Which Regional accent is the most difficult to understand even as an American?

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eugenesnewdream@reddit

I think the only one to truly trip me up has been Cajun.

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Mueryk@reddit

Cajun is by far the hardest. It feels like a cross between Creole and Redneck.

Easier to understand people from Appalachia and that is the only other serious contender besides Boston

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Kingsolomanhere@reddit

I had a friend with a Cajun background, when he was drinking he was almost impossible to understand

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I was stationed on a ship with a Cajun dude, and when we stopped in Dubai the locals would try to get us to come look at counterfeit watches and stuff to by while we were checking out downtown. They were aggressively persistent about trying to sell you stuff, until he answered them in his full Cajun accent. I don't think they thought he was speaking English and they immediately gave up. He also fluently spoke Louisiana Creole and would occasionally switch to that when we were drinking.

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Small-Tax-2829@reddit

This is interesting. Louisiana Creole and Cajun French are very different languages, with completely different origins. I would love to meet a person who knows both.

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clintj1975@reddit

His first language was heavily Cajun accented English that he had learned to dial back the accent on, but it would drift back to full strength if he was drunk or really excited. We had a few moments underway where he would get all wound up during drills and half the watch team would look at him like the coach in The Waterboy looked at Farmer Fran.

He learned Creole as a second language from his neighbors growing up and would hang out with their kids after school. I grew up in the South and would watch Justin Wilson's cooking show on PBS growing up so his full Cajun accent didn't really faze me that much, but the first time he switched to Creole he may as well have been speaking Russian for all I could understand. I could pick out maybe a couple of words once in a while that seemed sort of close to English.

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Trulio_Dragon@reddit

Fun fact: while Justin Wilson was from Louisiana, he wasn't Cajun. It was a character bit; he affected the accent.

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BrotherNatureNOLA@reddit

Yeah, I was surprised to learn that his people were from the Florida parishes.

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KayDeeFL@reddit

Counties. 😉

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BrotherNatureNOLA@reddit

Um, no. Louisiana has parishes.

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CahabaL@reddit

Loved watching Justin Wilson when we didn’t have cable!

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Small-Tax-2829@reddit

Thats fascinating. I can pick out a few creole words and know basic phrases, but I dont speak it at all

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KayDeeFL@reddit

One of the funniest, "conversations" I've ever heard was between two Seabees where one was from Boston and the other from the Bayou. OOooooeeeee! That was some kinda' talkin'!

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leeloocal@reddit

I lived in Texas for a long time and there are TONS of Cajuns there, and yes. Ngl, it was easier to speak French with them than English. 😂

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MyUsername2459@reddit

It feels like a cross between Creole and Redneck.

That's because that's what it is.

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KayDeeFL@reddit

Well, with proper Cajun, it's the French that throws many off. It's an older version that has been morphed into dialectical colloquialisms, then blended with creole.

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BrotherNatureNOLA@reddit

As someone who is both Cajun and Creole, I can promise you that the two accents are very distinct.

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theshortlady@reddit

No

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Head_Razzmatazz7174@reddit

I've met my fair share of people from Louisiana, and you can definitely tell the difference between those who grew up in the cities there and those that did not.

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WagWoofLove@reddit

We’re Appalachian and took a trip to Boston earlier this year. My youngest daughter thought they weren’t speaking English lol

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Outrageous-Pin-4664@reddit

Yeah, Boston was my first thought. They would probably struggle with my Southern accent though.

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DeiaMatias@reddit

Try moving from Boston to the south during elementary school in the 80s. Kids were freaking brutal to me. I dropped the Boston accent within a year. I still drop into it when I drink too much though

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Outrageous-Pin-4664@reddit

My Alabama Mom was talking to a woman from Boston once, and she asked my mom, "Do you have PSDS?" My had no idea what PSDS could be, but it sounded personal. The lady had to repeat it a few times and finally she slowed it down and said very distinctly, "Do you have piehced eahs?"

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Critical_Profile4291@reddit

Oh my god. This is one of the funniest things I’ve read in a while

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2bad-2care@reddit

I had a southern lady at a job I was getting ask me if I had my "eye day." I was confused, thinking there was some vision test involved. Then she said- "yer drivers license?"

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Outrageous-Pin-4664@reddit

Yeah, that sounds about right. 😄

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RadioNervous6189@reddit

As a RI native, our accent is a mix of the Boston and NYC accent. The PSDS is KILLIN ME!

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justaguy7823@reddit

Pawtucket is particularly brutal

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shelwood46@reddit

When my NJ living WI raised aunt was with me in Mobile and we went to Waffle House and she wanted the diet syrup, she and the very local server kept going back and forth not understanding each other until they finally started passing written notes back and forth.

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Snoo_16677@reddit

LoL

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RedStateKitty@reddit

Hubby dropped his quick when we moved to GA and he was a ramp rat at the airport with bunches of good ole boys .

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TheKaptinKirk@reddit

😂 This is how I know I’ve had too much to drink. I start sounding like a Southern redneck.

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life_inabox@reddit

The second I start talking to another Southerner I go from sounding like Midwestern McTV Nonaccent to straight banjo pouring out of my mouth.

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nutbrownrose@reddit

My in-laws live in the South but don't have Southern accents because they moved around so much/worked in CA etc. I forget they're southerners sometimes, until I heard my MIL talking to her housekeeper (born and raised KY). It was like a different person lol

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life_inabox@reddit

The first time my mom heard me talking without the southern accent was when she visited me at college and she was fucking FURIOUS 😂😂 Told me I was being highfalutin and "putting on airs"

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ThirdRateRomance@reddit

I'm glad I'm not the only one who does this

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BoopleBun@reddit

Ha! I have the same thing with my New York accent. Also if I start getting pissed off, according to my husband. (I don’t really notice it, tbh.) Plus a handful of words/phrases that sneak in here and there.

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UsamaBhai_101@reddit (OP)

While learning German, I met a guy in an online language learning community on reddit maybe Duloingo or Praktika something and he was from Boston, we were talking about dialects and accents and he said something in his pure accent. Honestly, I felt I knew more German than THAT english which he said

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DeiaMatias@reddit

When I first moved down south, the other kids literally couldn't understand me. I talked too fast. My vowels were weird. I got labeled with a very offensive word for someone with down's syndrome, but they pronounced it in my accent. Literally took the main bully switching schools before that label dropped off.

...I still talk too fast, but I can switch my accent almost immediately depending on my audience. My long Os are still super Boston though. I was never able to completely shake it. I was friends with a professional dialect coach for awhile in my 20s. She found me fascinating.

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Sopapillas4All@reddit

Same bro. I live in Colorado now which is a very neutral accent. I dropped the Boston accent pretty quick because people legit had a hard time understanding me lol

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Travelsat150@reddit

I’m from New Jersey originally and was on the beach with my girlfriends in high school. Now the beaches in NJ are packed with towels touching towels next to you so we made friends with these other girls. “Where you from?” “Connie”. We all looked at each other. Where’s that? Up north. Well we’re from up north. It took us a good ten minutes for us to find out they are from KEARNY. I mean WTF?

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CoralGarden420@reddit

We do. Or at least I do. Lifelong Bostonian and I can’t understand a word my southern cousins say.

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BigOil88@reddit

And WTF is Scrod ? LOL.
Became best buds with a Couple in grad school from Mass/Boston. We had to teach each other language skills!

Raised in Dixie. But not redneck dialect… proper southern only. Bless their hearts !

Could not initially distinguish Mountain Brook speaker from Appalachian “trailer park” dialects ha !

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earpain2@reddit

I am from New England and was deep in my 20s before I realized Scrod wasn’t a distinct kind of fish but rather the “white fish catch of the day” generally Cod or Haddock.

Same goes for discovering that Maine Lobster isn’t the only kind of lobster to exist.

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Constant_Tourist_769@reddit

Surplus Catch Remaining On Dock. I’m not joking.

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spamella-anne@reddit

When I was in the military one of my friends had a thick Kentucky accent, the other a thick Boston accent. Somehow I was nominated as the translator bc they decided my NY accent was neutral ground lol.

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Lovebeingadad54321@reddit

The feeling was probably mutual…LOL

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battlecat136@reddit

I'm from Massachusetts with a decently heavy accent and this is killing me 🤣 your poor kiddo!

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WagWoofLove@reddit

She had major culture shock 😂

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Alive_Surprise8262@reddit

Years ago on The Real World (MTV), they subtitled a participant with a strong Boston accent!

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McUberForDays@reddit

Went to Salem, Mass on vacation and was doing ok. Then we went to a restaurant, and I could barely understand the waiter. He wasn't very nice about it either. I'm from PA and was not expecting to have any issues with understanding the accent, so now I worry about vacations elsewhere 😂

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ThrowAwayIGotHack3d@reddit

(in all fairness, Appalachian does go up into Pennsylvania and I think even Canada, and us northern Appalachians don't have the standard yeehaw accent)

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myrstica@reddit

The Yinzer accent is a fun one. 98% intelligible my northwestern ears when I first moved to Pixburgh, but the first time my boss asked for my 'fen number', I was thoroughly confused. He repeated himself 3 times, until he said 'I need yer fen number so I can call you if I need to reach you while you're out!'

I felt pretty dumb.

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ThrowAwayIGotHack3d@reddit

In your defense, most Pennsylvanians don't talk that, I'm only about 2 hours from Pittsburgh and even when I go there I never hear anyone with that accent, it throws me off when I do 😂

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BrotherNatureNOLA@reddit

The Appalachian accent doesn't extend to all of Appalachia.

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kteerin@reddit

Thank you for saying this!

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Dangerous-Safe-4336@reddit

The Chesapeake Bay dialect is something else.

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nbrink77@reddit

Is that the one where "Aaron earned an iron urn" comes out like "Arn arned arn arn arn"

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Guangtou22@reddit

"Do we sound like that?"

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Dangerous-Safe-4336@reddit

Couldn't say. Never been able to understand a word of it.

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eugenesnewdream@reddit

I have to laugh at Boston! I find it grating, but not difficult to understand.

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EarlyInside45@reddit

I went to Boston once. On the L from the airport, every announcement the conductor called out sounded just like "aaahpaht."

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cara8bishop@reddit

The letter 'R' just doesn't exist for Bostonians lol

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Lazy-Instance-4073@reddit

Untrue. The ""R" sometimes appears at the end of a word that ends in a vowel. For example, the name Angela is not infrequently pronounced "ANN-juh-lerr.' 😂

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Narrow-Spite6607@reddit

Or between two vowels in a single word. I like draw-ring, for instance.

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int3gr4te@reddit

This is so funny. I grew up in NH and my entire family has Boston accents, I went to college there, it's a comfortable second language for me that sounds like home. And yet I too struggle to understand the conductors on the T.

(Note: it's the T not L, I think the L is Chicago?)

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eugenesnewdream@reddit

I mean I'm from NYC and you can't understand a damn thing on the subway announcements--I don't think that's an accent thing so much as a shitty technology thing!

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Radiant_Bluebird4620@reddit

in the 90's Snl made a sketch about it. Apparently they just talk that way.

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eugenesnewdream@reddit

I remember that!

