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?

People don't though, @JaninaDuszejko . I an Scottish, from Edinburgh, very neutrally Scottish middle class accent. Worked in London for a while and regularly heard colleagues making comments about how "Scotch" people were impossible to understand and how everyone spoke like Rab C Nesbitt. Which clearly they don't. We are now living not far from Milngavie and my kids have the same, generic Scottish accent.

TV presenters like Kirsty Wark, Kirsty Young, Kaye Adams, Lorraine Kelly can clearly be understood or they'd never get any work on the telly. It's pure laziness and from many, a deep suspicion of anyone who doesn't sound just like them, with a bit of anti-working class bias chucked in.

But let's not get into how to pronounce Milngavie as that'll really throw them.

I think the same about English accents.

Really garbled, letters added, removed and mispronounced. Really hard to make head bot tail of English accents

I can never understand English accents. Especially London and South East. I ask them to repeat slowly but it never works.

Yes, there is a tendency amongst English people to think RP = the easiest to understand.
Anybody who thinks that should listen to valentine low narrate is own book.
Good grief. He slurs the first half of every sentence and trumpets the end. It's not easy.

Some of its familiarity though surely? And the possibility of confusion with another word.

For example, while I don't say fur and square to rhyme, I instantly know what "skwur" is. If you're not used to that vowel sound because you aren't used to that accent, it might not be immediately obvious. I remember a poor lady on Family Fortunes being asked to "name a type of pole", and she just didn't understand what Paddy McGuinness was asking — her brain heard it as "name a type of Paul".

I had no problem with that, but couldn't understand why a friend from NI was talking about "rainforest beams" for their extension. They were, of course, reinforced.

Or Prince William. I find him hard to understand. I was watching a video of his recent visit with Catherine to a charity, and I had issues understanding his speech. Not so with some of the other royals, but William's is difficult to my American ears. It also irritates me slightly when he says "Catherine and I" (as objects) when it should be "Catherine and me."

I think he is talking on behalf of her ; how they felt/thought/experienced an event or a kindness. Not what was said to them or given to them. I haven't heard him get it wrong tbh Haven't been listening that hard though.
I've heard newsreaders get it wrong though.

Yes, he was speaking on behalf of both of them as he often does. But he doesn't seem to know when he should say "Catherine and I" or "Catherine and me."

That subject/object confusion involving Me and I is so annoying.

It's not rocket science. Nobody should choose the wrong one.

I recall many years ago, maybe even 50, we had some German teachers staying with us on a school exchange and the News was on the TV. There's been some major shooting up in Northumberland and the national news carried a report from the local news. We, Lancashire and Yorkshire, could hardly understand a word the reporter was saying but our German guests understood him perfectly.

I always recall my late MIL, a Leeds lady, if she were talking, for some reason about the Earl of Harewood who live on the Harewood estate she would say Earl of 'Hairwood' but the Harwood Estate, apparently it was quite common in the area.
Some places names are pronounced differently in different parts of the country, it just adds to life's rich tapestry!

One of my mum’s friends moved from Mexborough to Barnsley. Both South Yorkshire, but they are known for speaking really broad in Barnsley.

She was at a WI Christmas quiz, and they asked her what a dais was. “A raised platform for speeches”, she says. Nope. A type of fish. She was totally baffled. Turns out they were saying “dace”.

and she just didn't understand what Paddy McGuinness was asking — her brain heard it as "name a type of Paul".

I know someone who lived in the same street as McGuiness and can't understand him sometimes.
In the media I do think some people accentuate their accents. Many years ago we were sitting at the next table to Freddie Truman, he was speaking with a fairly mild Yorkshire accent yet when he was on TV he was the archetypal ee-bah-gum, salt of the earth Yorkshireman.