of what was said. 

I never expected to be unable to understand (in effect) every word a native English speaker (who was sober) said to me.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I have told this before, but in the context, it bears repeating: I couldn't understand my own grandfather... 

I was in my later teens - a grammar school girl who grew up in York; my Grand-dad was a 'wee free' from the slums of Dundee, a fish hawker born in the 1890s. We were on holiday in the highlands and had visited my grandparents for the day in their council maisonette on the Kingsway. In addition to having a very thick accent - he said 'lather' for 'ladder' - my grandfather also had a very thick slurry voice and spoke quickly but indistinctly.

_(In comparison, my grandmother was easy to understand. She came from what was considered to be a higher echelon of the working class, having been a jute weaver who'd worn gloves at the machine, and who had taught herself to play the piano which her mother's house contained. Such are the subtle gradations of the British class system, which I cite here merely to mystify the Americans.) _

Anyway, my Granddad & I were alone in his kitchen, and he said, 'Werra borra nari barran?'

I hadn't a clue, but I smiled politely, and said, 'Yes.'

'Werra borra nari *barran*?' - With frustrated agitation.

I smiled again.

Finally, with exaggeratedly slow enunciation, he said, '*Were you bo-rr-n in a ba-rr-n*?'

He was wanting me to shut the door, which I had left open! :lol:


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

The question was asked about why Britain has so many dialects/accents. One reason is that from the end of the last Ice Age to 1066 there have been major migrations washing over Britain and Ireland. Ireland was spared the Anglo Saxons but most of Britain was overrun in time. The Scandinavians established some towns in Ireland but took over half of England. Unfortunately from the Anglo Saxons it was taking care of the Norse in the north that allowed William the ******* and his Normans the chance to invade in the south and bring the French language with them. The English who invaded Ireland in 1189 spoke French not English. 

With all those different languages and areas of influence it is not surprising that different languages evolved. It is also good to remember that most people did not travel more than a few miles from where they were born so it was not unusual that the common man would have a very hard time understanding another commoner from the next valley over. 

Here in Utah, we live in the cultural shadow of California so we have picked up a few of their habits. We also are part of the large Midwest "standard" accent. However, there are some localisms. One thing we don't have as much as in California is the "Valley Girl" habit of ending every sentence with an upward intonation. It sound like you are asking a question with each statement. Skater/Surfer dialect is not so big here either. Spoken mostly on the coast it is the source of a remarkably stupid sounding speech. "Narly bra". By which they mean "Very good, brother". I don't know where narly comes from but bra, which is usually spelled "bro" is a shortening of "brother". Here in Utah you are most likely to hear this spoken by snow borders.
One thing that has become prevalent in the west generally is the dropping of "t" or"nt" usually in the middle of a word but sometimes at the end. For example in a word such as "mountain" it is increasingly be pronounced as "mou'en" with a slight stop where the "nt" had been. Or in a word such as "carton" it is pronounced as "car'on". Again with the stop instead of the "t". To me this is just slovenly pronunciation but when the news presenters are using it, it shows that it is becoming accepted and eventually will be part of the dialect. Just like it is now acceptable to say Febuary instead of February or sez instead of says. etc.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

drpraetorus said:


> The question was asked about why Britain has so many dialects/accents. One reason is that from the end of the last Ice Age to 1066 there have been major migrations washing over Britain and Ireland. Ireland was spared the Anglo Saxons but most of Britain was overrun in time. The Scandinavians established some towns in Ireland but took over half of England. Unfortunately from the Anglo Saxons it was taking care of the Norse in the north that allowed William the ******* and his Normans the chance to invade in the south and bring the French language with them. The English who invaded Ireland in 1189 spoke French not English.
> 
> With all those different languages and areas of influence it is not surprising that different languages evolved. It is also good to remember that most people did not travel more than a few miles from where they were born so it was not unusual that the common man would have a very hard time understanding another commoner from the next valley over.
> 
> ...


A very interesting post :tiphat:

However, I don't quite go along with the censure of pronunciation as 'stupid' or 'slovenly'. Most of us speak two versions of our native language & can switch from local to formal as the occasion demands.

Re the glottal stop, it is 'cool' for young people on this side of The Pond too, but it is also historically part of some British accents, such as Cockney or Scottish Glaswegian, and in Yorkshire dialect, it replaces the word 'the' - in the catchphrase 'Trouble at *t'*mill?' the* t' *represents a glottal stop.

Your 'narly bra' intrigued me. 
I presume that the word's related to 'gnarly' so I googled 'gnarly' and found that it has three very distinct meanings in American speech:
http://www.learnersdictionary.com/qa/the-3-meanings-of-gnarly
The meaning of 'difficult' must have come first, from the idea of gnarled trees, and then it became a term of praise much as music could be 'really *mean*' for the beatniks, and '*wicked*' for the youth of today - because turning their elders' standards on their heads is part of being young.
Well - that's my theory, and I'm sticking to it! 

As for bra/bro, short for brother, a similar usage is found in Norfolk (England), where locals used to address each other as 'bor', which was short for 'neighbour'. I first came across that in *David Copperfield*. It's still found today, but more self-consciously.

First the printed word and now the media are standardising speech. Many colloquialisms are now accepted, which were not 'correct', when I was young. e.g. I still wince when I hear 'he was laying in bed', which in standard English should be 'lying in bed', and it's now quite normal to hear 'he was that bad!' which was a Yorkshire-ism frowned on by my schoolteachers.

But language is as it is. Unless it's a dead language, it is going to change, whether we like new usages or not.


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## Genoveva (Nov 9, 2010)

drpraetorus said:


> One thing we don't have as much as in California is the "Valley Girl" habit of ending every sentence with an upward intonation. It sound like you are asking a question with each statement.