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Fluffyheart1@reddit

That’s who it’s called the EL?! It took me 70 years to learn that!

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j33@reddit

Yep, totally a technology thing. I don't understand what they are saying on the T, the NYC subway or the one I usually ride in Chicago (yes, I've ridden them all, they all have shitty technology for making announcements).

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j33@reddit

I love the Boston accent for the same reason. My grandmother's Boston accent was so thick you could have cut it with a knife and so there are fond connotations there for me.

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cerealandcorgies@reddit

it's the "el" in Chicago because it is elevated

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FlyingCupcake68@reddit

I got through Logan Airport just fine, but when I got to the car rental station, I honestly thought the young man was speaking to me in Spanish! He wasn’t!

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SenseNo635@reddit

I think you mean the T

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EarlyInside45@reddit

Correct.

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capsaicinintheeyes@reddit

"It's like listening to an irritated Australian with a jaw full of novacaine..."

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Swanlafitte@reddit

And brahntree? Wtf

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elcaminogirl@reddit

Grating?! It's awesome! New York is grating, but RI is the worst--it's part NYC + Long Island + southeastern Mass.

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nbrink77@reddit

Rhode Island accents sound like a Canada goose who can talk

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southcastlequeen@reddit

I completely agree!!

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undeniably_micki@reddit

I love Rhode Island. I'm from eastern CT so it's a taste of home.

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MattyHerv@reddit

Boston's nothing, but when you get into the sticks of New England, things get challenging. I'm a New Yorker with a New English mother. Once while visiting Maine I walked into a lobster pound to pick up an order.

Me: I placed an order

Lobsterman: Yah badah badah b'dah

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VanGoghWasFramed@reddit

I went to a wedding outside Bangor, ME a few years back. As a Stephen King reader I was met with far fewer ayuhs and blue chambray work shirts than I expected.

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Snezzy_9245@reddit

The "ayuh", when spoken by genuine Mainers, is an ingressive pulmonic, spoken while breathing IN.

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nbrink77@reddit

Yeah it's a glottal noise, not an actual word

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Tankieforever@reddit

Bangor is fairly civilized. When you get out in the cuts it gets fairly thick. The way folks from my hometown talk is hardly understandable to many folks who grew up in more developed areas of Maine.

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Hello_Hangnail@reddit

I'm from maryland and interject ayuh's into my speech for shits and giggles

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eyetracker@reddit

Good thing it waahnt a funerall. Buay things up theah, they don't stay dead. Ayuh.

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KnucklePuck25@reddit

I always say the further North you travel in New England, the slower the Boston/New England accent gets, but it’s still pretty similar

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Intelligent_Fee5011@reddit

Except you're bound to find new words like idn'nit and dohyhad tossed in.

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Snoo_16677@reddit

What did he mean?

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MattyHerv@reddit

I don't have an answer to that, but he seemed friendly.

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Useful-Ad1489@reddit

I’m a Mainah and my guess is buddah? 🧈

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Snoo_16677@reddit

Maybe

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eugenesnewdream@reddit

That I can believe!

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UsurpistMonk@reddit

Northern Maine is brutal. I swear you’ve gotta be raised in a French Canadian family in Boston to understand it.

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MobilityTweezer@reddit

Ugh I hate a Boston accent (sorry family)

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Personal-Presence-10@reddit

I don’t really have an issue with the Boston accent personally but some Pennsylvania accents feel like a different language to me. And no I’m not talking about Pennsylvania Dutch lol. The vowels sounds and the slang are so foreign. Jawn? Tf is that? Is it supposed to be short for joint and the t got lost and then the “oi” is aw instead of oy? I don’t know. There’s only so many things you can do with a consonant and even with a pronunciation difference on a consonant (not that easy to do in English) or even dropping a consonant entirely the word will be pretty understandable. But you can go crazy with vowels, they have so many variations, and it can throw the whole word off with the slightest change. Pennsylvania does some weird things with their vowels.

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NeitherAd479@reddit

Some of the actors on The Pitt are trying to get our accent

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Snoo_16677@reddit

I'm a Pittsburgher, and the vowels from the other end of the state are bizarre. For example, "This is Eagles Football on the flagship WYSPaaay." (It's WYSP.)

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ReadNapRepeat@reddit

I’m also a Pittsburgher. I no longer live there but visit several times a year. That accent can be tough. I need a translator to speak to my aunt.

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joanmcq@reddit

I’m a Pittsburgher too, and my ex husband said he could always tell when I’d been talking to my sister because the accent got stronger. I had no idea I still had an accent!

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Minute-Of-Angle@reddit

I’m from PA and I currently live outside of it. I never thought I had an accent, as I’m not from the two main areas that are known for having distinct speech patterns (Pittsburgh and Philly). I was surprised when a coworker told me that “I could tell you were getting annoyed with so and so because your Pennsylvania accent came out.”

I had to laugh.

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shelwood46@reddit

Do not discount the consonants, some also add an L to words with "aw" in them, like drawler for drawer and sawl for saw. Drives me batty.

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tupelobound@reddit

Yes, it’s generally understood that jawn evolved from the word joint.

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Personal-Presence-10@reddit

So basically only the j and n are pronounced as they should be in that word 😂 that’s what I mean about those Pennsylvanians (Philly specifically for jawn I guess)

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youngforever8809@reddit

Laughing in my PA accent. I’ve been places and have had people stop me to tell me they know exactly what part of PA I’m from. First time it happened I had no clue that anyone would think we had an accent. I was truly taken back.

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Myfourcats1@reddit

And mumbling. I can understand a lot of accents because all the men on my dad’s side were mumblers. Lol

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SpaceFroggy1031@reddit

You're just saying this because you never met anyone from the Delta. Cajun is hard, but the Delta has them beat. Appalachian is easy.

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jek39@reddit

it sounds to me like a philly accent but southern.

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Tardisgoesfast@reddit

I've lived in Appalachia all my life, but it's not uncommon for me to be unable to understand some of my fellow residents.

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Quix66@reddit

Oh wow, I just said but wondering if I was being fair to Boston or was it just me.

Ironically, I’m from South Louisiana but find strong Cajun incomprehensible, and was at a loss when I first moved to Boston.

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cranberry_spike@reddit

When they speak French it's redneck French too lol. (My mom speaks québécois.)

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WoodenLiterature6481@reddit

9 times out of 10 Boston is just asking if you want to get a dunks

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CarpenterFun5789@reddit

Was in a hotel in New Orleans years ago waiting for the elevator. One of the housekeepers said something to me and I must have stared blankly at her while my brain tried to figure out what language she was speaking. She switched from what was, apparently, English to French and I understood that. She was asking if I wanted to ride the freight elevator down. So, yeah…Cajun was harder to understand than French that I hadn’t spoken or heard since college a couple decades earlier.

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leiaflatt@reddit

This. My parents lived in Cajun country for many years and I still couldn’t understand some of the people down there. I even did a whole language project at acting school on the dialect and the consensus amongst the experts seemed to “none of the sound changes are consistent: they can vary from family to family. We can give you our best guess, but you’re on your own”

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No_Designer_7333@reddit

I'm Cajun, specifically from Vermilion Parish.

I can point out which town (or at the very least, the parish) that someone is from usually within a minute or two.

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overlord_cow@reddit

It’ll be funny I’ll talk to someone and be like “yeah you’re from new Iberia”

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Less-Matter-3965@reddit

I knew lots of guys who moved to Louisiana from my hometown to work on the oil rigs. They got that accent after a few years.

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No_Designer_7333@reddit

How dat Berry been treating you cher? I'm a Vermilion baw myself

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Small-Tax-2829@reddit

Oh yeah, the Berry has it's own dialect. I was raised in Youngsville when it was all sugar cane. Now, it might as well be part of Lafayette.

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overlord_cow@reddit

I lived in Broussard actually, now in New Orleans. I miss knowing lots of people :(

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No_Designer_7333@reddit

I feel ya. Going from a small Vermilion Parish town to Lafayette was a jump.

I prefer the small town.

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overlord_cow@reddit

Yeah tbh I’ll probably end up moving back eventually but ya know work is work.

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kingcakefucks@reddit

Shout out Vermilion Parish!!! I love y’all, y’all went above and beyond for me and my family during Katrina

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Small-Tax-2829@reddit

I am from Lafayette Parish, and I second this. The accent isnt as bad in the cities. I also find the younger you are, the less likely it is to be strong. My mawmaw was born and raised in rural Vermillion Parish (Intracoastal). She didnt speak English and was illiterate. The family that stayed there have way stronger accents than the ones who moved to the city

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leiaflatt@reddit

That’s wild! I’m pretty good with languages and accents and I did finally manage to be totally fine with Lafayette Parish and the general environs, but the bayou was a whole different set rules. Maybe there were no rules! (Language wise)

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No_Designer_7333@reddit

Lafayette in general is a pretty hot tourist destination, especially since it styles itself as the "Heart of Cajun Country." People out the bayou way will still treat you right, but we absolutely do play fast and loose, both in English and French.

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leiaflatt@reddit

Oh we had a great time down there: no complaints at all actually, apart from the humidity (and we’re from ATL, so it’s not like we’re strangers to it, but y’all’s is on a different level). Just should have taken a class about bayou Cajun before we got there!

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dixbietuckins@reddit

For sure. I was a tour guide for over a decade, figure ive taken out well over 10 thousand people.

Louisiana has by far the toughest accent ive ever heard and thats counting non native English speakers. Ive had a much easier time communicating with deaf people and I dont know sign language.

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Big-Night-3648@reddit

Recent arrival. Vietnamese sounds insanely like Cajun. Had a dude I used to work with from Vietnam and he got that a ton.

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Snezzy_9245@reddit

AND Vietnam used to be French Indochina.

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Small-Tax-2829@reddit

A lot of Vietnamese people live in south Louisiana. We have a similar climate and the local food resources are comparable. After the Vietnamese war many immigrated here

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Designer-Travel4785@reddit

Discovery Channel has to put subtitles on their shows from that area. I would agree.

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killersoda@reddit

I used to work at a liquor store, this Cajun guy asked for Disaronno. I originally thought he said "DiGiorno".

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Snoo_16677@reddit

What did he mean?

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Itstaylorham595@reddit

Probably Amaretto Disaronno

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megamanx4321@reddit

Creole

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Fyaal@reddit

Home is where you make it

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Tiny-Reading5982@reddit

You like to see homos naked??

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Fyaal@reddit

Nah nah nah nah, home is where you make it

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Elnathi@reddit

Too late, I'm already gay and naked

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PZapardi@reddit

That’s cool man, whatever.

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Kalikasphyxia@reddit

Came to day this. I can start to.inderstand after a bit. But at first I am completely lost. And still at best only get the jist of what's being said.

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Human_Management8541@reddit

I lived in New Orleans for 5 years. It took me a while, but I can understand most of it now.

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Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit

Do you mean creole?

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Gonna_do_this_again@reddit

That deep Louisiana is truly a different language

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Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit

I mean, yes, literally. Cajun French is not English.

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weatherbuzz@reddit

I live in Louisiana and will agree with this. Some people from those rural Acadiana parishes (south-central part of the state) you gotta really put in the work to understand.

