On 07/12/2015 00:32, Christina Websell wrote:
"David Hill" wrote in message
...
On 06/12/2015 17:16, Vir Campestris wrote:
On 05/12/2015 20:44, Christina Websell wrote:
Americans think they speak English, I can assure them that they don't.

"Do you speak English?"
"Yes, and I understand American"

Bob Heinlein, Glory Road. And he was a Yank...


I remember going on a AAA course at Motspur park in the mid 50's. The
course was headed by Jeff Dyson who was the national head coach.
As he was lecturing he would often come out with "and I say unto thee".
On that course was a lad from Cornwall, it wasn't till the 3rd day I
realised he was talking English,between his accent and his dialect.
Also when I was market gardening outside Hastings in the early 60's we had
a driver come down form Fort William to pick up some stuff we were
selling. My Boss was Irish but had been a fighter pilot in the war,
Margaret was Sussex born and bred and owing to my Father being a Captain
in the RFA I had been to many parts of the UK when he was home and we were
on board ship with him.
I found myself acting as an interpretor between My Boss and the driver.
So much for a common language in the UK.


I so disagree with this.

You would.

I can understand every accent and dialect in the
Uk, and I'm surprised by this post. As I said upthread my only difficulty
is with *extreme* Glaswegian. I simply cannot understand it - it sounds
like "a hoot, a hoot, a hoot.."




I'm talking of nearly 50 years ago when regional accents were much
stronger and hadn't been influenced by TV and other media.