Aha! British English

[rhysapthomas]

Just saw a news items about two scots visitors to California having a close encounter with a bear.  The local news had subtitled it so that the locals could understand the accents

[Kipper]

When I moved to Derbyshire, having been based in London and Home Counties all my life, I was expecting some "Northern" difficulties with speaking to the locals in the office. It did not prepare me for the dialects spoken by the farmers, who seem to have a different dialect for each village! When they come to market, they often cannot converse with each other.

[ParkeNd]

  Is English English really English or is it an amalgamation of manyCeltic, European, Roman and Greek words that have mingled through Anglo Saxon times and become 'pure English' as we know it today?   

Give the current young generation a few more years of taking English O Level GCEs all in phone text spellings and you won't recognise English.

[Newportnobby]

I'm fairly fluent in Anglo-Saxon but for some reason those posts get deleted

[Lawrence]

(BTW, If anyone wonders: I am a TESOL teacher, who finds language 'evolution' a fascinating subject)

Next stop Wigan/Leyland then!


Heading for cover now!!

[Bealman]

I'm fairly fluent in Anglo-Saxon but for some reason those posts get deleted

[davieb]

(BTW, If anyone wonders: I am a TESOL teacher, who finds language 'evolution' a fascinating subject)

Next stop Wigan/Leyland then!


Heading for cover now!!

Last stop Fife     

dave 

[scotsoft]

(BTW, If anyone wonders: I am a TESOL teacher, who finds language 'evolution' a fascinating subject)

Next stop Wigan/Leyland then!


Heading for cover now!!

Last stop Fife     

dave 

Kingdom of Fife if you don't mind 

cheers John.

[Komata]

No, no, no Dave, - you don't understand - they don't speak ENGLISH in Fife....

(That's the Sasanach's tongue, mon...)

And as for Wigan! Wot DO they speak there anyway?  I never have been able to work that out....

(Takes a precautionary five steps to the rear, while preparing to do a 'Bloodnock...')

[Luke Piewalker]

Fife... a place so wonderful the big guy put whacking great Firths either side and still people insisted on going there...

[davieb]

And as for Wigan! Wot DO they speak there anyway?  I never have been able to work that out....

Let me Know when you do 
I've lived here all my life and I still haven't worked it out yet   

dave 

[Mark K]

Don't know about Wigan or Fife for that matter but have you noticed that not a single person in Paris speaks English, not one that I've ever found anyway. Now, some cynics say that many can, but won't out of spite. I cannot believe that, can you?

[EtchedPixels]

Don't know about Wigan or Fife for that matter but have you noticed that not a single person in Paris speaks English, not one that I've ever found anyway. Now, some cynics say that many can, but won't out of spite. I cannot believe that, can you?

Lots of people in Paris speak English - especially if you try and speak French to them first. Not just a French thing. I have fond memories of being in Heidelberg station and hearing

(Posh English voice loudly and slowly with exaggerated gaps between words)
"Does anyone here speak English"

(German voice from behind the ticket counter doing mock English accent in the same slow way)
"This is Germany, we speak German"

I nearly collapsed in a heap

[ParkeNd]

The first German company I worked for was on the Heads of the Valleys in South Wales. We had German head office visitors like other people have mice. Our Welsh MD firmly followed his beliefs that in meetings any German could understand English if he spoke it loud enough and fast enough. The more confused they got the louder and faster he spoke - until their heads sunk onto the conference table.

[Chatty]

When I with the RAAF and based in Butterworth (Penang) in Malaysia walking down Penang Road I was approached by two female American tourists.

In a very articulated manner manner one said to me "Do you speak English?"

To which I replied "I am sorry Madam but I only speak Australian"

Where upon she flicked back and forth through a little book she had and then said (again in an articulated manner) "Thank you very much" and then walked off.

The person I was walking with collapsed in laughter.

Kind regards

Geoff