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GeneralOrgana1@reddit

Same here- Cajun was my immediate answer to this question.

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GoodFriday10@reddit

I’m with you. I love how Cajun folk sound, but I have trouble understanding and keeping up. The Appalachian accent is distinctive, but I don’t struggle to understanding it. Of course, my husband was from Kentucky. So there is that.

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Apprehensive-Ant2141@reddit

I’m a native and those deep bayou Cajun accents are still hard to understand sometimes!

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whip_lash_2@reddit

My uncle and cousins live outside Lafayette, La. When I was a kid they had a Cajun neighbor who didn't actually speak more than about ten words of English. I think that's pretty nearly unheard of now, but the accent is still thick.

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Small-Tax-2829@reddit

It was beat out of our grandparents in school. I only know it, because I picked it up as a child. My parents only know a few phrases

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sv36@reddit

As someone who grew up redneck, I agree with this and I understand it better personally haha

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Small-Tax-2829@reddit

100%. I am Cajun, speak ok Cajun French, and grew up in a fully Cajun household. I don't have the accent unless I'm drunk, but even then, it's nothing compared to the deep bayou accent. I grew up in a med sized city. My accent is pretty mild. I can't even understand the stronger accent sometimes and I've heard it my whole life

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ceanahope@reddit

Cajun can be hard indeed, I grew up in Eastern Canada and we had a lot of Acadian speakers, that helped tune my ear to it, but even with that I still struggle.

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the_real_JFK_killer@reddit

Before I was born my dad was offered a job in lousiana and a job in texas. He chose the texas one for the sole reason that he genuienly could not understand anyone from the louisiana company. On the drive to TX he passed through louisiana, could not understand anyone at all, and was glad he made the choice he did.

Thats why I was born in texas and not louisiana.

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EarlyInside45@reddit

Yes, Cajun has been the only one I've had problems with.

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justhere4freesnacks@reddit

Came here to say this. I went to a NASCAR race with a friend years ago and met his extended family from Louisiana. He had to interpret for me. 😂

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KayDeeFL@reddit

My Grandfather and his family (siblings and parents, I mean) were Québécois who relocated to Central NY at some point. He had heavily accented English, but was easy (for us?) to understand. He spoke Canadian French with his siblings.
Mama was from an off the boat Italian household who didn't learn English until she went to school.
My Grandmother was born and raised in KAINTuckee, and had that accent.
Between the three of them, and having spent some early years in Maine, I've been asked, "what the hell kind of accent is that?" I flatten As, where they shouldn't be, and almost always put the accent on the wrong syllable, and sound closing Es.
LOL. It's a fun life.

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Bella_Bearz@reddit

Cajun and Boston, for the US

Really thick Scottish accents make me strain my ears sometimes too

[-]

funatical@reddit

Old Texas, my grandparents generation (The Greatest) had some really hard accents, especially small towns. It still lingers but it’s not like it was 20-30 years ago. Think Boomhaur from King of the Hill. Yes, that was a legit accent I grew up around.

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WillThereBeSnacks13@reddit

Fun fact: Mike Judge based that character off a guy who left him a deranged message on his answering machine.

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funatical@reddit

Doesn’t surprise me. My grandfather had a neighbor whose German wife spoke better English than her husband who came from rural Texas. War bride. Delightful woman.

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GSilky@reddit

The patois gets pretty lost sometimes.

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AirGugliotta@reddit

Is patois a language or a dialect though? Genuinely curious

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oh_such_rhetoric@reddit

If you’re being technical, a patois is more like a dialect, but dialects vs languages gets oddly political and changes depending on who you are. Technically, it’s a separate language if they aren’t isn’t mutually understandable.

For example, Chinese is a language of which there are two major dialects: Cantonese and Mandarin. But there’s a lot of social and political baggage that makes people think of those dialects as separate languages, or not.

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donuttrackme@reddit

Yeah, if you understand Mandarin you won't be able to understand 90+% of Cantonese and vice versa. If you know Spanish, you'll be able to understand 50+% of Italian or so and vice versa. But Canto is still considered a dialect vs how Spanish and Italian are considered two different languages.

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Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit

Because Cantonese is classified as a separate language.

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donuttrackme@reddit

Depends on who's doing the classification.

[-]

Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit

Linguists are the only ones who matter when it comes to classifying languages.

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oh_such_rhetoric@reddit

Any linguist worth their salt would say no such thing. They understand that languages belong to the people who speak them and that there’s sociopolitical factors woven into every bit of it.

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Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit

I mean, linguistically, it’s categorized as a separate language by Ethnologue, Glottolog, and Linguasphere. I’d say that seems like linguistic consensus.

Also, they’re not mutually intelligible, so it seems silly to pretend that they’re the same language.

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oh_such_rhetoric@reddit

I think I wasn’t clear in my first comment, sorry. From what I understand the CCP will say they’re dialects of same language, while people outside will see what they’re not mutually understandable.

Thanks for the correction! Didn’t realize I could have written that better.

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Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit

CCP says a lot of things that are lies meant to advance a particular worldview. I do not accept the reality they’re trying to create. I definitely wouldn’t take their word for it.

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CB_Chuckles@reddit

Mandarin and Cantonese share a written language. It’s the pronunciation that’s different. Italian and Spanish have different written languages, even though a speaker of either could probably figure some of the writing.

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OberonsGhost@reddit

I worked with a Spaniard down in Mexico and he said that Mexican is not Spanish, he could understand some of it but not a lot.

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donuttrackme@reddit

Um.... Mexicans speak Spanish. That's just a Spaniard not being able to understand Mexican accents/slang.

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AirGugliotta@reddit

Yeah I figured Mexican Spanish and Spaniard Spanish are a common example of dialects. I really am not educated on this kind of stuff though

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donuttrackme@reddit

They are technically dialects of course, but they are mutually intelligible, like American English and British English.

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Vast-Ad1915@reddit

I'm not a linguist, but I've heard something like "a language is a dialact with an army".

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QueenInYellowLace@reddit

I have a degree in linguistics, and that is exactly what they taught us in Linguistics 101. Like, I think it was literally on the first day of class.

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Any-Instruction-3373@reddit

My son is in college and thinks he will major in linguistics - it’s his passion. Seems like an interesting degree!

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IanDOsmond@reddit

The origiinal quote, from Max Weinrich was, "אַ שפּראַך איז אַ דיאַלעקט מיט אַן אַרמיי און פֿלאָט"

A shpracht iz a dialekt mit un armey un flot.

Sometime around 1945 or thereabouts.

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AirGugliotta@reddit

Ohhh this is good, I like that

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oh_such_rhetoric@reddit

Yeah that tracks!

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Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit

Cantonese is a separate language, not a dialect.

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Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit

Patois isn’t a linguistic term, so it’s applied pretty widely to both creoles and non-standard dialects.

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dbthelinguaphile@reddit

Patois is technically a creole, isn't it? Not actually English even though its vocabulary mostly comes from it.

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tofutears@reddit

Patois is English based creole

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TechnoHenry@reddit

Is it mixed with French? I'm asking because patois is the word used in France for local variations of French in the different regions

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BrotherNatureNOLA@reddit

In my linguistic anthropology classes, a patois was a a pre-creole. Like, if the people of Georgia and Alabama spoke different languages, but traded, they would speak a little of both languages to form a patois. Then that mixture becomes standardizes and passed down, then it becomes a creole.

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Emergency-Office-302@reddit

That’s the definition I have always understood, but not necessarily limited to French.

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tofutears@reddit

Tbh I have no idea lol I just recently learned about patois for the first time while in Jamaica and the most I look into it the less I understand

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Majin_Sus@reddit

I worked with a Jamaican for years and when they slow down and lighten up the accent it makes sense.

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tofutears@reddit

I think it’s a beautiful language or dialect (however it’s categorized). I loved speaking with the local people when I was there

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Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit

Patois isn’t a linguistic term, so it’s applied pretty widely to both creoles and non-standard dialects.

“Jamaican patois” is the name for the English-based Creole spoke in Jamaica.

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dbthelinguaphile@reddit

Right — based on English, but linguistically isn’t it classified as its own thing?

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tofutears@reddit

I believe so. Google says “patois” is a French word for differing regional dialects

I need someone from Jamaica or New Orleans or France to explain further 😅

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Competitive_Let_9644@reddit

It started off as a way to refer to regional language varieties of France, many of which are separate languages, but France has a really bad history of not respecting its minority languages. Because of this, and the fact that many of them are similar to French, many people don't recognize many of them as separate languages.

This word was then adopted to describe dialects and languages which were considered "non-standard" more broadly. However, in English it is now very heavily associated with Jamaican Creole.

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tofutears@reddit

Very interesting thank you for sharing! Linguistics is fascinating

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ReplacementActual384@reddit

I think a creole is a more established patois

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Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit

Patois isn’t a linguistic term, so it’s applied pretty widely to both creoles and non-standard dialects.

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ReplacementActual384@reddit

I mean language is descriptive not prescriptive so if people are using it to discuss a linguistic category it counts. That said in my sociolinguistics courses we discussed patois vs creole, while acknowledging how arbitrary many of the distinctions are.

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Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit

I’m saying that within linguistics, nothing is classified as a patois. Like even things that have “patois” in the name are classified as something else.

I understand the difference between descriptive and prescriptive. But that distinction is about an approach to language study; it doesn’t apply to the terms of linguistics as a field. Those are very well defined. Patois is not well defined precisely because it isn’t an actual linguistic term. Patois is, in fact, a prescriptivist (and derogatory in origin) term that demeans any non-standard form of a language.

Check the top answer on this post on r/linguistics.

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ReplacementActual384@reddit

You know what? I was wrong. While I do have a passing interest in linguistics, I was conflating a pidgin with a patois

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Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit

Oh yeah, I see how that could happen! Especially since “patois” is used so broadly it’s definitely applied to some pidgins!

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eyetracker@reddit

Creole is an established (meaning people begin to use it as a first language) version of a pidgin. Patois is more general than linguistic.

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guess214356789@reddit

Nice pic of Jupiter, the King of planets.

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ReplacementActual384@reddit

Yeah, it had a cool electrical storm that I thought was really pretty but my favorite is probably Saturn because I am basic

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nickheathjared@reddit

Patois is a general term. Creole is one type of patois.

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Difficult-Ad2084@reddit

I've only heard that term applied to Jamaican.

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Vast-Combination4046@reddit

I thought Creole was French

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renegadecoaster@reddit

A creole is any language that's a mix of a coloniser's language with the local indigenous tongue. Usually when people in the US say "Creole" unqualified, they're indeed referring to Louisiana Creole, but in this case the commenter was using it in the general sense

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Trulio_Dragon@reddit

Additionally, a creole is natively spoken. E.g., a child's parents might speak a pigdin of the aforementioned languages, their child is exposed to the pidgin during language acquisition and creates a productive, predictable, natural language, a creole. Creoles (and pidgins) are really cool, linguistically.

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Disastrous_Ad1260@reddit

I think Louisiana Creole draws from English, French, some African and native American languages.

