Accents

[Lady Florida.]

I love my New Jersey accent, but I'm pretty sure people would prefer not to hear it, lol.

 

ETA: Northern NJ accent.  Which is vastly different from a Central or Southern NJ accent.

 

I'm from northern NJ. When I tell people that, they immediately say, "Oh. New Joisey." No! No! No! I have NEVER heard anyone from NJ say Joisey! I had a Jersey accent, not a New York City accent! My grandparents OTOH, raised in the Italian immigrant Bronx, said woik (where Grandpa went every day) and bearl (rhymes with pearl and grandma would bearl water for the spaghetti).

 

But no one I have ever known from any area of New Jersey said Joisey.

 

Can I say though that what burns my biscuits is to hear an actor with a fake southern drawl. I can spot it a mile away. Ugh. It sounds so grating to me.

 

Does a fake accent from other areas drive the natives crazy?

 

 

I've noticed many British actors will do either a southern or northeast (NY, NJ, the NE area) accent when they have to do an American accent. I suppose a stronger accent is easier than a generic one. 

 

Kevin Spacey's South Carolina accent for House of Cards makes him sound like he stepped off the plantation pre-Civil War. If I'm not mistaken, he's from Jersey. Or is it Joisey?  :lol:

[sassenach]

Me too. I once found a lovely Catholic Church that I thought might really work for me.

 

Until I realized I couldn't stop groovin' on the priest's aussie accent.

 

:blushing:

Hot for preacher?

[Kerileanne99]

I don't think I sound at all North American, but apparently I'm wrong. In the supermarket the other day, a stranger asked me when (British) Mother's Day was. I replied that I thought it was in a week or two, but I wasn't sure as I didn't celebrate it. Her reply? 'Oh yes, you celebrate it later in the year, don't you?' She then confirmed that she thought I was American.

 

That's what living with a Texan for twenty-five years gets you: you sound English to Americans and American to British people.

I get this and I don't even live there:)

I am from the west coast of the U.S., where we seem to be marked more by a lack of an accent than a proper accent...maybe this primed me for living with hubby. He was born in Scotland, later moved to Yorkshire so he has a strange blending of Scottish/British/Yorkshire accents. Everyone I meet here in Texas asks where in the UK I am from, but I don't hear the accent at all:). Hubby, on the other hand, seems much more Americanized to me, and I laugh every time we land feet in the UK as he seems to immediately revert to native accent-and 'tops up' his accent for being back in the US:)

 

Dd5 is also a hilarious blend. She was born in Texas (but has NO Texas twang as we have made sure of it, lol!) so has strange colloquialisms that are both British and distinctly American. She says things like 'boot of the car, car park, Wellies, Etc., with a slight British accent, but is very American in her slang and such:)

[Lady Florida.]

Do you know what I wish? I'd love it if there were a way to hear voices on the Internet instead of just reading them. We communicate in English here nearly all the time, but you all sound pretty much like me in my head and that's boring. I know there has to be a huge variety of accents here and I wish there were a way to experience that online.

 

But, Amira. You haven't told us about your accent. ;)

[indigomama]

I have no accent. Just plain, flat California. But I'd love to have a British accent, so pretend that is how I talk! :)

 

 

This is how I feel, too. I'm from CA and don't think I have any accent. 

 

When we first started having kids, my DH said we should move to Ireland, so they'd grow up with cute accents.

[Jean in Newcastle]

I am an accent chameleon: I automatically adapt to match the accent of the person I am speaking to. It's the result of speaking multiple languages, and it's completely involuntary. I hate it.

 

Yes, I've been accused of mocking people.  No!  I'm not!  

[Amira]

But, Amira. You haven't told us about your accent. ;)

 

I sound normal, of course. :)

 

I still have some traces of my Utah upbringing, although I wasn't raised in rural Utah so I didn't have quite as much to overcome.

[albeto.]

Hot for preacher?

 

 

Distractedly so!

 

:laugh:

[texasmama]

I have mostly shed my Hawaiian accent but dh says it comes out when I talk to my mom on the phone.

When I lived in MD and talked to heavy accented-family back home, this is what happened to me.

 

I don't think I sound at all North American, but apparently I'm wrong.  In the supermarket the other day, a stranger asked me when (British) Mother's Day was.  I replied that I thought it was in a week or two, but I wasn't sure as I didn't celebrate it.  Her reply?  'Oh yes, you celebrate it later in the year, don't you?'  She then confirmed that she thought I was American.

