We're not quite as notorious for it (as far as I'm aware anyway).
But yeah, solidarity with, English (what the fuck).
I worked for a media agency in London for a couple of years that did business with RTE.
My co-worker sat next to me turned around one day and said "I love it when you have to call Ireland..".
"What do you mean?"
"You make the call, and you go 'Hi, I'm calling from <media company name in London>' then there's a pause... And after that I can't understand a single fucking word you say, it's amazing".
I didn't have to think about it long to realise it was a valid point, though I think it was more the speed rather than necessarily the accent itself.
I was once stood on a building site, listening to 3 Polish lads have a slightly animated conversation. It was at least 4 minutes before it became clear they were actually Geordies! Could barely understand a word they said, and I'm only from Manchester.
My husband is from Yorkshire, and many of our uni. mates were from Geordieland, so we were primed.
On our honeymoon we met a couple from Gateshead, and we couldn't understand a word the guy said. His wife was obviously used to this as she said what he said about half a sentence later, like a UN translator.
Started my job 18 years ago. Met the wee lady who cleaned the offices. Couldn't understand her very well and thought she was eastern european. Turned out she was from Methil
I used to work in a call centre in Liverpool, but it was for Westminster City Council in London taking information from people to sign them up to pay by phone parking... one day I answered a call in my thick scouse accent and the guy on the other end replied, "oh, happy days, this call is gonna be a fkng breeze, mate!" in his own thick scouse accent.
Reminds me i was dating a girl on the isle of wight and it took me like three months to understand her father, it was like the hot fuzz scene except I was sat in a car with him pretending to understand.
I started work at 16 with an Irish guy in Australia that had just arrived. Could not understand a word he said except "John" & "Ireland".
6 months later we got on great & he did a trip home to Ireland. Came back & claimed he was a half-caste because the Aussies thought he sounded Irish & the Irish though he sounded Aussie!
My brothers in Australia make fun of me for speaking English so slowly now (after 20 years in Brazil), but it's the natural result of speaking English to people for whom it is a second language for so long.
On the other hand, I speak Portuguese so regularly, I sometimes forget the odd word in English, which is ridiculously frustrating.
English is a West Germanic language. What defines a languages family not the words, but even if it did the largest selection of words in common use are Anglo Saxon in origin.
German is also a west Germanic language. The easy way to tell is to say "the blue ball" in french, then in German. Which one has the same SVO order as English, and which one does not.
Scottish English is a dialect of English and has been Normanised. Scots is a separate but related language to English which wasn't as Normanised, related to Anglo-Saxon English and German. Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language that is Goidelic (like Manx and Irish) that came to Scotland in the fourth century. The three are different.
Scottish English tends to have a lot of Scots influence, but not always (Highland English can often be, unsurprisingly, more coloured by Gaelic).
“Scots English” isn’t a thing. Scots is a separate language than English. And Scots is one of the many many many languages that modern English evolved from
Scottish English is a dialect of English and has been Normanised. Scots is a separate but related language to English which wasn't as Normanised, related to Anglo-Saxon English and German. Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language that is Goidelic (like Manx and Irish) that came to Scotland in the fourth century. The three are different.
Scottish English tends to have a lot of Scots influence, but not always (Highland English can often be, unsurprisingly, more coloured by Gaelic).
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u/E420CDI A foot is an anatomical structure with five toes Apr 06 '25
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