Last weekend I went to see a friend in Newcastle, and while we were exploring the place, I was listening out for languages other than English. The only ones I heard were Mandarin and Spanish, and my friend and I spoken mainly in English and Welsh, with a bit of Czech thrown in for variety.
While I was there we saw The Revenant, which includes dialogue in English, French and Arikara, a Caddoan language closely related to Pawnee, and spoken by a handful of people in North Dakota.
I’m sure other languages are spoken in Newcastle, as it’s a relatively large city with a number of universities and plenty of foreign students, but maybe we were in the wrong parts to hear much foreign talk.
I also heard plenty of Geordie, the local dialect, and didn’t get some of the things people said to me first time, so had to ask them to repeat themselves. It differs from standard English in various ways, and if you’re not used to it can sound almost like a different language.
Are there any regional accents / dialects in your country that you have trouble understanding?
I live in Newcastle and the only regional accent I have problems with is the sort of southern accent spoken by Janet Street Porter.
I live in Liverpool and due to work I get to met many people with different regional accents as well as dealing with the local Scouse accent. One of the regional accents I have the most difficulty trying to understand is the Black Country dialect spoken in and around Dudley near Birmingham.
Out and about around Liverpool I’ve heard spoken: Polish, Russian, Welsh, Lithuanian, Latvian, Portuguese, Spanish, Mandarin, Sinhalese, Urdu, Pashto, Hindi, Hungarian, Romanian, Kurdish, Turkish, Maghrebi and Egyptian Arabic, Maltese, Cape Verdi creole…
As someone who grew up in eastern Denmark I find urban Norwegian to be easier to understand than some rural dialects spoken in western Denmark.
When it comes to regional English accents I found that I had a hard time understanding people in Belfast. But that was only a one day visit. I’m sure I would got the hang of it pretty quickly if I’d stayed a little longer.
African Americans can make it very difficult for speakers of standard American English to understand them if they wish to.
In Spanish I have to make an effort to understand a strong Argentinian accent at first, and also some varieties of andaluz. Takes a bit of time to tune your ear to them.
I live in Ontario and it can sometimes be tough to understand Newfoundlanders when they really get going. I also speak fluent French, but I have a hard time understanding rural Québécois, probably because I speak European French.
Accent from New Zealand. I need to hear everything at least three times!
Ooh, I’ll have to see The Revenant just for the Arikara. In English, I’m okay with most accents. In Spanish, I have a hard time understanding the Carribbean accents.