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Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit

To add to what u/renegadecoaster said, creoles can be based in different languages. So yes, there are French based creoles (Louisiana Creole, Haitian Creole, etc.), but there are also English based creoles (Hawaiian Pidgin, Singlish, Tok Pisin, etc.), Spanish based creoles (Palenquero), Portuguese based creoles (Papiamento), Arabic based creoles (Juba Arabic), and many more. Some creoles don’t have a clear single language basis (like Saramaccan).

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huge__tracts-of-land@reddit

Also, Turkey-based creole. My mom always made a mean one with leftovers after thanksgiving.

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Expensive-Wedding-14@reddit

When I went to Texas, I told my dad I might venture over to N'Orleans and practice my French. He snorted and told me it wouldn't work.

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Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit

Patois isn’t a linguistic term, so it’s applied pretty widely to both creoles and non-standard dialects.

“Jamaican patois” is the name for the English-based Creole spoke in Jamaica.

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BravesMaedchen@reddit

This was exactly my first answer.

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BreadStoreRefugee@reddit

💯

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_i3_@reddit

I'm sorry. We try our best.

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BusybodyWilson@reddit

On the occasion I do get lost, I just go off vibes and it’s always worked.

My boss used to switch back and forth without realizing she was doing it, sometimes I didn’t even realize it

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FerretAgreeable2520@reddit

North Carolina. Mush mouth mumbling.

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NotBradPitt9@reddit

What Patois though? you didn’t specify.

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meanpete80@reddit

Patois is the primary language spoken in Jamaica

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Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit

“Jamaican patois” is the name for the English-based Creole spoken in Jamaica.

But patois isn’t a linguistic term, so it’s applied pretty widely to both creoles and non-standard dialects.

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Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit

Patois isn’t a linguistic term, so it’s applied pretty widely to both creoles and non-standard dialects.

Some creoles and pidgin use the term “patois” in their name (like Jamaican Patois).

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Small-Tax-2829@reddit

Patois is a regional variation of a language that differs greatly and/or is unique from the original language. It doesnt have to be a French variant, but often French variants use this word. Cajun French, creole, spanglish, etc are all patois

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PeterNippelstein@reddit

Gwan?

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Horzzo@reddit

I knew Creole or this would be #1. They are quite similar.

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Walkinonsun@reddit

Who

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DeniLox@reddit

Which patois?

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smurphy8536@reddit

Fair question but I speak English and some French and I can’t understand any of the patois lol

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Pathfinder_Dan@reddit

Deep Ozark Hillbilly is difficult for a lot of people.

I am a Deep Ozark Hillbilly, and I had a real tough first year after I left the foothills because nobody understood half the stuff I said and didn't understand the common idioms of the dialect when they did catch the words right.

My friends often would tell me they had no idea what I had just said. It became a game where they'd all guess what I had said and what it could possibly mean. My favorite was them trying to decode "Hit sawhorse all peace." after asking me what pizza we should order.

I said "It's a horse apiece." It means "All these options are equal."

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Puzzleheaded_Math973@reddit

Fellow Ozark Hillbillly, I have had to learn to chop my words up.and eununciate. I hate it lol.

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Pathfinder_Dan@reddit

As annoying as that is, the harder part was not using all the hillbillyisms.

Had a lot of people looked at me sideways for saying things like "ain't no clean end to pick up a turd" or "shit fire and save matches" or "month of Sundays" or "I's plumb tickled" or "them's some good vittles".

But the absolutely hardest part was dropping the "ah" before verbs. It still comes back after about three beers.

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Puzzleheaded_Math973@reddit

I use all of these and folks look at me like I got corn stalks growing out my ears! Lol

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Amazing_Excuse_3860@reddit

My dad used to take calls as a salesman. His worst one was a man with a very thick southern accent and chewing tobacco. My dad was barely following along, when all of a sudden the guy asks,

"Where's [company] located?"

"Wisconsin, sir."

"Ya'll talk funny up there."

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Amazing_Excuse_3860@reddit

Boomhauer exists for a reason, i'm just saying

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ShannonSaysWhat@reddit

No one has mentioned Boston yet, but that's a big one for me. Not as much anymore, but when I first heard it, it was impenetrable.

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silversurf1234567890@reddit

The whole region has a speech impediment. Can’t say their R’s. That is unless they say a word that ends in a soft A and magically they add an R.

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RetractableLanding@reddit

I moved to Boston and worked at a deli for a few months. I did not understand what people were saying to me. That first day, I was like, “they eat cotton? What is cotton potato salad?” Turns out, the woman wanted a carton of potato salad, i.e. “cotton potato salad.”

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ancientastronaut2@reddit

Why can't they say their R's?

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Stop_Already@reddit

We learned it by watching our English forefathers. :(

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhoticity_in_English

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davdev@reddit

Because it’s a non rhotic accent. You know who else has one? The freaking English.

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Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit

To be fair, they didn’t have one when they first colonized the Americas.

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Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit

Because their accent is R-less (aka non-rhotic). It’s a common feature of English accents; it’s just not common in North America.

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CorrectShopping9428@reddit

We drop R but recycle them by putting them on words that end in A like Floridar and Cubar and Idear!

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Aware_Acanthaceae_78@reddit

You guys say idear too? My whole family does. We’re from central CT. I don’t know why we do it.

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CorrectShopping9428@reddit

Yes linguists call it the intrusive R

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daschande@reddit

A popular phrase among teachers in school was "I parked my car in Boston Yard, and walked to Fenway Park." Except, with the exaggerated accent, sounded like "I paahked my caah in Baahstan Yaahd, and waahlked to Fenway Paahk."

...A true Bostonian would point out that Boston Yard doesn't have any public parking, and it's over 10 miles to Fenway; quite a long walk, indeed!

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Stop_Already@reddit

I think you mean Harvard Yard. That’s a pretty common phrase used to stereotype Boston accents. :)

I personally prefer “I’m going Worcester to get a toaster, you bastard.”

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3toehedgedog@reddit

Once I answered the phone at work and they were asking to speak to Bob. I said there’s no Bob here. We went back and forth a few times before I understood that they were from Boston and wanted to talk to Barb.

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Agreeable-Damage9119@reddit

Oh, you mean Baahbrer, like my mawthah's friend's brawthah's hai-uh stylist, I gawtcha, kehd.

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DirtyBird23220@reddit

My grandfather was from Taunton and he always referred to my grandmother as “Mah-ther” - i.e, Martha to everyone else. They moved to Virginia, where my dad grew up (and I’ve lived my whole life). We have the town of Staunton, pronounced “Stan-ton” but Granddad never could get the hang of it and pronounced it just like it looks, like Taunton with an S.

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Boopa0011@reddit

I had a teacher in grammar school who was from Boston, and I vividly remember the "big" spelling bee I lost in 3rd grade because I couldn't understand her pronunciation of the word "orphan" - even when she used it in a sentence I couldn't figure out what word she was actually saying.

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MischaBurns@reddit

"oahfn"

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Hmrd_Trash@reddit

My mahh has a burrow for sale

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Snoo_16677@reddit

LoL

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Sea_Commission1115@reddit

Reminds me of the SNL skit with a game show and people had to provide directions to Dunkin’s. Hilarity ensued.

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RunAcceptableMTN@reddit

Oh, yes. When I visited I didn't get why people complained about the Boston accent. Everyone had such a nice light lilt - until I was standing at the hotel water/cookie table, and the guy refilling the refreshments asked me what sights I was planning to see. I told him a couple things, then he responded with detailed instructions about the harbor that I truly couldn't make heads or tails of! I suspect I just didn't talk to enough people in Bar Harbor, Maine to have a similar experience!

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canisdirusarctos@reddit

Mind you, this was 20 years ago and the accents are dying there, but during my first visit to Boston, I remember someone speaking to me and I didn't realize they were speaking to me, then when they said it the second or third time, I looked directly at them and it didn't register as English to my Southern Californian brain, then they said it a couple more times very slowly before I finally understood what they were saying.

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tofutears@reddit

That’s I came here to say. I genuinely have a hard time understanding thick Boston accents

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YoDawgWatUp1@reddit

Boston was the first one that came to my mind. To me it is a thick accent and they usually are talking fast, which makes it easy to get lost.

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LilLebowskiAchiever@reddit

Hoi Toider can be tough unless you’re used to the Cornish and Welsh accents.

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/5vEbpVYWLZ4?ra=m

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thndrbst@reddit

Didn’t even know that existed!

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Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit

Gullah and Hawaiian Pidgin are both creoles, so not actually English.

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xnoraax@reddit

I came to say Hoi Toider. But your really only get the full strength version in folks under like 55 from Down East and especially Harker's Island these days. And they code switch into a less thick version when talking to outsiders.

But if you catch a couple older guys working on the ferry talking to each other, it's a whole different ballgame.

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Groundbreaking-Camel@reddit

Went to college with a guy from Harker’s Island. Took me 2 months to figure out that he was speaking English.

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xnoraax@reddit

Sounds about right.

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Emergency-Office-302@reddit

West Virginia can get pretty difficult to understand. I stopped at a gas station about two hours from DC, and as the attendant came towards the pump he said to me, “Chick at awl?” I was at a complete loss and said, “Beg pardon?” which probably sounded just as weird to him. He repeated, “Chick at awl?” I was, again, at a total loss, but then it occurred to me that I was at a gas station and got it. It was in no way anything even approaching any of the words in “Check that oil?” but that’s what he was asking.

I’m sure if you get back in the hollers it’s incomprehensible to practically every speaker of a mainstream dialect of American English.

Also, a lot of the subtleties of AAVE are lost on me, because I don’t know so much of the grammar. There are so many past tenses in AAVE. I recognize them as past tense, but the differences between “He gone” and “He done gone,” and “He done been gone” are lost on me, and there are more pasts than just those.

I’m pretty much stuck saying, “He left.”

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FeijoaCowboy@reddit

The only accent I came across which I had a hard time understanding was a guy I knew from Minnesota. He'd speak fairly quick while slurring his words, and my brain would get the blue screen of death lol

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Mean_Nun@reddit

Cajun

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Still_Can_7918@reddit

Really the only one that would ever trip up an American is perhaps Cajun or Creole but even then that accent is not super common or widespread and even in Louisiana not super common or at least not as a strong accent.

There really aren’t accents I struggle understanding at all. Most regional accents are dying and dying fast

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FallenAngelina@reddit

Come to Long Island. The accent is alive, well and propagating.

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Yggdrasil-@reddit

This thread is telling me that most Redditors have never heard a really thick Yooper (upper peninsula Michigan) accent. Sadly another one that is dying out, though.

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Silver_Breakfast7096@reddit

Oh hey der. Yooopers not so hard.

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Caddling@reddit

Have a good day eh

Was that a question?

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WinstonWilmerBee@reddit

IMO accents with “lazy” or open mouth are harder. Yopper is still sharp enough I can figure out where we’re at

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whip_lash_2@reddit

Isn't that Cornish influenced? Like the Hoo Toiders, I believe.

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Ative66@reddit

It’s more Finnish influence then Cornish.

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Yggdrasil-@reddit

Yep, but lot of Finnish and Scandinavian influence as well. My great grandparents were Cornish Yoopers :)

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shelwood46@reddit

I don't think regional accents are dying, it's just that people got better at code switching when they have to deal with people outside their region.