 

That's what living with a Texan for twenty-five years gets you: you sound English to Americans and American to British people.

SO fortunate  that you got you a Texan.  :D

 

I am an accent chameleon: I automatically adapt to match the accent of the person I am speaking to. It's the result of speaking multiple languages, and it's completely involuntary. I hate it.

I have this party trick in my pocket, as well.  Think of it as the psychological trick of "joining".  It's not all bad.  :)

 

Well, I'm a Yinzer and speak Pittsburghese, so you can imagine me with that accent. Drives the Texans batty.

I wish I could hear you.  I would be honest if you drove me batty. :D

 

Can I say though that what burns my biscuits is to hear an actor with a fake southern drawl. I can spot it a mile away. Ugh. It sounds so grating to me.

 

Does a fake accent from other areas drive the natives crazy?

 

I agree.  I will say that I found Bradley Cooper's Chris Kyle Texas drawl very spot on and understated, not at all over the top and distracting.  I suspect he nailed the entire character, though.

[ikslo]

I grew up in MA and I still drop my "r"s when I am tired (tie-ed).  It's wicked funny.

[MyLittleBears]

I love my New Jersey accent, but I'm pretty sure people would prefer not to hear it, lol.

 

ETA: Northern NJ accent.  Which is vastly different from a Central or Southern NJ accent.

 

 

Northern NJ accent here, grew up on L.I.  Now trying to fight of a ND accent. It seems to have morphed into weird combo and it ain't pretty.

[Scarlett]

Southern. Comes out more at sometimes than others.

 

When I worked for a national company with retailers everywhere I could peg the state they were from with in a few sentences, it was fun.

[lailasmum]

Can I say though that what burns my biscuits is to hear an actor with a fake southern drawl. I can spot it a mile away. Ugh. It sounds so grating to me.

 

Does a fake accent from other areas drive the natives crazy?

 

 

American actors doing British accents can vary but yeah some are bad. Often it's certain words that come out with their own accent and then the rest is British, That's just cringe-worthy . They nearly always do the same accent though when the UK has so many accents even within small areas. 

[dirty ethel rackham]

I can always tell, when watching a BBC program, when a Brit is channeling an "American" accent, as it sounds as exaggerated to my ears as Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins must sound to a Brit.

Yea. With the exception of Hugh Laurie and Damian Lewis (I, at first, didn't know that they weren't American,) I cringe when I hear a Brit doing an American accent.  It is either a bad Texas accent or a John Wayne imitation.  They were especially bad on MI-5 (Spooks) and Foyle's War.  

 

ETA:  As for me ... Midwestern broadcaster speak.  From the Chicago suburbs (no "Da-Bearss" for me.)  I, too, tend to pick up local accents when I visit places.  It is embarrassing because it seems so fake. 

[fairfarmhand]

 

Kevin Spacey's South Carolina accent for House of Cards makes him sound like he stepped off the plantation pre-Civil War. If I'm not mistaken, he's from Jersey. Or is it Joisey?  :lol:

 

that is the most common Southern Accent error. I hate it.

 

In many places legitimate Southern Accents are not that thick. Often it's just dropping the gs on the end of words or mispronouncing vowels (pen is said "pin") Now a really thick accent will often make a one syllable word into a two syllable word. (A fellow at church says Cay-at for Cat)  However, many times the accent is much more subtle than many actors realize. 

[MrsMommy]

Even though I haven't lived there in almost 15 years, my husband says I still have a Chicago accent. I was in college before I even realized there is a Chicago accent!

[SparklyUnicorn]

For awhile I kept thinking Ed Sheeran was singing "I'll love you until we're seventeen."  I was like..gee that's not very long Ed.  But then I realized no he was saying seventy.  It's just we say sevendy.  So sevenTy makes me think of sevenTeen where we do say the "t" sound.

 

 

[mellifera33]

Boring Pacific NW accent here. Pin and pen are different, cot and caught are the same, medial 't' is swallowed. I do have a touch of Minnesota 'oa' sound, though--it must have rubbed off on me during my four years of college. 

[Lady Florida.]

that is the most common Southern Accent error. I hate it.

