English regional/country speaking accents

[Alondra]

A couple of days ago I saw a video from Snoop Dog commenting a Planet Earth segment of an iguana v snakes. Apparently is an old one but I never saw it before and thoroughly enjoyed it. Not many videos can make me laugh out loud, and he did..... .....except I could only understand 80% of what he was saying, thank goodness for the subtitles.

I had a coffee with an Aussie friend yesterday and while commenting the video and the fact that after 9 years living in Australia, I still have problems understanding English she breezily said "don't worry, I still get problems understanding some accents as well"

Which led to a lively conversation. I learned English in public schools in Spain where the emphasis is English Oxford grammar....and prepares us shit at all to understand different accents. When I arrived in Australia I couldn't understand a word anyone was saying and was ecstatic when I saw Queen Elizabeth Christmas speech - I understood everything.

I've progressed a bit since then ....but I still have problems with American accents, Scottish accents (much as I love Scots) and other English accents as well (my niece in law is Cornish and boy, I keep saying"What, what?'" when we talk.

So, if you are a born English speaker, do you have some problems understanding other regional/country accents? And if you do, which ones?

It is, and those people are usually from the South or England and fail to recognise that they have a regional accent just like the rest of us.

Native Londoner. English first and only language, London accent. I can't understand most accents but very thick Welsh really baffles me. That and Geordie. They're the accents that trip me up. Otherwise I can understand most accented English.

Thank you for answering what I wanted to know.

I'm wondering how these people saying they can understand all accents easily know this. Accents on TV are usually mellowed with speech being clearer or slower than in real life. Compare real cockney to EastEnders. People who meet coming from x place are likely to have lighter accents than people in x place who've lived there forever so to say that you can understand everyone you would need to have travelled to every small area and conversed with people who've lived there all their lives as have all their grandparents, etc.

Personally, I understand almost everything on TV, but real life is a bit more difficult.

What's interesting is that it's not seen an PC to put subtitles on when people with strong accents speak whereas it is in some countries.

"very thick Welsh really baffles me"

Is there a famous person you can give as an example?
I find it funny that anyone would find us Welsh people difficult to understand. We generally speak the same as English people, the main differences are just intonation, the 'sing song' lilt that Indians also have.

Moving a lot. Everywhere from Torquay to Bristol to Bolton. Working in pubs
Then taking 999 calls for a decade for everywhere from Manchester to Carlisle
Now in a job where I speak to maybe 170 customers a day again from London to Chester to Norwich

Cockney is another idiomatic English I find hard to understand.

There is still a slight difference between Kent and London accents but the old rural Kentish accent has all but died out, one example being soft “oi” sound in words like “light”, which MIL (born in 1900s) had.

I'm wondering how these people saying they can understand all accents easily know this.

I worked for years in an industry that had me traveling all over

@RishisProudMum - love the user name! This mirrors my experience exactly.

@BamBamBilla there's a variety of accents within the SW, dependent upon the area...

Sorry, I’m afraid I’m not sure what you’re saying here. South and West Africa are completely different places, with a range of completely different accents.

Yes @fdgdfgdfgdfg Broad Scots or Lallan is a proper dialect. A lot of my Scots friends slip into it in the right company.

There is no single Celtic language anymore. Rather it is a language group containing Welsh , Cornish and Breton and their cousins Irish , Scots Gaelic and Manx.

Back on topic - I've always found people ppl from Inverness and its environs have the loveliest and clearest diction.

@Alondra Are certain Spanish accents considered 'posh'? Are some harder to understand?
My Galician friend said she was regarded as a sort of yokel in Madrid or Barcelona.

I’m fairly good with accents, but I work with a very diverse team and spent years working in a call centre with a nationwide customer base.

She's saying, your mention of West Africa makes me think of the South African accent. Word association.

I'm English living in South Wales, have lived here since I was 7 so have absolutely no problem generally understanding the Welsh accent, but I do sometimes struggle with the accents of people who speak Welsh with a first language.

I had a great aunt growing up who'd lived her entire life in LLandeilo, so not a tremendous distance away from me in Swansea, and she had an absolutely beautiful voice I could listen to her for hours. I understand bugger all Welsh, so she'd always talk to me in English, but I definitely had to concentrate more with her.

It's just little things I suppose when you speak English as a second language, emphasis on different syllables, wording things slightly different. I spent a week up in Bala last year, and found the same up there. Everyones English was of course perfectly fluent, and it's not like the accent is that strong, but I definitely felt like I had to properly listen

No, there are no accents considered posh in Spain. Spain is in reality a nation of nations, we have 4 official co-languages, 17 autonomous regions and 2 autonomous cities.

No idea why your friend thought she was a yokel in Madrid. The leader of the opposition is Galician, the Spanish PM before Pedro Sanchez was Galician......

Omg what a typo 😂

Native English speaker but not from the UK. Some accents I do find tricky but once I've listened to them for a while it gets easier. Difficult over the phone though

Oh my God. So much prejudice on one wee thread.

To a PP - wouldn't say the SA English is soft - one of the most clipped versions in the world! I was brought up RP in West Africa and have no problem with UK variations and speak a few languages. I think with Geordie, Kerry and lowland/central Scots it's both intonation and the stresses in a sentence are not the same as south and central England or Dublin - and then there are thank the Lord still dialect words - so it's a matter of tuning in.

I can follow most English accents but often need subtitles on American ones.
I struggle a bit with Glasgow but not Scots in general.
Did a job with lots of phone contact in my youth.

Meant to add I would be hopeless with tonal languages from east Asia and parts of Africa - I may have an ear for languages but not for music

Some Spanish accents are difficult to understand. Andalusian can be difficult to be understood (even if it's a dialect from Castilian), and many Latin American Spanish are almost impossible to understand if they are mixed with Quechua. We are talking different languages and not just dialects.

Catalan, Basque and Galician are not Castilian (Spanish) languages.