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mustbethedragon@reddit

I lived in West Virginia for 10 years, but even with that experience, there are areas and individuals with accents so deep that I struggle to follow them. I can get there, but there's always several beats of "What was that??"

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BasketballButt@reddit

My grandparents yn Mississippi had THICK accents, my dad’s accent really only came out when he drunk or after he talked to someone back home, my cousins down there don't sound much different from me (born and raised in the PNW). You’re not kidding about how fast the accents are dying.

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lamplightas@reddit

It's thanks to media. My grandfather and his mother are Geechee. I would pick up the accent and intonation every summer playing with my cousins. It's being gentrified fast, and pushed into Lowcountry accent, which is different.

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Rhev@reddit

Baltimore? Aaron earned an iron urn.

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IDCouch@reddit

Smith Island

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logaruski73@reddit

Southern accent, especially in areas with a strong drawl and use of local slang.

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WideArtichoke3461@reddit

I’m originally from Louisiana and moved out of state a decade ago. The different dialects have become difficult for me to understand.

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Weekly-Preference-31@reddit

Boston and NYC are difficult for me. California especially the valley girl accent just annoys me and makes me want to rip their jaw out from their mouths.

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myrstica@reddit

It's not a US accent, but I dated a woman from Newfoundland. She'd acquired a solid Ontario accent by the time we met, with the exception of a word here and there (fyi: the emphasis in Newfoundland should fall on the last syllable: 'noo-fin-LAND' instead of 'NEW-fin-lind'). When she brought me home to meet her family, it town me most of a day to understand what anyone was saying. I smiled and nodded a lot, and took a good minute before I responded when anyone asked me a question.

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DifficultyNo1026@reddit

Alabama, Mississippi

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DietNarrow8275@reddit

I’m an American who was born in the North (Pennsylvania) and struggled to understand some of the stronger Southern accents when I moved to Tennessee. it took me several years for my ears to get used to it.

I know when our French corporate coworkers came for visits most of them also struggled with the Appalachian accent here.

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kwiltse123@reddit

Whatever accent Teeter has in Yellowstone. They called it Tex I think. But JC is it hard to understand her.

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Ganymede25@reddit

I am from Houston and once went offshore fishing in the Gulf about 180 km due east of Galveston Texas. We encountered a tugboat crewed by south Louisiana cajuns who were tied to a buoy after delivering pipeline to the rigs. They offered to let us tie off to their stern overnight so that we could get some rest instead of having to free float in deep water.

I could only understand about half of what they were saying. Friendly bunch though.

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fit_punk2847@reddit

As a southerner, it’s quite difficult for me to understand the Brooklyn accent. I always have to ask them to slow down and enunciate. Not too familiar with Cajun but I have heard the deep Appalachian accent and that is quite hard to understand too. Also the Gullah-Geechee dialect is very difficult to understand but is almost non existent today, found mainly only on Sapelo Island, GA.

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Ok-Flight-1504@reddit

Whatever accent they have in North Carolina. I was passing through once and stopped at a restaurant. I couldn't understand a damn word the waitress said, or a word from the patrons at the next table.

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Lilithbeast@reddit

"Oh, stewardess. I speak jive."

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Chicago_Avocado@reddit

I had a foreign friend go down to Alabama, and he literally thought they were speaking a different language.

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Spiritual-Quarter417@reddit

Idk what the accent is officially called, but the way some old timers from texas talk can totally feel like a different language! Think Boomhauer from King of the Hill.

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Individual-Schemes@reddit

My friend Rob when he's really drunk

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Chickens-In-Pants@reddit

You asked about accents, but one of your examples was Cajun which is a Creole dialect. So I want to suggest another that you have almost certainly never heard. Hawaiian Pidgin. It’s how most people who have lived in Hawaiʻi for a long time speak to eachother, especially people who were born here.

From Wikipedia: “A creole language is a stable, fully developed language that emerges from the mixing of two or more distinct languages. It typically develops when speakers of different native tongues communicate in a simplified hybrid language and pass it on to the next generation, who adopt it as their mother tongue.”

Here’s a link to a video about it with a lot of examples, but there are tons of fun videos out there if you want to look further. https://youtu.be/8bgP2ic38gA?si=BLpuiDZ4Y3ESjPG6

Also if you are a person who is familiar with the Bible, regardless of your beliefs, there is a Hawaiian Pidgin Bible called Da Jesus Book, and it is a pretty fun read especially if you know the story that is being told. Here’s a link to that. I chose Mark for the link just because I thought it illustrated the way the language is used best with a quick search. https://ebible.org/study/content/texts/hwcNT/MK1.html

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nalonrae@reddit

Cajun is a dialect of French not Creole. Creole, or Kouri Vini in Louisiana, is a separate language.

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Key_Customer_7537@reddit

I grew up in South Texas. After my graduate degree, I took a job in Southern California. It was difficult for me to keep up with the speed at which they spoke. Even after a few years.

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ssk7882@reddit

Hee! I'm from New York, and I know plenty of New Yorkers who moved to Southern California only to find the speed at which people there spoke insufferably slow! I suppose if that bothered them, then they should be grateful they didn't relocate to Texas or the southeast!

I've never been bothered by slower speech patterns at all. I can easily imagine feeling lost if everyone spoke much faster than I'm used to, though.

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MessyHighlands@reddit

Never considered this. Moved from NY and I had a couple of southern teachers who spoke so slowly it was hard to concentrate. I can’t imagine the reverse. I’m back in ny now with my fast talkers.

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shelwood46@reddit

When I was a kid I flew from my hometown of Green Bay WI to Dallas, and the guy who picked me up marveled that I "talked all fast like those guys on Monty Python".

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whip_lash_2@reddit

It's worse. Californians actually speak very slowly. It fools people because their accent is close to "standard American" but it's actually near Southern drawl speed. As a native Texan but without the drawl I found working in California for a while slightly annoying because a lot of Texans no longer actually have drawls.

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cerealandcorgies@reddit

the Hoi Toiders in Okracoke

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NCSU_252@reddit

Tangier Island in VA has a very similar accent to the NC hoi toiders that to me is a little tougher to understand. I grew up in coastal NC so I can understand the hoi toiders just fine, but the folks up on Tangier put their own flavor on it.

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MessyHighlands@reddit

That’s what I was trying to think of! Isn’t it a form of old English or something?

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Ambitious-Schedule63@reddit

First thing I thought of when I saw this thread was Tangier.

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DecadesLaterKid@reddit

Yes, I came here to say old school Chesapeake islanders.

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riversroadsbridges@reddit

I came here to call out Hoi Toider as well. I'm not saying it's any harder to understand than Cajun, but it's definitely not any easier.

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Azadehjoon@reddit

Wow, very interesting. Thanks for sharing that link! I'm an NC native and had never heard the term Hoi Toider before. Very cool!

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MsBluffy@reddit

Super interesting watch! Thanks

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Early-Shelter-7476@reddit

TIL, thank you!

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HandsomePotRoast@reddit

Love the Hoi Toiders. As a New Englander it reminds me - of all things - of Mainers. Which makes sense in terms of coastal life, but geographically or ethnicly not so much.

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cerealandcorgies@reddit

I can understand that! I think it's the isolation. Mainers tend to be... Mainers. It's very distinct and not diluted by transplants as much as other places.

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Wonderful_Ad_889@reddit

Lol. “Not diluted by transplants”. Th me most southern backwater view whey

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Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit

Both dialects come from isolated costal communities whose first settlers were British. So not super surprising that they’d have some similarities.

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Wonderful_Ad_889@reddit

Whats the difference im ethnicity between maine and obx?

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HandsomePotRoast@reddit

Yeah, poor choice of words on my part. Culture would have been better. New England v Tidewater South.

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violet_wings@reddit

This was the one I came to say. I only know about it from YouTube videos, but listening to it, it doesn't sound like English at all.

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p143245@reddit

We went there on our honeymoon and were sort of adopted by a group of locals. It was awesome! We're super Southern and I was teaching a Shakespeare play at the time, so it was extra fun to gear certain words because it's the closest to Elizabethan English I've heard.

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mysecondaccountanon@reddit

To me, Hoi Toider accent isn’t too hard to understand, but I grew up hearing it on occasion, so maybe that makes it a bit easier on my ears and brain

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shbd12@reddit

Whichever one you don't hear often. I clearly understand all the coastal accents from New England to Atlanta, but not true Appalachian, Creole, and some hardcore upper Midwest ones because I don't hear them much.

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Fun_Machine7346@reddit

Creole

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Intermountain-Gal@reddit

I worked for a company for awhile helping clients get onto Social Security disability. One of my areas was Louisiana. I HATED calling there because understanding the accents just didn’t compute with my brain! I was not expecting that. The people were patient and kind with me, but man, what a struggle!

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Chance-Adept@reddit

Everyone keeps saying Cajun, so I just wanted to drop in to point out that they are correct. It’s Cajun.

When I was in sales with my Cajun rep in Cajun country, I would have to ask him to give me a recap of what him and the store owner had discussed. I’m from Dallas, it’s not that far away….

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Trimyr@reddit

Different NE or midwest accents can be quite noticeable, but understandable.

Cajun who's spent their life in the bayou? Good luck.

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Chance-Adept@reddit

Mainer is harder than you would think!

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OwariHeron@reddit

Mainer and Cajun have a lot in common!

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Fearless_Elevator437@reddit

In that clip they just sound straight up southern. (I live near Maine. It's not what the accent sounds like.)

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Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit

I mean, literally, since Cajuns are displaces Acadians.

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JThereseD@reddit

I have more trouble understanding Maine than Cajun.

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AmandaFawn@reddit

Many people with Cajun accents moved up to ME after the Civil War due to the land grant program so this tracts

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JThereseD@reddit

No it doesn’t.

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Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit

Makes sense given that Cajuns are originally from Acadia.

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Snoo_16677@reddit

A labsta that is big enough is a keepah.

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hewhoisneverobeyed@reddit

Ayup.

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DarwinGhoti@reddit

Oh no way. I lived in Maine for a decade and had no problems at all. Met a good ole boy Cajun in southern Mississippi and couldn’t understand a single thing he said. He was legit getting frustrated.

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Trimyr@reddit

True. Some old men would be perfectly at home over in Newcastle arguing over their pints where no one has a clue what either are saying.

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East2west87@reddit

Uh-yuh ridondeah, bub!

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Turbulent-Leg3678@reddit

Ayuh!

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Cool-Bunch6645@reddit

My favorite hahah

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Chance-Adept@reddit

It’s a fun one to try to do but I find it impossible to do an impression of.

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Stormdrain11@reddit

🤭👋🏼

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paradisetossed7@reddit

I live in New Englang and have no issue with understanding the various NE accents. But I was at an interview in Boston once and... I could not understand the office manager for the life of me. I kept saying, sorry? Pardon? I'm sorry, say that again? It was humilating. Had a similar experience in a rural-ish North Carolina town. We stopped to eat and I could not understand the server for the life of me. I'm from the part of Florida that doesn't have accents so I guess the extremes can get me. Cajun wins, but some of those southern and MA accents give some good competition.