 

In many places legitimate Southern Accents are not that thick. Often it's just dropping the gs on the end of words or mispronouncing vowels (pen is said "pin") Now a really thick accent will often make a one syllable word into a two syllable word. (A fellow at church says Cay-at for Cat)  However, many times the accent is much more subtle than many actors realize

 

Dh has relatives from Tennessee, Texas, Arkansas, and both Carolinas. None have accents like Frank Underwood. An older lady I used to teach with was from Virginia, and she sounded very much like that though.

[Miss Peregrine]

For awhile I kept thinking Ed Sheeran was singing "I'll love you until we're seventeen."  I was like..gee that's not very long Ed.  But then I realized no he was saying seventy.  It's just we say sevendy.  So sevenTy makes me think of sevenTeen where we do say the "t" sound.

Me, too!

[Lady Florida.]

Even though I haven't lived there in almost 15 years, my husband says I still have a Chicago accent. I was in college before I even realized there is a Chicago accent!

 

My best friend in 9th grade was from Chicago. I'm not sure I can even describe how she pronounced my name. It had kind of an ea sound to it. Sort of like Kee-ah-thy but the sounds weren't separate. Say Kee-ah-thy quickly and that's how she said it. Do you?

[fairfarmhand]

Dh has relatives from Tennessee, Texas, Arkansas, and both Carolinas. None have accents like Frank Underwood. An older lady I used to teach with was from Virginia, and she sounded very much like that though.

 

Yeah, Virginia, South Carolina, those places have the traditional what I call "Civil War" southern accent.

[Pawz4me]

What Linguists Say About Kevin Spacey's Bizarre Southern Accent on House of Cards

[Lady Florida.]

What Linguists Say About Keven Spacey's Bizarre Southern Accent on House of Cards

 

Cool. So I wasn't far off when I said he sounded like and old-time southerner. 

[Scarlett]

I think Vivian Leigh did a fabulous job I GWTW. Usually southern accents aren't done well.

[Greta]

Women's voices - warm, cute, feminine, slightly lacking in gravitas, friendly, sociable, outgoing. I have a relatively small sample though - I'm not counting voices on TV - after a while you don't 'hear' those.

That's interesting. Thanks for your reply!

 

I'm not mad keen on American male accents. I'm kind of imprinted on British accents for men.

All of my favorite actors, the men who make me swoon, are Brits.

[AndyJoy]

I will never forget my grandparents' *very* Irish priest saying "Give tanks t'God" nor my little brother laughing out loud during Mass the first time he heard it. (He was 5 or 6 at the time.)

OK, now I have to go watch "The War of the Buttons" because you got me longing to hear an Irish accent :)

[SeaConquest]

Like, OMG, today was so rad, you know? The weather was perfect, and we met some totally cool dudes at the beach. It was, like, awesome.

[Ewe Mama]

OK, now I have to go watch "The War of the Buttons" because you got me longing to hear an Irish accent :)

I love that movie!

[Ewe Mama]

I freely confess to church hopping in my younger years (pre marriage) just so I could find a minister with an accent that could make me feel dreamy while listening to the Word of God. It sounds rather sacrilegious, but I assure you my thoughts were pure. :D

[Eagle]

For those referring to Canada, there are many very distinct Canadian accents depending on the region. Some are so strong that I have a bit of a hard time understanding those from the opposite coast.

 

I'm from Western Canada and have been told my accent is a combination of Californian and British. Laid back slang with very proper enunciation. :)

[J-rap]

I'm from northern NJ. When I tell people that, they immediately say, "Oh. New Joisey." No! No! No! I have NEVER heard anyone from NJ say Joisey! I had a Jersey accent, not a New York City accent! My grandparents OTOH, raised in the Italian immigrant Bronx, said woik (where Grandpa went every day) and bearl (rhymes with pearl and grandma would bearl water for the spaghetti).

 

But no one I have ever known from any area of New Jersey said Joisey.

 

 

 

Aw shucks, they don't talk like the Jersey Boys?? 

[MrsMommy]

My best friend in 9th grade was from Chicago. I'm not sure I can even describe how she pronounced my name. It had kind of an ea sound to it. Sort of like Kee-ah-thy but the sounds weren't separate. Say Kee-ah-thy quickly and that's how she said it. Do you?

