R there any E dialects that are mutually unintelligible?

Guest   Sat Oct 04, 2008 3:06 am GMT
Are there any English dialects that are mutually unintelligible?
Guest   Sat Oct 04, 2008 4:08 am GMT
If Scots is considered a dialect of English, then it's an unintelligible one. Some other English (or UK) dialects are also intelligible to me. Also, you have various unintelligible (to me) West Indian dialects
Uriel   Sat Oct 04, 2008 7:56 pm GMT
Jamaican can be hard to get through. Some accents render certain words or passages hard to understand. For the most part, I think it's not a question of it all being completely Greek to other listeners, just taking a lot of concentration and of not being able to pick up every word.
Travis   Sat Oct 04, 2008 8:34 pm GMT
Mind you though that what you are referring to Jamaican Creole, which is at least historically a distinct language from English, even though it has now come under the influence of English and is undergoing decreolization... That said, though, I would certainly not be surprised one bit if many traditional rural Anglic dialects, and especially those of northern England, of the UK were not much more intelligible to, say, native speakers of North American English, than dialects of Scots.