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Just spoke to a Scot..can't understand a word.....

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I just got off the phone with a friend from Scotland. He married a local gal about 22 years ago and has been living here ever since. I still cannot understand a word he says! When he first came over, he was truly unintelligible, now, 20+ years later, he is just really, really hard to understand.

Now, I have spoken with a few Scots in my life, but there are some that are impossible for me to understand.

Is there an area of Scotland that has this tough-to-understand accent?
 
Yep...Scotland.

Seriously, last time I was in Edinburgh I couldn't understand a word anybody from there said.
 
I once talked to a Cajun. Same thing, not a word did I understand.
 
Re: Just spoke to a Scot..can't understand a word.

TR6oldtimer said:
I once talked to a Cajun. Same thing, not a word did I understand.
Click to expand...

Shame on you, shame, shame, shame.
 
Re: Just spoke to a Scot..can't understand a word.

Tip: Buy a few Billy Connolly CDs, listen, and repeat the process often. You'll soon get the gist of it /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif

Actually, I have been called on to translate many times for my American colleagues. A Glasgwegian accent is probably one of the worst, but any Highland accent will be pretty heavy.

My Great Uncle Walter was drafted into the army for WW2, and was assigned to the Black Watch. He went in an English Midlander, came out after demob with this broad Scottish accent which he kept until the day he died. He was a character, and in that mob, I'll bet he had a few tales to tell, but I was too young to have appreciated them, even if I'd had nerve to ask.
 
Re: Just spoke to a Scot..can't understand a word.

And they are constantly spitting on you when they speak to you, even over the phone it almost seems.
 
TR6BILL said:
Is there an area of Scotland that has this tough-to-understand accent?
Click to expand...
The pub.
If your friend was sober, then there's no hope, because that's as good as it's going to get.
See also Newcastle, Liverpool, North Wales and the Highlands; even Babel fish go on strike.
 
Talk about a heavy brogue Scot, my Grams. She was from Kerry Hill Scotland. She could even speak Gaelic. And NO way don`t get her excited or even worse mad, if you plan to even pretend you know what she is saying.
And now you all know why my name is what it is.
Wonderful woman she was, even bieng around her thirty some odd years I still had to listen very carefuly to get her drift. PaPaw was from Wales, Bieng a Welchman he also had a pretty decent brogue. Talking with the two of them together was lets just say a hoot
/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/lol.gif
 
Hey Bill,I don't have a clue with the Scottish accent sometimes,and I grew up there! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/rolleyes.gif
Been away too long it seems.
Each time I go back,it takes two or three days to catch on. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/jester.gif

Stuart. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/cheers.gif
 
Re: Just spoke to a Scot..can't understand a word.

Well Bill,

Wendy's hails from northern England; small town in the
Yorkshire dales. Wendy had to act as translator when her
mum and I were speaking face to face. Phone conversations were out of the question.

I know her mum was speaking English to me but..........

d
 
Re: Just spoke to a Scot..can't understand a word.

I know what you mean about the brogue. The wee woman and I went to Scotland in 2005 and stayed at a B&B in Edinburgh where the owner, a college educated businessman, spoke a language we barely understood.

Really only understood about 40% of what he said. Also spoke to him on the phone before we arrived, same thing.

Strange how it's harder to communicate in Scotland, an english-speaking country, than in most other, non-english speaking countries in Europe!

And the Gaelic! Forget about it, impossible to learn or understand! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/frown.gif
 
Re: Just spoke to a Scot..can't understand a word.

Hoots mon! They kinna ken ye eytherrr!! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/jester.gif
 
Re: Just spoke to a Scot..can't understand a word.

There are dictionaries available for The Gaidhlig and Scots,though I do admit that isn't always helpful when you are speaking with someone face to face. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/rolleyes.gif

Try this one Mike: Dinna fash yersel ower that yin hen. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif


Stuart. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/cheers.gif
 
Re: Just spoke to a Scot..can't understand a word.

Hello all,

well, it seems that I am not the only one confused by the 'English' language. There are often posts on this forum which I cannot comprehend. Words that I have never heard of.

By the way, it used to be said that the best grammatical English in the U.K. was spoken in a part of Scotland (which part I'm afraid I have forgotten)

Alec
 
The key to those who do not share a blood line(those of us who do, seem to understand, pick it up, quickly) is to listen fast.

The words are put together at a rapid pace. Gotta remember this is the country that gave us Stewart, Clark and now Franchitti(2nd generation Scot, be Scots still accept him).
 
I work with a chap from Liverpool, although he sounds as though he's from much further North than that!!
I generally don't have much problem with a Scots accent, but his Liverpudlian dialect is hard to ken.
Jeff
 
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