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?

I get so, so pissed off when people "can't understand" my accent. I'm from Newcastle and have a soft/posh Geordie accent. I don't use colloquialisms unless speaking with other Geordies.
There are several Londoners who work in my office and treat me like a parrot always getting me to say things and bursting into laughter. Eg

Them: oh do you remember those chocolates that you'd get at the airport and were triangle shaped? What were they called again?
Me: oh a toblerone?
Them: wheeeeyyyy *cackle cackle"

But what's worse is during a meeting or when I'm presenting, they make constant jokes about needing subtitles, asking me to send them my 'script' etc. Forever interrupting making me repeat myself.

Most frustrating thing is the office is based in Newcastle. I just so happen to be the only 'local lass' with any hint of an accent.

So fucking rude.

“I am”, as Father Time said “old” and during my lifetime have seen changes in colloquial English grammar and inflexion.
(What young person ever says “I was standing/sitting” any more?)
I can remember when I first heard someone using the rising inflexion. It was mid 60’s SI NZ by someone returning from a sojourn in the NI. Over the years I watched it move through and country and England.
In England I find I could comprehend the majority of TV programmes where there are local accents without subtitles. It’s now habit and we use subtitles on all programmes which is required as so many have poor audio

That's bullying. I feel so sad for you

I don't need sympathy. I'm actively dealing with this and those blokes won't know what's hit them 😁

And there is also Scottish English, which has some different vocabulary, sometimes borrowed from Scots, sometimes English words used differently ("without").

I am American (from the Deep South), and I have a reasonably "good ear" so I can understand most accents, but I admit to having to put subtitles on for some Scottish content, even though I have lived in Scotland.

Good. What a bunch of twats

I used to struggle to understand people born and raised 3 miles away from where I was born and spent half my childhood.

My auditory processing isn't great so the faster an accent is, the more sounds are dropped or deviate from more "standard" pronouncuations the more I'll struggle. It's more about the individual than the accent itself. I love Ken Bruce's voice... I'm glad Rab C Nesbit isn't a radio presenter 😂

The county I live in now has lots of subtle differences in accent depending on what it picks up from surrounding counties. It used to take me a few weeks to get up to speed on the local micro-accent. There was one school I worked in where the pupils were deeply unimpressed that I lent them a straight measuring device when they asked for a ruler... they were asking for rubbers/ roobers. I never had that issue anywhere else in the county!

I've heard that the UK has unusually localised accents compared to most places in the world.

I'd describe my accent as generically southern. It's clearly not northern/ midland, but not identifiable as anything more specific as within 75 miles of M25. No one ever pin points it successfully to a town/ county that I've lived in. It's not been significantly affected by the other accents of regions I've lived in or by people I've lived with including DH and the DCs who have different accents again. Maybe my accent is very stable because I struggle to process very strong accents?

Sorry, above I meant to write "outwith."

@derxa did I claim I don't have an accent? No I didn't. I just thought someone's accent wasn't what it actually was.

I'm born and raised in England. I understand pretty much all regional accents that I come across, though might need a minute to "tune in." Sometimes struggle a bit with very broad Scottish accents - DH's grandpa was from Shetland and his family can be a bit tricky to keep up with!

Why on earth did you think your colleague was Polish? Do you know a lot of Poles?

I have always lived in the southern half of Great Britain and have a fairly accentless voice

oh no you don’t.
most Brits would instantly identify you as English.

i find Estuary English and London accents difficult, as I have hearing loss and they don’t seem to enunciate very clearly.

Scottish accents are very varied - so it is surprising to see so many comments about comprehension. James Bond audiences didn’t seem to have an issue with understanding Sean Connery.

Scottish accents are very varied You can say that again

So you don’t know the difference between a Scottish accented person, whose mother tongue is English and Eastern European person, for whom English is their second/third/fourth etc) language?

how peculiar.

im a first generation Eastern European, born and lived in Scotland all my life and cannot see any similarity at all.

Aye, but we’re a’ Jock Tamson’s bairns, right hen?

We ur 😉

Haven't read the whole thread but I bought ''Courtiers'' on audible, written and narrated by Valentine Lowe who has a very upper class English accent and he's hard to understand. Really slurs over the first half of every sentence. It was difficult to listen to because I was consciously listening with EFFORT to the first half of every sentence! If I relaxed and just listened, I missed a lot. I gave up on it.

I can find foreigners hard to understand. Not spanish people as I speak spanish so I know where they're coming from, which helps. But sometimes I feel like I must come off like Alf Garnett. You can only say ''what sorry?'' twice and after that, you just have to wing it.

''There’s a meme I saw that says (about driving in the UK) ‘It’s been 4 hours, the accent has changed 5 times and breadbuns have a new name’. It’s so true!''

ha ha, I'm not even English but his makes me laugh. Americans could drive for 3 days and the accent changes but not to the same extent (I don't think?? Or am I just not hearing it.)

I do find threads like this very interesting.
I'm from Bristol and although a lot of people would consider it a 'farmer' accent, it's really not and when actors fail to do it right it's usually because they're over doing it.
Interestingly, although I am Bristolian I have a "posh" accent but compared to actual Southern RP-adjacent accents I actually have quite a strong burr.

Agree on the cadences on other regional accents being difficult to tune in to. The most I've struggled was meeting two lovely Geordies in Newcastle, I felt awful for asking them to repeat themselves so much!
I also struggle a bit with North Walians speaking English.

Americans could drive for 3 days and the accent changes but not to the same extent (I don't think?? Or am I just not hearing it.)

You are probably just not hearing it, although to be fair, the differences are not as great as they are in the UK. I'm from the state of Georgia and even within the state, there are several different regional accents: coastal (mine), mountain, South Georgia, and a few other variations. But my guess is that most people from outside the southern US would not hear the differences.

@derxa colleague? Polish? Did you actually read what I typed? I never typed those words and there are other countries that are classed as Eastern European and yes I have spoken to people from places other than Poland.

Why on earth have you decided my post was worth pouncing on when there were plenty before mine saying they couldn't understand accents? For the record, not that it's any of your business but I have significant hearing loss and I also have a Welsh accent which you'd probably sneer at that too.

The only two people I've struggled to understand are my daughter's martial arts instructor who was Glaswegian and, weirdly, my husband who's a brummie. When he's worked up about something and speaking really quickly I can't grasp what he's saying. I do love accents though, particularly Welsh and Irish - and Scottish, and Black Country, and Geordie!

Midlander here. I often do a lot of work with clients in Liverpool. On a one to one basis I can understand them but when they all start talking together I get completely lost!

I've lived all round England and a couple of other places that weren't England and speak a couple of other languages (or rather, used to - I can still understand them but the speaking is very rusty these days) so I always used to think I had a reasonably good "ear" for accents, plus I'm originally from one of the parts of the country people often have problems with.

However....can I understand a really broad Glaswegian accent or a really broad Liverpool twang?! Can I 'eck as like...I had to get the bus recently in Liverpool, and I presume every word the driver said was English but I couldn't for the life of me have told you what he said!

I’m in the SE and have only ever had a bit of trouble with extremely broad Glaswegian or Geordie (Newcastle) accents. A dd who was at Newcastle uni also found the broader accents hard to understand at first, but soon got used to them.

A Swedish friend’s son who came to work in London spoke virtually perfect English but was still having a lot of trouble with accents. His mother, who was living here, advised him to watch EastEnders and Coronation Street!