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Amockdfw89@reddit

Yea I took a row trip through New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island and I swear some of them talked like Brad Pitts Irish traveler character in Snatch

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BoopleBun@reddit

I love that, most of the time, questions on this subreddit are answered with “well, it depends a lot on the region and your background, and America is a big place, etc. etc.”

But this question? “Cajun. It’s Cajun. Here are some other ones that are also difficult, but it’s Cajun.”

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Radiant_Music3698@reddit

Hilarious. I was once working with a very Asian engineer and a borderline hillbilly technician. I could understand both, they couldn't understand each other. I was the translator between engrish and anglish.

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warneagle@reddit

Should’ve just dropped a link to a video of Ed Orgeron talking and walk away

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wind_moon_frog@reddit

Everyone keeps dropping in to point out that they’re indeed correct that it’s Cajun, so I just wanted to drop in and point out that you’re correct. It is correct.

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markkawika@reddit

This guy is correct.

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Chance-Adept@reddit

This guy gets it.

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CubedMeatAtrocity@reddit

Yep. Definitely Cajun.

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MyUsername2459@reddit

Alleged English

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Small-Tax-2829@reddit

English adjacent with a drowned French lean

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SlippingAwayWith@reddit

I wish I could share with you a voice message left for a company a friend works for by someone from southern Louisiana. It’s unintelligible. No one at the company can decipher it.

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forever-salty22@reddit

Smith Island, Maryland. They sound southern and Irish at the same time to me. Supposedly they speak Elizabethan English

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ZephyrProductionsO7S@reddit

Arkansas.

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dagmara56@reddit

Cajun.

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mkp666@reddit

Just chiming in to say I grew up in Colorado, and it’s not us. Not sure there’s a place with less of an accent.

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Repq@reddit

I think I heard somewhere that Newscasters try to imitate Colorado. Could be wrong though.

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Araxanna@reddit

Definitely Midwest, specifically Michigan. We speak very quickly and slur our words together so a simple sentence becomes “gatecjfbidvwfjvvfjsgsv?” Sometimes I don’t even understand the words coming out of my own mouth.

And the worst part is that most of us don’t even realize we do it unless we have a friend who’s from anywhere else point it out to us. But now that someone has pointed it out to me, I hear it all the time.

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No_Designer_7333@reddit

As a Cajun... It's still Cajun. I understand most everyone down here, but if you catch an old head after a few drinks, there isn't much you can do but smile, nod, and say "oh yeah man, I hear ya."

Gullah is difficult, but I've only ever heard it on videos. I'm sure it would t be so difficult to understand if I was in that area for a minute.

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gravitycheckfailed@reddit

Same. Born and raised in South Louisiana, have known French since I was a kid, and I understand probably 98% percent of people here. However...there's still a few older Cajuns who I've met where I was only catching every other word out of their mouth despite them speaking in English.

We do a lot of "smiling and nodding" in this state lol.

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BuckeyeFoodie@reddit

When I was a kid my family did business with an old horse trader who was raised in eastern Kentucky. I could never understand a word he or his brother said. His wife was his translator.

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Odd_Awareness1444@reddit

Rural folks from Appalachia can be hard to understand. They don't enunciate and tend to mumble.

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alegna12@reddit

Cajun. I worked for a Cajun once. I only understood a third of what he said. I quickly discovered I wasn’t the only one. After team meetings, we’d all hang around to compare what we each understood. Between us, we could usually figure out what he meant.

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dixon-bawles@reddit

Hillbilly

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ndubitably@reddit

Many Cajuns can speak French, so it's possible it was another language 😅

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LAWriter2020@reddit

Cajun French is not understandable to French people- it is 1600s archaic French. And when Cajuns speak English, many of the colloquial words and phrases are translations of that Middle French.

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DeniLox@reddit

Is it easier for French Canadians to understand?

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ndubitably@reddit

Per Wikipedia, "The Acadia region to which many modern Cajuns trace their origin consisted largely of what are now Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island plus parts of eastern Quebec and northern Maine" so maybe?

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Secret-Equipment2307@reddit

so english speakers have trouble understanding their english and french speakers can't understand their french.. they're just a mess

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LAWriter2020@reddit

They are a mess, but don’t care. Let the good times roll!

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No_Designer_7333@reddit

I'm Cajun, and Parisian French (sometimes called Metropolitan French, but usually just French) is mutually intelligible with Cajun French.

If you want an actual different language, look up Kouri-Vini. It's an African-French-English creole, spoken by about 100k across Louisiana.

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LAWriter2020@reddit

Thank you for the clarification. I may have been thinking of Kouri-Vini. But my friends from Paris and Belgium had a very difficult time understanding the French spoken by Cajuns during their visit to Lafayette, Louisiana. They got by, but it wasn't easy for them.

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No_Designer_7333@reddit

Don't get me wrong--the accent that we speak with is considered god-awful to European French speakers. As far as I'm aware, that's the main reason for Cajun French being hard to understand for European French speakers.

We use a few different words (maringouin for mosquito instead of moustique, for example), but by and large the we share the same core vocabulary.

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Nuclear_eggo_waffle@reddit

As a quebecois, France French people think everything that isn’t Parisian/tours “standard” French is god-awful. If you’re lucky, they’ll find it hilarious instead

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LAWriter2020@reddit

But of course to Parisians, the accent of most native French speakers outside of Paris is considered god-awful, particularly Quebecois. But I believe even Quebec has improved over the last few decades as more and more movies and television shows from France have become readily available.

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No_Designer_7333@reddit

Funnily enough, I don't find the Quebecoise accent particularly hard to understand. I've got more trouble with standard French than I do Quebecoise or Cajun French!

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LAWriter2020@reddit

I am guessing because the pronunciation is closer between Quebecoise and Cajun than modern French. Both Quebec and the Acadian communities were isolated from the development of European French language and the French Academy (for different reasons) from the 1600s - early 1700s until the last half of the 20th century.

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LAWriter2020@reddit

I was born in New Orleans, but spent more time with Creole speakers than French speakers when I was a musician. I just listened to some examples I found on the web of Kouri-Vini - sounds like what I heard around Bayou Teche and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

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Fun_Push7168@reddit

I think their French is about as close to French as their English is to English.

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TigerLily_TigerRose@reddit

I’m an east coast white American who briefly lived and worked in an Irish pub in London. We had this one customer who was an old drunk Irishman. He was great friends with a middle aged black man from the Caribbean (Grenada, I think). I could understand the Caribbean man perfectly, but he had to translate for his Irish friend because I couldn’t understand anything he said.

Obviously Irish isn’t an American accent, but it’s an accent in the English language and it’s brutal. And no, the guy wasn’t speaking Gaelic, his English was just that indistinguishable. I had a young Irish coworker and my boss was Irish, so it’s not all Irish accents that are indecipherable. But old drunk (probably rural) Irish is something else.

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WPZinc@reddit

I'm American/native English speaker and I also find Cajun the hardest

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Emily_Porn_6969@reddit

Cajun

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MMARapFooty@reddit

Appalachian or Cajun

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Least_Data6924@reddit

Deep Woods Georgia or Alabama

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Aggravating_Fishy_98@reddit

The Deep South

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tequilasheila@reddit

Gullah Geechee. I had moved to FL and was working in a hospital and had a heck of a time understanding the rapidly spoken words that sort of merged together, rising and falling. Sounded great to my ears, just took me a while (close to a year, I bet) to follow all that folks were saying.

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Ok_Buy_9703@reddit

Cajun is the hardest for me to follow.

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Tinychair445@reddit

My college organic chemistry professor was Scottish. That was rough

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Diligent-Touch-5456@reddit

Grew up in the west, but I can understand most accents. But if I'm around someone with an accent long enough, I'll start talking with their accent. By long enough, I'm talking about an hour.

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MzSea@reddit

Cajun

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CateranBCL@reddit

Cajun for sure, but many people also struggle with the "Boomhauer" east Texas accent.

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BBtheGray@reddit

I've lived in the south for 20 years now. I stopped for gas in rural Mississippi and there were some guys out front talking. I thought they were speaking another language. Finally I recognized a few words of English. Turns out they just had a crazy thick accent. I imagine it's like Mississippi Cajun or something.

Other than that, sometimes the thick New England accent can be tough.

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thebeatsandreptaur@reddit

Only cajun is a blanket wtf for me and only when it's thick as hell.

Appalachian can get a little iffy but only when it's spoken by a 90 year old man riding his mower to the corner store, and that has more to do with weaker vocal cords pretty much wiping out any more sounds than normal. But I'm Appalachian so.

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Josiahthefox28@reddit

For me, from the northeast, its a deep south accent

Not Cajun, but like a rural Georgia/Carolinas accent is the hardest for me to figure out

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Ambitious-Sale3054@reddit

From rural Georgia and was staying at the Boston Park Plaza. Got on the elevator with about 3 men and I only spoke 2 words for all 3 guys to collectively turn and ask me where I was from. The 2 words were “four please”. Yes,I have a drawl!

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SmugTater@reddit

Cajun is the one that always trips me up. And I'm from southeast NC. My home town is less than a mile from SC. Most southern accents are similar enough that we can all communicate effectively with each other. Not Cajun though

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174853@reddit

In SC, people from the lowcountry have a very different accent than people in the Piedmont. People in low country sometimes don’t say there R’s and will use ‘da’ instead of ‘the’ and say some vowels differently. People from the upstate have more Appalachian sounding accents that are a little easier for outsiders to understand I think until you get way up into the mountains.

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304libco@reddit

Super countrified Deep South. I was in a diner in Georgia once and I literally could not understand what the guy was saying. And I’m from Texas!

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Ambitious-Sale3054@reddit

My favorite interaction in faculty medicine occurred back in the 80’s when my Pakistan faculty member(he spoke very proper English) asked a Deep South Georgia patient if he had sex with other men. The patient replied quickly “I ain no bufuker” and the physician quickly replied “I beg your pardon” which was followed by a more enunciated “I AIN NO BUFUKER” and a quizzical expression from my faculty member. One of my residents pulled him into the hallway and translated what the patient had replied. By this time everyone that was attending these rounds fell out laughing as we all understood southern African American dialect and had been suppressing our chuckles at the initial response.

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Username_Taken_Argh@reddit

Any Southern accent is unbearably hard to understand. I immediately tune them out the moment the speaker opens their mouth.

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Grouchy-Bluejay-4092@reddit

Mississippi. Lived there for about a year. Had a hard time understanding people because it seemed like they barely opened their mouths when they talked.

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hasanicecrunch@reddit

I’ll say New Orleans

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Ippus_21@reddit

Real Cajun accents can be pretty tough, yeah. Or some people from like, WAY in the deep South. Any accent is tough if it's really heavy or contains a lot of local jargon.

I saw a video of Gullah people from NC's Outer Banks in one of my linguistics class in college, just to illustrate the difference between an actual creole vs accent or dialect... it's pretty wild.

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02meepmeep@reddit

I was going to say Gullah, but I’m not sure if that isn’t borderline its own language.