 

Yeah, I kind of do. :)

[luuknam]

I'm new, so I guess that means you can start to read my posts with the correct accent from the beginning, no? I grew up in The Netherlands, so I've got a Dutch accent (I'm sure you can YouTube some of those). It's worse when my parents are visiting. Before meeting my spouse I didn't realize that the 'a' and 'e' sounded differently, nor that a 'd' at the end of a word isn't pronounced like a 't' (leading to the mistake of asking "do you like rat meat?" rather than "red meat"). Took some effort, but I get them right almost all the time now. My 'th' could use some work, and of course my 'v' leans towards a 'f' and my 'w' towards a 'v'. All fairly minor though - people understand me the first time I say something without any trouble. 

 

Incidentally, I've had it happen plenty of times that people thought my Texan spouse and I were from the same place. Don't know what's up with that, other than that I use the word y'all (which now that we live in WNY gets me some odd looks at times). People often guess I'm Irish or Swedish, although I think the guesses have covered pretty much all of Europe by now.

 

When I gave birth to my younger son we were living in Texoma, and in the county we lived in people had 'some' accent, but the next county over had a much stronger accent. For financial reasons I gave birth in the hospital in the next county over and one of the nurses told me I had quite an accent. And I just kind of looked at her, because her accent was soooooo strong.

[blackjackoaktree]

I'm new here so now I'm going to link this thread in my brain to posters screenames and imagine reading their posts with whatever accent they've described.

 

For me, I grew up on the southside of Chicago with a southside Irish mom and southside Italian dad. My DH grew up with both parents from the southside, but a decade younger, so they sound a bit different. We now live about two-three hours outside the city. We've actually tried to reel back on some of it and will call each other out on things, but there's some stuff that's just ingrained.

 

LIke the sentence, "You guys, where you at?" when looking for a group of friends seems to bug people around here but sounds totally fine to me! I really really do not want to sound like the Superfans though and sometimes that stuff pops out, like swapping 'th' for a 'd' sound (unless it's three, which my DH pronounces as 'tree'. I imagine we sound extremely annoying beause my in-laws annoy me.

 

 

Our kids seem to be picking up bits from us but have more of a rural midwest accent.

[Amira]

Yeah, I kind of do. :)

 

My neighbor is from Chicago and I now know exactly what you're talking about. :)

[albeto.]

I'm new here so now I'm going to link this thread in my brain to posters screenames and imagine reading their posts with whatever accent they've described.

 

Just keep in mind my accent makes me sound twenty pounds heavier than I really am.

 

That video about southern accents was interesting. I went to school in Virginia, but did not grow up there. I went to school with girls from all over the South. My Spanish teacher was from Brooklyn. He got an enormous kick out of the accents. One day while grading a quiz in which we were to translate from English to Spanish, one of the girls raised her hand and said, in a lovely accent from Mississippi (really, it sounded like cotton candy and Tom Hiddleston smiling),

 

"Senior, you never told us the word for 'blind,' so I just wrote the sentence 'Mi madre es anti-ojos.'"

 

"No, the sentence was, 'My mother is blonde.'"

 

"Well, that's what I said! 'My mother is blind!' But I don't know the word for 'blind' because you never told us!"

 

"No, not 'blind,' 'blonde.'"

 

"But I said 'blind'!"

 

"'Blonde,' as in, 'blonde hair,' as opposed to 'brunette hair.'"

 

"Oh! Well why didn't you say so? If you meant to say 'blonde' you should have just said 'blonde,' but I thought you said 'blind' so how could I know?"

 

Other girls in the class apparently had the same problem.

 

Senior was laughing.

 

I couldn't hear the difference for the life of me.

 

Coincidentally, I also never knew Chicago had an accent until I went to school there. But I did learn to stop calling my soda "pop" as my friends couldn't stop giggling.

[HS Mom in NC]

I have a dread fear of traveling internationally outside the English speaking world and my translator goes missing and I need to understand something very complicated and important but the only other option for an English speaking translator is someone with a very thick Scottish accent.  AHHHHHH!  I can understand almost any other native English speaking accent without any trouble, but that one brings me almost to tears. Not the way Ewan McGregor speaks, but the really thick version.  I enjoy its percussive quality but I can't make out any of the actual words.

 

I have an AZ accent.  There's a strong tendency here to drop ts in words like "kitten."  We also are very inclined to turn the ts we do say into ds. Plato can sound like playdo. It's more so with my children's generation than mine and my brothers' even though we were all born and raised here.  Word choice is very CA here.  My generation says "dude" and "like" far too much.

