Dialects you can't understand (college, live, phone)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
For those have learned another language and fairly fluent, what are some dialects you cannot understand from that language.
For instance, many people I know that have learned Spanish cannot understand Puerto Rican or Cuban dialects but can understand almost all the rest.
I speak and write perfect standard English, but I can also speak the Jamaican creole known as Patois. It is a strong dialect of English which sounds virtually like another language to those who do not speak it. In fact, many argue that the Jamaican patois is another language unto itself.
For example, I will attempt to translate your original post to Patios:
All a unnu wha learn whan nedda language and can chat ih good, wha some a di dialect dem wha unnu caan mek out?
Aright chek dis out, mi kno' nuff people wha caan chat Spanish but dem caan mek out wha Puerto Rican or Cuban people sey but dem understand di res a people dem.
Would you understand what I was saying you if you didn't know what it was about beforehand?
As many, I also have problems with understanding some UK accents, ebonics, some Aussie and Kiwi accents sometimes. And I can't figure out why there are so many people in UK who are from one social class living in the same city(or even the same neighborhood) and still speaking SOOO differently... Some of them speak perfectly understandable English while others seem to be like they're pretending to be speaking Chinese...
On the other hand it surprises me why this isn't the case of Russian language which has spread over such a vast territory. I mean you can spot some minor differences in accent when you talk to Russian countrymen from South but, regarding cities, to my ear(as a non-native Russian speaker) there is no difference if the speaker is from Moscow, St.Petersburg, Minsk, Vladivostok, Riga, Kiev, Tallin, Kishinev, Khabarovsk, Novosibirsk, Arkhangelsk, Omsk, Tomsk, whatever.... I simply can't detect the difference. Maybe native Russians can. Don't know.
Anybody here ever listened to a native English speaker from South Africa? Just wow.
Living abroad I have met many brands of English, I can generally pick them out now and pretty well guess where they're from. It is amazing how many versions of English there are, but the South Africans (great people!) are all but incomprehensible to me. I need subtitles when listening to them.
I agree. I can't understand english speakers from South Africa. I remember hearing it for the first time and I thought I was listening to another language.
Caribbean dialects of Spanish used to be some of the hardest for me, but spending time in Tabasco, Mexico (right on the Gulf Coast) changed that.
Despite spending 18 days in Spain, I still struggle to understand Castillian TV. Argentine and Chilean dialects are also very difficult to understand.
Also, almost everywhere, the poor and uneducated are much harder to understand than the wealthy and highly-educated, who tend to speak in a dialect more similar to the "standard" or "uniforme" one on TV. They also tend to have all their teeth. I think this is true of any language. My Mexican friend understands many of the words that I speak in a comfortable Minnesota dialect of English, but comprehends almost nothing spoken in "Ebonics".
I agree with poorer/uneducated people are much harder to understand but I have to hear this "Ebonics" everyone is talking about. It can't sound any worse than poor uneducated people.
English spoken by some African Americans
I moved here in Chicago just last year. I talked to some black people, and I could not understand a word they're saying.
I'm African-American and I can't understand a lot of Chicago people. Many Chicagoans still have a southern accent.
I can't understand some Scottish people or some English dialects. I can't tell you what part of England or Scotland their from because I don't know. I also have problems with U.S. southern english and Australian english.
I agree with poorer/uneducated people are much harder to understand but I have to hear this "Ebonics" everyone is talking about. It can't sound any worse than poor uneducated people.
If you skip to around 1:00 and watch from there you can hear some Ebonics
I don't find it hard to understand though, but I can see how the 2 guys would be hard to understand
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Just wow.