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Tomato_Motorola@reddit

It is a separate language technically, but Gullah people and Black Charlestonians do still have a distinct accent when speaking "standard English."

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Ippus_21@reddit

It basically is. It's a creole. Definitely not just a regional accent. I was specifically mentioning it as an example of the difference between a creole and a dialect/accent.

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jvc1011@reddit

It’s a creole, which is linguist-speak for “borderline its own language.”

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Khajiit_Has_Upvotes@reddit

I dated a guy from the deep south and the first few times we ever spoke I had a hard time understanding him lol

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Aspen9999@reddit

Yeah, I’m married to a Cajun and he’s taught me some Cajun, but it’s difficult at first.

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whistlepigjunction@reddit

It was probably “Hoi Tide” if it was the NC Outer Banks. It preserves a lot of sounds and phrasing from the early English settlers.

Gullah Gullah is primarily SC (and a little bit of southeastern NC) low country people of African decent.

Hearing either by native speakers is really cool.

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Ippus_21@reddit

Swapping NC and SC is... probably not the worst thing my brain could've done there... It's been like 20 years since I really thought about it, lol. Thanks!

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cerealandcorgies@reddit

yeah I think that's ok and despite what some people believe, most carolinians of either persuasion don't hate each other. both states are pretty awesome tbh

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cerealandcorgies@reddit

point of clarification, Gullah (or Gullah Geechee) are from a little bit south of the outer banks, concentrated in SC and GA. They are different and distinct from the Hoi Toiders of Ockracoke on the OB. Most Gullah are descendants of West and Central Africa. The Okracoke Islanders(and other similar groups in Maryland, VA etc) are descended from 17-18th century European immigrants, mostly UK.

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Ippus_21@reddit

Thank you! It's been... a minute, shall we say, since I was in that classroom, and I haven't exactly made a point of doing follow up research in the intervening years, lol. Life took me in a direction other than linguistics.

I appreciate the clarification!

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Tomato_Motorola@reddit

I talked to a Black girl in Charleston and I did not realize at first she was even from the US. Her accent sounded straight-up Caribbean. But she was born and raised in South Carolina! Not impossible to understand but took some adjustment.

My mom's side of the family is from Honolulu. They have pretty neutral accents, but a lot of the more rural people on Oahu have stronger accents and even slip into Pidgin sometimes. My aunt has some friends who are incomprehensible to me when they start talking Pidgin amongst themselves.

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nxptnpr@reddit

People from the south imo

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nxptnpr@reddit

for me it's Atlantans

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zusia@reddit

Severe Redneck.

I’d rather peel my skin off.

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CheGueyMaje@reddit

Mississippi Delta

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hailcourthulhu@reddit

For me as a southerner with midwestern parents, Bostonians sometimes are hard for me to understand. I can understand Cajuns better.

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DamnOdd@reddit

True Cajun is a Joy to listen to.

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bigdogoflove@reddit

My ex-wife had family in western Georgia. Talk about a southern drawl.

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Difficult-Ad2084@reddit

Cajun

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MiketheTzar@reddit

Cajun has a big asterisk next to it as it gets really hard to split between Cajun and Cajun Creole on the fly when Cajun Creole has a lot of random French in it. The same can be said for Gullah Geechee or any other sufficiently English pigeon

Likely the most difficult accent that is truly 100% in English for native speakers to understand is going to Deep Appalachian. With Bronx slang being second.

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The_Swooze@reddit

I had a hard time translating what people said when I moved from SoCal to the rural Deep South. Not only the accents, but the strange Southern vocabulary and folksy phrases also tripped me up.

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Sufficient-Union-456@reddit

Cajun Louisiana - especially out side of the metro areas.

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violahonker@reddit

Tangier Island in Chesapeake bay. Another difficult one is the outer banks of North Carolina, like Ocracoke Island, or some really thick Appalachian accents.

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ray_ruex@reddit

Not trying to be prejudice but alot of African Americans when talking to each other is hard to understand it maybe more of a southern thing.

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Aquarius_K@reddit

Appalachian does have it own dialect too. Watch Eric Singer on YouTube. He explains all about it and it's so interesting. He talks about Cajun too. The south used to be primarily non rhotic but now we're all rhotic unless you have the Cajun accent.

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averagejosh@reddit

I’m from Southern Appalachia and am currently vacationing through Scotland (and Ireland/Northern Ireland). Of course, I’m well aware that the people I’m descended from were once settlers/immigrants from Scotland, but being here and hearing certain pronunciations that sound identical to those of the people from the mountains and the hollers back home is kind of wild.

It’s like this strange, real-world time capsule of evidence that these are the people my ancestors came from several hundred years ago.

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cerealandcorgies@reddit

I think this is why I'm so enamored of the Scottish Highlands and Ireland, it reminds me of home

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WinstonWilmerBee@reddit

The Appalachians and the Highlands are the same mountain range, separate by continental drift for millions of years. It’s fascinating how many people immigrated from those mountains to those mountains.

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Silver_Breakfast7096@reddit

Kismet. The energy was a gravitational pull.

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cerealandcorgies@reddit

yep. Older than bones.

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Hot_Depth_3367@reddit

I did not know that! That IS fascinating!

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Silver_Breakfast7096@reddit

My mom grew up in the Appalachian mountain area of Pennsylvania. Her parents never learned English and she had distinct words and ways of saying others. I always thought she was odd. Then we went for a visit. There was a whole community of people that spoke the same way she did! Eye opening.

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Silver_Breakfast7096@reddit

Cajun.

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Barutano74@reddit

This is a bit off-piste, but once when I was in Catalunya I met a woman who was born and raised in Barcelona, but whose parents were from Jackson, Tennessee. Her accent in Spanish was normal for the area, but her accent in English was about half Euro-English and half Jackson. It’s weird to hear a Spaniard say France like “FRAY-unce”, with two syllables.

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Downtown_Confusion46@reddit

I got in a cab once in Jackson Mississippi. I had no clue what the cab driver was saying (and it was I’m sure some sort of accent from the USA but it was fast and maybe south to my Minnesota/California ears.

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oldladylikesflowers@reddit

I was in Branson last weekend and had a hard time understanding some of the locals there lol

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AnitaIvanaMartini@reddit

Gullah Geechee. I once asked a Gullah speaker for directions and didn’t understand a single word. I just watched him point a variety of ways while he spoke random sounds with a charming lilt

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ssk7882@reddit

Cajun and the English spoken in the isolated communities along the Gullah Geechee corridor are the two that I find pretty much incomprehensible.

Much of it is what you're used to, though. I often hear people complaining about thick Pittsburgh or eastern New England accents (like some of those found in rural Maine) being hard to decipher, yet I've never found them all that difficult myself. I don't think it's at all a coincidence here, though, that I grew up in the northeast, while the two accents I cited above has "hard" are both southern dialects. Perhaps if I'd grown up in the south, I'd find the Cajun and Gullah Geechee Englishes a little easier, and heavy New England or northeastern city dialects considerably more difficult.

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Fionaver@reddit

The hardest thing about understanding people with very strong accents from up North is how fast people typically speak compared to how a rural Deep South Southerner does. Or even a Southerner from a major city, where people speak faster. Gets overwhelming pretty quickly.

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Opposite_Tone_6939@reddit

Boston

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ocvagabond@reddit

Is not just within the US though. In the UK, basically anything other than RP (the Queen’s English) can border on indecipherable. Hard to understand init!

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Scary_Gazelle_6366@reddit

Ever heard a cholo speak spanglish?

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IneptFortitude@reddit

Atlanta Zone 6 accent

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FlyingCupcake68@reddit

What is Zone 6?

[-]

IneptFortitude@reddit

It’s a police jurisdiction code assigned to parts of Atlanta, dividing them up like boroughs. People that live there sometimes use those to describe where they’re from. Zone 6 is a well known area of east Atlanta represented by the likes of Gucci Mane, JID, Young Nudy, 21 Savage, Baby Drill and others. If you watch their interviews you will hear the accent. The strongest example I listed would probably be Baby Drill, his accent is probably incomprehensible to foreigners.

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FlyingCupcake68@reddit

Thanks. My sister has lived in Atlanta for about 20 years, and I’ve never heard her mention the zones before.

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Fionaver@reddit

News to me as well.

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irishgator2@reddit

I have to translate sometimes to out of towners - he said “what will you have?”

[-]

jupitaur9@reddit

My husband went to Boston as a young man snd was presented with this question at a KFC: “Kaffa kawn?”

He was being asked, >!”Care for corn?”!<

[-]

dtab@reddit

Even before I read the post, just based on the title I was going to say Cajun. I live in the Midwest, so that might have something to do with it.

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AccomplishedGap3571@reddit

Corporate lingo. My CEO will speak at her thirty minute quarterly employee meetings and no one knows what she really said. There’s also a lower dialect of corporate lingo used by middle managers which is mostly composed of acronyms which no one knows what they actually stand for.

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drumzandice@reddit

My Wife has family from coal country in West Virginia. I spent a lot of time around them and there are certain members of the family with accents so deep I literally don’t understand much of what they are saying. I’ve never experienced that anywhere else in the US.

[-]

Hello_Hangnail@reddit

Backwoods Kentucky sounds like another freaking language to my ears

[-]

killingourbraincells@reddit

It's gotta be what you mentioned. My brother sounds like Boomhauer outta the show Boondocks. It's like hood swamp talk, but he's a little white boy, so you don't expect the hood aspect from him. He grew up in a Sanford, FL area. His accent is all messed up. I frequently translate for him whenever we go places.

Second, I'd say is Baltimore hood. If you don't know the slang and the accent, you ain't gonna understand shit.

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Concentrate_Previous@reddit

I blew a tire once near Elizabethtown KY. 2 gentlemen stopped to help me. One of them sounded exactly like Boomhauer to me. I know he was saying words but I could understand like 1/5 of them.

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Sirenista_D@reddit

Was it a Baltimore guy who said a sentence and was like "wait, is that what we sound like?" It literally sounded like he said "earl earl earl earl earl" but it was actually a whole ass sentence

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SexualDepression@reddit

Aaron earned an iron urn. ern ern ern ern ern.

and yeah, that was Baltimore.

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Which_Initiative_882@reddit

Arr urr ah ire urh is how I heard it. They hit the first letter and the rest is just a fast slured mash of the rest of the word.

[-]

SexualDepression@reddit

The one dude really chewing the pronunciation gets me every time.

"AAAARon EARned an IRon URn"

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Which_Initiative_882@reddit

"Yo we really talk like that?" Lol

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IneptFortitude@reddit

Baltimore has one of the best regional accents. I love the way they say shoes. Shewwwss

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Craigh-na-Dun@reddit

As a native my accent is still strong even after not living there for many years.

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toyheartattack@reddit

Urn urn urn urn urn. Amazing.

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Can_I_Read@reddit

I love the second guy who nods like he nailed it.

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InvertedJennyanydots@reddit

Aaron earned an iron urn. But it just sounds like urn repeatedly.

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ssk7882@reddit

I suppose this would be where I admit that even though I am American, I watched The Wire with captioning on. I don't know if I'd have been able to understand a thing Snoop said without subtitles.