This matter of speaking in a manner whereby statements sound like questions is discussed in this BBC article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28708526

The general conclusion of the article seems to be that it is not entirely clear where this way of speaking first arose. Whilst Americans tend to think it started in California, on the other hand many Brits think it was imported from Australia via TV "soap", whilst some New Zealanders reckon they were its first proponents, etc.

What seems to be pretty clear is that "Uptalk", whatever its primary origins, is catching on like wildfire in several parts of the English speaking world, and it has become so prevalent that it is often overlaid on local regional accents.

I'm slightly afraid to say that I don't like any form of this rising intonation manner of speaking. In fact, it makes me wince whenever I hear it. I would even admit that sometimes I feel somewhat annoyed with people I'm conversing with should choose to respond with a statement that clearly sounds like a question when no question is intended.

This peculiar way of talking is made even worse by those people who combine it with various other modern developments in spoken English such as including the word "like" unnecessarily in their sentences, merely as a way of prolonging the statement or possibly to add emphasis. It's made even worse when they use "can I get?", when this is entirely inappropriate, but instead they actually mean "may I have?"


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## Guest (Aug 24, 2015)

Genoveva said:


> What seems to be pretty clear is that "Uptalk", whatever its primary origins, is catching on like wildfire in several parts of the English speaking world, and it has become so prevalent that it is often overlaid on local regional accents.
> 
> I'm slightly afraid to say that I don't like any form of this rising intonation manner of speaking. In fact, it makes me wince whenever I hear it. I would even admit that sometimes I feel somewhat annoyed with people I'm conversing with should choose to respond with a statement that clearly sounds like a question when no question is intended.


I'm considering installing a sturdy, protective clear screen in front of the television to protect it from further damage, inflicted by various random missiles hurled at it by my partner as she screams "IT'S NOT A ******* QUESTION!!!"


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

For many years I had a very rough time understanding a British couple who spent part of their year here in the US attending our church. Both were born in England ... it wasn't until we visited London, and thus exposed to British English full time that it all became very clear and understandable. 

From those days forward we could completely understand what they were saying. Part of our time was spent visiting with this couple at their home on the outskirts of Liverpool. It was a very enjoyable experience to finally take in all the words with their foreign (to us) dialect. 

After returning home, I set up my GPS unit for British English voice prompts. Just have to get used to "slipway" instead of "on ramp" when getting to the freeways (motorways), and "way out" instead of "exit". :lol:


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## Kivimees (Feb 16, 2013)

Ingélou said:


> But if you want a bit of menace, a Glaswegian accent comes in handy - as when our college had some intruders from the streets, somewhat tough looking youths, but when Taggart appeared and told them to go away, they did, pronto!


I found myself having to ask for directions once in Glasgow a few years ago. After the man was finished, I just nodded and thanked him - but I didn't understand a single word. I had no such problems in Aberdeen or even the Orkneys.


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## Genoveva (Nov 9, 2010)

Kivimees said:


> I found myself having to ask for directions once in Glasgow a few years ago. After the man was finished, I just nodded and thanked him - but I didn't understand a single word. I had no such problems in Aberdeen or even the Orkneys.


If you think the Glaswegian accent is difficult, how about this classic interview given by a man from Strabane in Northern Ireland:


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## Kivimees (Feb 16, 2013)

Even we have our regional dialects. For instance, on the western islands they pronounce õ like ö and in the southeast they pronounce ö like õ.

But the most difficult is the dialect spoken across the gulf. They call it Finnish and it's incomprehensible.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Genoveva said:


> If you think the Glaswegian accent is difficult, how about this classic interview given by a man from Strabane in Northern Ireland:


Thank you! I first remember seeing this on TV in the 70s and I never knew where it was exactly from until now.


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## Lucifer Saudade (May 19, 2015)

drpraetorus said:


> One thing that has become prevalent in the west generally is the dropping of "t" or"nt" usually in the middle of a word but sometimes at the end. For example in a word such as "mountain" it is increasingly be pronounced as "mou'en" with a slight stop where the "nt" had been. Or in a word such as "carton" it is pronounced as "car'on". Again with the stop instead of the "t". To me this is just slovenly pronunciation but when the news presenters are using it, it shows that it is becoming accepted and eventually will be part of the dialect.


Strange, I mostly encountered this in British accents and have thus incorporated the glottal stop into my own accent. BBC presenters use it too, if I recall correctly. "Bo'le" instead of "Bottle" and "Cur'ain" instead of "Curtain" - fairly common in Britain.


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## TurnaboutVox (Sep 22, 2013)

The 'glottal stop' is part of some regional British accents, and not others: many modern urban Scottish accents use one; Estuary English (around London and south East England also does, for instance but in Lancashire centrally placed 'T' sounds are very prominent, despite using the 'stopped' "t' " for 'the'. In Manchester expect to hear 'boccle' for bottle (uuuuurgh!)

It's a minefield, I tell you!


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## Guest (Aug 26, 2015)

Lucifer Saudade said:


> Strange, I mostly encountered this in British accents and have thus incorporated the glottal stop into my own accent. BBC presenters use it too, if I recall correctly. "Bo'le" instead of "Bottle" and "Cur'ain" instead of "Curtain" - fairly common in Britain.


Not much is common, it's a country of myriad accents and dialects. I know from personal experience if I travel 200 miles east, in England still, I have difficulty being understood.


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

It is often said that England and America are two countries separated by the same language. Anybody know who said it first?


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

The usual attribution is Shaw, but it is not in his published works. It originates from the a Readers Digest apothegm of 1942. 

Wilde commented "We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language. " (Canterville Ghost 1887)


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