 

 

[KrissiK]

Well, speaking of accents, I had to relate this funny anecdote: I taught in a missionary school in São Paul, Brasil for 2 years. I am horrible at languages, so my Portuguese consisted of "please", "thank you" and a few other necessary phrases, very poorly pronounced. But we visited the town of Belo Horizante once, which is a ways from SP, and stayed at the home of some people we knew. And they commented that we spoke with Paulistan accents. This just cracked me up because I couldn't imagine how they could understand us at all, much less determine that we had a São Paulo accent.

[Cinder]

Just keep in mind my accent makes me sound twenty pounds heavier than I really am.

 

That video about southern accents was interesting. I went to school in Virginia, but did not grow up there. I went to school with girls from all over the South. My Spanish teacher was from Brooklyn. He got an enormous kick out of the accents. One day while grading a quiz in which we were to translate from English to Spanish, one of the girls raised her hand and said, in a lovely accent from Mississippi (really, it sounded like cotton candy and Tom Hiddleston smiling),

 

"Senior, you never told us the word for 'blind,' so I just wrote the sentence 'Mi madre es anti-ojos.'"

 

"No, the sentence was, 'My mother is blonde.'"

 

"Well, that's what I said! 'My mother is blind!' But I don't know the word for 'blind' because you never told us!"

 

"No, not 'blind,' 'blonde.'"

 

"But I said 'blind'!"

 

"'Blonde,' as in, 'blonde hair,' as opposed to 'brunette hair.'"

 

"Oh! Well why didn't you say so? If you meant to say 'blonde' you should have just said 'blonde,' but I thought you said 'blind' so how could I know?"

 

Other girls in the class apparently had the same problem.

 

Senior was laughing.

 

I couldn't hear the difference for the life of me.

 

Coincidentally, I also never knew Chicago had an accent until I went to school there. But I did learn to stop calling my soda "pop" as my friends couldn't stop giggling.

 

Your story is similar to one my co-worker told me. We were both military, stationed in MS. He went to the local hardware store one day to get supplies for a desk he was building.

 

"I'm building a desk and I need those rails for the drawers so I can pull them in and out. I think they're called drawer slides?"

 

"Oh, you mean drawer gads."

 

(pauses to think) "Ok, I need 4 drawer gads."

 

"Not gads, gads!"

 

"That's what I said--gads."

 

"No. Gads!"

 

(pauses again to think)  "OH! Guides! Drawer guides! Yeah, I need 4 of those."

[Laura Corin]

I have a dread fear of traveling internationally outside the English speaking world and my translator goes missing and I need to understand something very complicated and important but the only other option for an English speaking translator is someone with a very thick Scottish accent.  AHHHHHH!  I can understand almost any other native English speaking accent without any trouble, but that one brings me almost to tears. Not the way Ewan McGregor speaks, but the really thick version.  I enjoy its percussive quality but I can't make out any of the actual words.

 

 

 

With Scottish people you are dealing with strong dialect as well as accent.  There's a dictionary of Scots here.  Scots developed in parallel with English for many centuries.  

 

Many Scots are bi-dialectal: when Gordon Brown stopped being Prime Minister, he said that it was a great relief not to have to speak English any more.

[MEmama]

For those referring to Canada, there are many very distinct Canadian accents depending on the region. Some are so strong that I have a bit of a hard time understanding those from the opposite coast.

 

I'm from Western Canada and have been told my accent is a combination of Californian and British. Laid back slang with very proper enunciation. :)

We lived in New Brunswick for several years, and I could only understand about half the people I spoke with. We had a neighbor there from Newfoundland and while my DH managed to understand him sometimes, I never could. That was awkward since we hung out quite a bit. Of course, he could drink like nobody's business so that might not have helped, but man was his accent strong and unlike anything else I'd ever heard. He also had an unnerving habit of just walking into our house unannounced, but that was a cultural difference we were totally unprepared for.

 

When Americans talk about "The Canadian Accent" they are generally referencing the "ou" sound in house and about. But yeah, it's as varied there as in the States.

[Rosie_0801]

I hate my voice and wish I sounded like I was from Adelaide.

 

 

My, uh, tolerance for North American accents varies. I wouldn't laugh at Mergath, but I'm sorry to say some other North Americans sound like carrots being grated.

[Pam in CT]

Aw, this thread is brilliant.  Brilliant, I say.

 

 

Lifelong Connecticut Yankee, here.

 

 

Sadly, I lost my mutliquotes.  

 

I'm also another accent chameleon -- without doubt my most egregious manners lapse.  

