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?

Do you have any reading recommendations on the subject? It does sound very interesting.

It's quite old now, but Peter Trudghill Introduction to Sociolinguistics is good. Iirc it covers psycholinguistics as well. It really is fascinating.

I said ‘extremely commonplace names’. Most people who don’t live around them will never encounter Belvoir, Mousehole, Huyton. They’ll probably never meet anyone called ‘Dalziel’. However, they’ve probably come across common Irish names. I certainly have.

I’ve lived here for roughly a decade and I’ve managed to learn these things, and it hasn’t been a tremendous amount of effort. As such, I think it’s a bit unpleasant when people who have lived here their entire lives are so comfortably ignorant about anything that didn’t originate on their doorstep.

Thank you very much. I’ll see if I can find it.

How do you pounce Mousehole then?

My other half has a non English name that's 4 letters long, 2 syllables. English people can't say it. She doesn't bother correcting people anymore and just accepts there's a (Southern generally) English pronunciation for her name. When I met one of my cousin's girlfriends he asked the family to call him what she called him, which is a really common English mispronunciation of his name, again he's just given up on his actual given name at this point.

This isn't an accent issue. Sure lots of them say my very common English name with an accent but it's consistent with their pronunciation of every thing else.

@SliceOfCakeCupOfTea Do it back to them, rude people!
I reckon they must feel threatened by you to be so sneery.
A Newcastle background and accent did not stop Fiona Hill achieving her stellar career. Get them to look her up .

Mousehole is pronounced Mow-zal.

@RishisProudMum Start with Peter Trudghill as PAFMO suggests. Currently there is a paperback on Amazon and you can link to the 2nd hand section and pick up one for less than £5 incl p&p.
If still interested you will find references to other works in the Trudghill book.
A couple of fascinating facts I’ve come across (although it’s now many years since I studied) . a) the difference in little boys’ and girls’ language when they interact in play.
b) How sadly, a male voice is judged as more authoritative and trustworthy eg in figures of authority, experts, witnesses in court etc.
c) How women seem to use more standard forms of English than their male partners.
I will be delighted if I’ve recruited another enthusiast.
BTW there’s much conjecture re the origins of speech but I’m firmly of the view that it started with the noises mothers used to communicate with their babies, rather than the need for hunting partners to communicate.

Excellent. Thank you! I might come find you fit a chat after I’ve read it. 😁

"However, they’ve probably come across common Irish names. I certainly have."

I've only met one Aisling.

So, yes, you’ve come across the example I gave and presumably other common Irish names.

"So, yes, you’ve come across the example I gave and presumably other common Irish names."

A few years ago, yes. Before that I hadn't, so I don't see is an 'extremely' common name as you claimed.

You’ve come across it, but before you came across it you hadn’t, therefore it’s not common?

Okay, then.

ITV News chatting about mocking of accents right now!

I couldn't understand my MIL when I first met her.

She had a broad Suffolk accent, I also thought DH had a Suffolk accent when I first met him, although I don't notice it now. I got my ear before I moved up. Only DH can understand his elderly uncles though.
I only grew up about 50 miles away!

I don't have any problem with an Indian accent (mixed heritage family), but do pick it up easily when with family.

I love the variety of accents, makes life so much more interesting.

Wow, thank you,now I know!

A lot of these posts remind me of the Little Britain character Marjorie Dawes the diet lady. Every time Meena speaks, Marjorie pretends not to understand her even though everyone else does understand.

Oh, at the weight watchers meeting! That was funny.

"You’ve come across it, but before you came across it you hadn’t, therefore it’s not common?
Okay, then"

Once again, you claimed it was 'extremely common' and I'm disputing that.
A name you encounter for the first time in your 40s is hardly an 'extremely common' name!

Scottish accents can be really hard to understand

Not a bananarama fan then

I can't understand broad Scottish or broad Georgie accent for toffee. I'm a Londoner.

I find the Glasgow ,Geordie and Birmingham accents hard to understand . I live in the South and have only recently noticed the Sussex accent, It is very subtle .

All these cities that people say they can't understand the accent of, you do realise they all have multiple accents based on class or ethnic background as well. Someone from Milngavie has a very different accent from someone from Govan and no doubt the English on this thread will find it easier to understand one than the other but they both have 'Glaswegian' accents.