Question about Dialects/accents in the UK

Bill in Los Angeles   Thu May 29, 2008 11:08 pm GMT
Hello all. I love this forum. I have a question for UK natives that will probably be of interest to those who are learning English:

A few years ago I was having lunch at a McDonalds fast food restaurant in London, near Harrod's. Sitting at the table across from me were three individuals who were speaking a "language" I couldn't understand. My travelling companion was a native speaker of French who also spoke Dutch and English. I'm a native speaker of English and I also speak French, Spanish and farsi. Between the two of us and the languages we speak, neither of us were able to identify the language spoken by the three people sitting across from us. We listened for abotu 5 minutes, fascinated... the language was beautiful and definitely of Germanic origin. Then, suddenly, one of the people passed the salt to another person and she (the person receiving the salt) said, "thanks". My friend and I looked at one another in amazement. We kept listening and after a few more minutes we could tell the people were speaking English, albeit with an accent that was virtually unintelligible to my American ears.

I wish I had asked them where thery were from. To this day I have always wondered what dialect they were speaking. It was rhotic and the "Rs" were rolled similar to a Spanish "R" as in "pero".

Do any of you in the UK have trouble understanding your fellow speakers of English when they speak in the accent of their region? What are the regions where the accents are more difficult for you to understand?

Thanks to all!
Russconha   Thu May 29, 2008 11:47 pm GMT
Glaswigians (people from Glasgow) are pretty indecipherable.
KC   Mon Jun 02, 2008 7:39 am GMT
Yes, I would think Glasgow too. They roll their 'r' s a lot. Check this video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=_-7m4XhEkKM (the girl in the shop from 0:40 onwards would be the typical indecipherable Glaswegian). See if this rings any bells.
Bill in Los Angeles   Tue Jun 03, 2008 5:20 am GMT
Thanks all. These are helpful answers and KC, I think you hit the nail right on the head. Thanks for posting the youtube link. Those people were unintelligible most of the time. I loved it! I believe that's what we were hearing that day at McDonalds.
KC   Tue Jun 03, 2008 7:46 am GMT
No wonder Bill. Dont tell me you were surprised to find a few Scotsmen/women in their very own shop? I mean, McDonalds - thats as Scottish as you can get, innit?
~just kidding though