Our Scottish accent is MEANT to confuse, bewilder and obfuscate anyone not lucky enough to be born and bred in Caledonia...so there!
It most probably is more difficult for non-Scots to comprehend than is the Language of Geoffrey Chaucer but that's the whole idea.....why on earth would we want the Sassenachs to understand all our jibes and barbed comments anyway? ;-)
The Language of Chaucer...of the period when the English Language we know and passionately love today was gradually emerging from the "dark" days of Middle Ages England....when all those devotedly devout pilgrims wearily but cheerily plodded their long and windy way along what is now called The Pilgrims Way* in what was then an extremely devout Roman Catholic country.....England.......the Pilgrims Way which is still very much in existence today for much of its length, much as it was in those far off days of yore as it runs all along the South Downs and over the Kentish Weald - from the cathedral city of Winchester to the spectacular cathedral city of Canterbury and the shrine of St Augustine, England's first saint, so to speak.
Listening to Old and Middle English being spoken in this way really does bring to mind the style of speech of modern day Scandinavia and even North German - very strong influences in the development of English in the early days of our country and our people of the period, the period of Chaucer himself, considered to be "England's first poet" which is not strictly true......there is also his contemporary William Langland to consider, who actually came from the gorgeous small town in Herefordshire, England, where my maternal grandparents now live....Ledbury.
While I was at uni I and my peers went to see Prunella Scales perform as The Wife of Bath (from the Canterbury Tales), but unfortunately we didn't rate her performance very highly...she seemed not to have rehearsed it adequately which was puzzling but there you go. Prunella Scales is best known to many people for playing rhe part of the domineering scourge of Basil's life.... Sybil Fawlty, or as the oleaginously scheming Elizabeth Mapp, from E F Benson's Mapp and Lucia series.
Anyway, he is the Prologue from the Canterbury Tales.....in rap style! Well, why not? ;-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc8XPv_qstA
There is a very old British film (in black and white of course) called "A Canterbury Tale" - made in 1944, and relates the story of a group of pilgrims in WW2 England - filmed entirely in the countryside of Kent, in and around the city of Canterbury....showing the magnificent cathedral still standing proudly above the wholesale devastation caused by German bombing raids, the cathedral, like St Paul's Cathedral in London, miraculously escaping serious damage while all around was laid waste...this is so clearly shown in the film. An old lady passerby in the film pointed in the direction of the Cathedral and said to one of the pilgrims, a young land girl: "It is a shame to see it looking so forlorn and isolated now in the middle of all this mess, but at least it's still standing which is a blessing!"
The film actually opens up with the famous Prologue, in Middle English, and showing a group of 14th century pilgrims making their way along the old Pilgrims' Way, which, incidentally, is now a journey many modern day 21st century pilgrims only they are mostly walkers and ramblers out on healthy outdoor pursuits! The Pilgrim's Way is now protected by English Heritage and the English Countryside Commission.
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/438020/