 

Nice to hear Meryl Strep actually does carry it off -- that is certainly her reputation here on the East Coast.  

 

Living in Florida gives inhabitants a Yankee accent???!!  Who knew?

 

I had to google Yinzer!  

 

Too funny re: Gordon Brown relieved not to have to speak English anymore.

 

Rosie, do Australian carrots actually make a sound whilst being grated?  Connecticut carrots are mercifully silent during the process.

[Matryoshka]

I am an accent chameleon: I automatically adapt to match the accent of the person I am speaking to. It's the result of speaking multiple languages, and it's completely involuntary. I hate it.

 

Yeah, this is me too.  It's handy for picking up foreign languages, but it can be embarrassing when I realize I'm doing it - weirdly, others rarely notice (the ones I'm sponging off of, anyway) - it's like their accent is 'normal' so they don't notice mine is morphing?  When I was a kid my brother could always tell when I was talking with one friend on the phone because I'd pick up a strong Boston accent (which I normally don't have at all, unless you count the Don/Dawn, marry/merry/Mary vowel things).  When I go south to visit relatives, a bit of an East Tennessee drawl kinda slips in.  When I lived in the south of Germany for a year, apparently I picked up a quite noticeable Swabian accent.  This mortified my more northern German relatives.  Apparently I sounded like German hick.  Now that I'm not living there it's gone away.

 

Oddly, I have a hard time just imitating accents out of the blue.  It seems to work only when I'm doing it unconsciously...

 

I would really love to know what sort of "feel" American accents have to non-Americans.

 

What I mean is that to me (and I think to many Americans), an English accent sounds very sophisticated and proper; an Australian accent sounds very warm, friendly, outgoing. So what does an American accent sound like to you? What's the first impression that it gives you?

 

When I was coming back after a year living in southern Germany, I could not stand hearing American English.  The Swabian accent is very lilting, and it sounded like Americans were speaking in some kind of robot monotone.  It hurt my ears.  British English was a bit better.  Fortunately I went home via Britain, and my ears had time to acclimate.  Now of course I can't hear that at all.  Just sounds normal.

 

[Carrie12345]

Aw shucks, they don't talk like the Jersey Boys?? 

 

The wiki page on NJ accents is incorrect about quite a few things, but it IS correct in that "Joisey" is NOT a thing!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Jersey_English_dialects

[Matryoshka]

Can I say though that what burns my biscuits is to hear an actor with a fake southern drawl. I can spot it a mile away. Ugh. It sounds so grating to me.

 

Does a fake accent from other areas drive the natives crazy?

 

 

Until Boston natives Matt Damon and Ben Affleck came on the scene, no one in Hollywood could figure out what the heck a Boston accent sounded like.  I have no idea what the Cliff the mailman on Cheers was going for, but it was just bizarro.

 

It seems like everyone thought that the Kennedys had a Boston accent, and were trying to go for that?  No, the Kennedys had a Kennedy accent.  It was some kind of family thing "We're Irish trying to lose our accent and sound Brahmin".  (the upper-class Boston accent is called Brahmin).  If you want to hear regular Boston accents, just watch This Old House - all the worker guys, but not the host.

 

[ikslo]

I have no idea what the Cliff the mailman on Cheers was going for, but it was just bizarro.

 

 

I grew up south of Boston near the Cape.  In all my years growing up there and watching that show, it never even occurred to me that Cliff was going for a Boston accent.  I just thought he talked weird.  LOL

[elegantlion]

I have a northern Missouri accent, whatever that is. I tend to slur words together. I used to work where we had to talk to insurance agents all over the state. I could tell when someone from the southern part called, there seems to be a line where a drawl starts to creep in. 

 

My favorite accent is South African - can spot it in a crowded room. 

 

 

[shawthorne44]

With Scottish people you are dealing with strong dialect as well as accent.  There's a dictionary of Scots here.  Scots developed in parallel with English for many centuries.  

 

Many Scots are bi-dialectal: when Gordon Brown stopped being Prime Minister, he said that it was a great relief not to have to speak English any more.

 

 

I used to work in America with an Engineer from Scotland.  He was sent to English as a Second Language classes because no one could understand him.  When I knew him, he'd been in America for 10-ish years, and my comprehension dropped to about 50% when he got upset.  It was 100% when he wasn't.  But, he was used to blank looks, and would calm himself down.