What the hell are they saying?

[FELINEGUITARS]

Lee Mack on Geordies

http://youtu.be/ToRYmW_h3WY

[dave_mc]

As with most accents, depends how broad they are. 

+1

I have no real problems understanding geordie either. i don't think so, anyway.

worst i've ever come across is cork or kerry (when they have teh broad one). In fact even people from my area, when they have a broader accent, can be hard enough to understand. we talk pretty quickly here and use a lot of irish and scots and scottish gaelic-based slang. :lol:

[nfe]

we talk pretty quickly here and use a lot of irish and scots and scottish gaelic-based slang. :lol:

Do you measure distance in time like we do, too? :lol: I never realised that was a specifically Scottish thing until an English friend didn't know what I meant only a few years ago. Never occurred to me.

I was at a mate's 30th last night and the sole English girl was struggling, as she usually is, when there's a couple dozen predominantly Glaswegian Scots, all drunk.

[Lezard]

we talk pretty quickly here and use a lot of irish and scots and scottish gaelic-based slang. :lol:

Do you measure distance in time like we do, too? :lol: I never realised that was a specifically Scottish thing until an English friend didn't know what I meant only a few years ago. Never occurred to me.

We do in Dublin... Have done for miles.

[Elliot]

I was on the west coast of Jutland recently (as my wife is Danish) and it really was like being in the 'toon, except they weren't speaking any English words at all.  I am told by an eminent historian that Danish and Geordie fishermen could understand each other in the seventeenth century - although probably had more to do with alcohol than anything else.

[dave_mc]

^ that's interesting. I know there's a fair bit of norse influence on english, and having looked it up on wikipedia as i'm intested in languages and linguistics, some of the slang and dialect things which i'd have thought were scots or irish based actually come from norse originally.

dutch is like that with west country accents (supposedly... i haven't really noticed myself, though i haven't been exposed to much dutch)

i've been watching a lot of stuff like wallander, and (having done a little german at school), a lot of it almost sounds like german but with a more (regional) english intonation and pronunciation.

actually the more posh RP English accents almost sound like a german accent to my ears (obviously not exactly german but closer to it than my own). I used to think english was nothing like german until i remembered i didn't really have the "proper" accent. :lol:

I'm not sure if we measure distances in time or not, nfe. I'm sure some people out in the sticks probably do.

Actually we (meaning other people here, not me  :shock: ) seem to measure distances here by completely underestimating them. don't ask anyone out in the country here how far somewhere is. they'll tell you a mile and a half and it'll actually be like 5 miles (if not more).

[nfe]

Funny you say it sounds a bit like German. I've two pals that are fluent German and Dutch speakers and they vary languages when speaking to each other and I'm never sure which one they're using. That said, my handle on modern-languages is pretty bad.

[dave_mc]

i like to think i could tell, but they are pretty close. I wouldn't want to guarantee it :lol:

that being said some of the regional german accents barely sound like german. swiss german for example.

[nfe]

One of them grew up in Switzerland as it happens, I think the actual languages are different, not just the accents? I'm sure I recall her telling me about how they were only able to learn German as opposed to Swiss German and the native speakers in Switzerland would oft take the huff at all the kids from their school (it's an International school and I think it was a bit "All these bloody foreign kids coming and speaking the wrong German at us!").

[Philly Q]

I am told by an eminent historian that Danish and Geordie fishermen could understand each other in the seventeenth century - although probably had more to do with alcohol than anything else.

I've watched a lot of Scandinavian films over the years (probably not the ones Afghan watches....) and I've noticed that even though the written languages look very different from ours, the spoken words in Danish, Swedish and Norwegian often sound quite a lot like English.

In a slightly similar vein:

When I was a little kid we were occasionally visited by an old onion seller (I'm not kidding!) from Brittany.

When my Gran spoke Welsh and he spoke Breton, they could understand each other.

[nfe]

When I was a little kid we were occasionally visited by an old onion seller (I'm not kidding!) from Brittany.

When my Gran spoke Welsh and he spoke Breton, they could understand each other.

Brilliant! Did he have a stripey jumper and a bicycle?

I suppose Breton will be another Celtic derived language like the Gaelics and Welsh.

[Philly Q]

Brilliant! Did he have a stripey jumper and a bicycle?

He most definitely had a bicycle.  And a beret.  I can't honestly say about the stripey jumper, but I wouldn't rule it out.

[dave_mc]

One of them grew up in Switzerland as it happens, I think the actual languages are different, not just the accents? I'm sure I recall her telling me about how they were only able to learn German as opposed to Swiss German and the native speakers in Switzerland would oft take the huff at all the kids from their school (it's an International school and I think it was a bit "All these bloody foreign kids coming and speaking the wrong German at us!").

i was under the impression that swiss german was a dialect, but i could be wrong. and i guess it depends on what part of switzerland. EDIT: yeah wikipedia's not really helping on the matter. you're into the whole "when is it a dialect and when is it a different language?" thing :lol:

I've watched a lot of Scandinavian films over the years (probably not the ones Afghan watches....) and I've noticed that even though the written languages look very different from ours, the spoken words in Danish, Swedish and Norwegian often sound quite a lot like English.

In a slightly similar vein:

When I was a little kid we were occasionally visited by an old onion seller (I'm not kidding!) from Brittany.

When my Gran spoke Welsh and he spoke Breton, they could understand each other.

lol at the afghan dave reference

and yeah about teh swedish thing. funnily enough with most related languages to teh ones i speak (e.g. spanish versus french, or dutch versus german) it's the other way round- i can get by if i see it written, but if they start to speak i have no clue what's going on.

that's not that surprising regarding the welsh and breton thing (well, it is and it isn't)... breton is a celtic language. though i thought it was a different branch from welsh (welsh is insular celtic iirc). they must still be close enough to be mutually intelligible. :) EDIT: oh right so breton is insular too. that makes more sense (teh name was probably the clue :o ). just looked it up on wiki. EDIT #2: ah not only are they both insular but they're both brythonic. so that means they're pretty closely related. in fact supposedly it evolved from british celtic when british settlers settled in north western france. I just assumed it was continental celtic seeing as how it's, er, on the continent. :oops:

[Afghan Dave]

I learnt most of my "conversational" Italian from Rocco Siffredi... "Ciao Bella, you nasty girl"

[Sifu Ben]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3EYYNbdW5U
toblerone-rolo-combo, comedy gold :D