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cruzweb@reddit

Boomhauer is from King of the Hill

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killingourbraincells@reddit

Yeah, but my brother sounds like if you put Boomhauer in The Boondocks.

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cruzweb@reddit

lmao gotchu. That's all kinds of hilarious. Sounds like an errand boy for Ed and Rummy

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Concentrate_Previous@reddit

I am from Wisconsin (northern US). I had a lot of trouble understanding some folks with Appalachian accents until I spent time living in Cincinnati.

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SpaceFroggy1031@reddit

Delta (from the Delta in Mississippi)

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No-Pomegranate3070@reddit

It depends on where you are from. I’m from Louisiana so, so I get south Louisiana and Cajun. but some parts of Kentucky are difficult for me to understand.

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RioTheLeoo@reddit

Appalachian by far imo. I had an uncle from there, and I literally never had any idea what he was saying

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bibbityboo2@reddit

I'm Scottish and can understand it fine.

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Flimsy_Share_7606@reddit

I have been an engineer that visited factories in Appalachia. Office workers had a normal understandable southern accent. Go out on the factory floor and it was an inscrutable language.

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silveronetwo@reddit

Work in an area that is on the border of Yinzer, Appalachian, and what I call Broadcast English devoid of regional influence. The different words and phrases used for the same common thing are interesting.

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popopotatoes160@reddit

Most of the office workers were probably code switching, it seems common to learn to do in college, which is why there's a divide between who's doing it. There also can a weird blue collar masculinity factor to it too in my experience.

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Fit_Poetry_267@reddit

I'm from Appalachia and there are hollers of Appalachia where the accent is beyond me.

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WinstonWilmerBee@reddit

I love the deep Hollers because they have words that have completely died out in modern American English. It’s not that I don’t know what they said—I just don’t know what the fuck that is.

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jessipowers@reddit

I just commented this on another thread, but my grandpa grew up deep in a Kentucky holler. I spent most of my childhood understanding maybe only about half of what he said. When he and my grandma got married, she saw his last name written on the marriage certificate and realized she had misunderstood him and it was something completely different.

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cabhop@reddit

https://youtu.be/O6zslvLklyI?si=jrjLT64mbG0x2m4f

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Ananvil@reddit

Whichever has fewer teeth

[-]

Troutmandoo@reddit

It’s not an American accent, but I have a good friend who was born and raised in Glasgow. Dude is a legend. But if my phone rings at around 6:00 pm (PST) and it’s him, it’s 2:00 am there and he has absolutely been drinking. I always pick up because this is going to be hysterically funny. He’s a hilarious drunk, but it’s going to be a struggle to understand his heavy Scottish accent combined with alcohol.

“when your government arrests you for being a liberal, tell them a Communist called Paul in Glasgow will vouch for your good character.” 😂

For American accents, OP has correctly identified Cajun/Creole and Appalachian as being the two most difficult to follow. But drunken Scottish commie is just impossible.

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Cool-Sell-5310@reddit

Rural Appalachia

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jvc1011@reddit

Real true Baltimore can be nigh impenetrable, especially when spoken at speed.

I don’t know if my sister-in-law has slowed down or if I’ve gotten used to it, but 20 years ago I would regularly miss at least half of what she was saying to me.

My niece once told me to turn right on Emmison Avenue. “Emerson?” I asked. “Yeah, Emmison,” she answered. I almost got lost because she meant Edmondson.

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Decent_Cow@reddit

Yeah, Cajun or Appalachian were what I was going to say.

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pawsplay36@reddit

Southern Alabama rural. It's kind of like southern Louisiana, but with no indicated temp or key.

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Virtual_Job9303@reddit

Mannerisms of individuals can be more difficult than any specific accent. A northerner barking out rapid-fire speech that would have most guys in my hometown touching a pistol on their belt in case he’s about to flip…then the reversal, where a low-key southern mountains guy mumbles a bit and sometimes completely invents words on the fly…communication isn’t always easy, even among Americans themselves.

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quarantina2020@reddit

Really really deep Southern Appalachia. Theres this corner of Virginia/North Carolina where I couldn't understand anybody, even after getting used to the Appalachian accent an hour away.

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LineCookGrind@reddit

People at work always say they take a second to understand me because I speak fast and with a strong NY accent (very heavy 80’s/90’s era Bensonhurst, Brooklyn accent)

I’m an infantryman so if I say “we got a water crossing in 500 meters, over that ridge. I need you to pull security while we handle the crossing” it sounds like “ we gotta wawtah krawssing in five hunnid meetas , just ovah dat ridge. Imma need yah tah pull sekyoority while we handle dah krawssing.”

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daschande@reddit

As a counterpoint: it's widely accepted in the USA that Ohio has the most neutral regional accent. We were the TV and radio broadcast trainers of the country (way back when TV and radio broadcasts were a big thing); because our regional accent was considered the most understandable by all people in the USA regardless of their local regional accent.

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jek39@reddit

the south

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JulsTiger10@reddit

There was an area of central Florida that was extreme redneck country. I grew up in a very rural part of Louisiana and I could not understand them. I had to ask for translations. “Lock mare tratters. Emmer good.”

[-]

tacobellgittcard@reddit

Appalachian wasn’t too bad, but maybe I didn’t meet anyone with a thick accent. Never spoke to anyone with a Cajun accent in person but I imagine that has to be the hardest.
Also wherever they say oil as “ole” and ice as “ass” lmao, no idea where that is though

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mst3k_42@reddit

Oil as ole I’ve heard in North Carolina and Tennessee.

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RickyDickyPubicBalls@reddit

Also common in Alabama and Georgia

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Shoddy-Secretary-712@reddit

My friend from Texas says ole

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Dynafan@reddit

West Texas. My wife is from Odessa, and the looks we've gotten by waiters and bartenders through the years when she asks for an "asswater" Lol

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cerealandcorgies@reddit

Tennebamalina

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Adventurous-Copy3757@reddit

Anything Deep South. I speak English but that isn’t it.

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BurritoBowlw_guac@reddit

Im from Midwest and I’ve struggled to understand those with a strong southern accent especially in children.

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ehenn12@reddit

Cajun. When I was an insurance adjuster I literally had cajun customers I couldn't understand. My friend from Louisiana worked there so he would call those customers for me and I would work one of his claims. I'm from Missouri so I regularly talk to people with southern accents. But cajun is... different.

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SummitJunkie7@reddit

.... for which Americans? Any regional dialect will be very understandable to those who speak it. So different ones will be "the most difficult" for different people.

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LiquidFur@reddit

I live in rural East Texas, and there are a few folks who sound just like Boomhauer here. When we first moved here in the 70s, I legit had no idea what some of the kids at school were saying.

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SmeeezTreeez@reddit

Something in Louisiana for sure

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Relative_Specific217@reddit

I heard one that is dying off from the outer banks in NC and it was fascinating

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Hyphum@reddit

Wisconsin has/had some vocabulary differences that could be confusing when I lived there:

“You go down deer past da tird stop-and-go light and there’s a filling station with a tyme machine and a bubbler out back”

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devilscabinet@reddit

Cajun is hard for most Americans to understand.

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That-Television-4856@reddit

I know some people have a really hard time understanding people from Appalachia but I have family from there so I'm used to it. The Cajun accent is definitely I think one of the harder American accents to understand, nothing else really sounds like it.

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_Ratpik_@reddit

Gullah Geechee

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ChainWise6768@reddit

Arkansas

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Immediate_Abalone_59@reddit

When I first moved from Arkansas to Richmond, Virginia, I struggled because my teacher had a very thick Portsmouth Virginia accent (think Gone With the Wind). Mrs. A called up my mom and said, “Miz G, ah think yo’ daughtah’s re*tarded. Ah cain’t understand a word she says, and she says “huh?” to everythin’ ah say!”

My mom replied, “Mrs. A, I can’t understand you either!”

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cerealandcorgies@reddit

ahve ahlways thawt fliers was purty

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ChainWise6768@reddit

Unnh de tumm rumbedy flmmmm

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Disastrous_Ad1260@reddit

Appalachian,West Virginia. When tech support onshored some jobs here, customers asked for their Indians back. according to linguists, they speak Elizabethan English and would have been understood easily by Shakespeares original audiences.

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itadapeezas@reddit

Cajun. I watch 90 Day Fiance and they always have subtitles for the person from the other country but one time they had a couple on from Louisiana speaking Cajun and they had to have subtitles lol.

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Throckmorton1975@reddit

For me in person it’s been trying to understand some Appalachian speakers who were from deep in the holler in Tennessee and Virginia.

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Grreatdog@reddit

I just watched a young woman at Lowe's need to get help to understand an ancient Gullah speaking man. I could understand him just fine having grown up with it.

But she was mystified. I'm not even sure she knew it was just a local dialect.

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eclecticaesthetic1@reddit

Southern

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ellyb3ar@reddit

Michigander here. Traveling down south, stopped at a restaurant in Kentucky I want to say? Had to have the waitress repeat herself several times, could hardly understand her. Started ordering and the waitress just kind of looked scared and walked off. Finally another waitress came by and said she'd finish our order because the other girl couldn't understand me either! 😂

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Frosty_Chipmunk_3928@reddit

A really heavy New England accent can be a challenge.

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momowag@reddit

Cajun and Appalachian are hard for anyone to understand, even us American speakers lol

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leberator@reddit

gullah geechee

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skt71@reddit

Just joining in to say the three most difficult are Cajun, Appalachian, and Boston. In that order.

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Tree_Weasel@reddit

Agree with this 100%!

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Grungemaster@reddit

My uncle is Cajun. I can barely understand him after he’s had a few.

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Dio_Yuji@reddit

It gets easier after YOU’ve had a few. Lol

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Elendril333@reddit

Scottish accents are like that, too

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Ficsit-Incorporated@reddit

When I went to the UK I had no trouble at all with cockney or scouse accents but the Scots should come with subtitles.

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warneagle@reddit

I have more trouble with native English speakers from Scotland than i ever have with almost any second language English speaker from anywhere else in the world

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Small-Tax-2829@reddit

Its actually similar in that both are technically speaking english, I think

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Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit

I mean, maybe, maybe not. Both places have non-English languages as well.

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throwa1589876541525@reddit

Limmy's Show has helped me a little bit with that lol

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Pookieeatworld@reddit

Nah then you're both just kinda rambling incoherently and neither of you is on the same topic

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RIPdon_sutton@reddit

I would say Gullah, if one would call it “English”…

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Spirited_Ingenuity89@reddit

I wouldn’t since it’s a creole (and therefore a separate language).

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cerealandcorgies@reddit

it's sometimes more music than words, isn't it?

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lamplightas@reddit

Yes! It brings intonation from Yoruba language.
When I married a Yoruba speaker it made a lot of sense.

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Lorib64@reddit

My relatives say yinz for plural you. It's not hard to understand in context though.

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ehunke@reddit

I will say river English which you find in the rural areas around Pittsburgh. Its not that you cannot understand people its just their dialect uses different words that nobody else does like a shopping cart is a buggy, a vacuum is a sweeper, a group of people are yinz.

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soupdenier@reddit

Outer Banks. This accent is nearly extinct these days, but it is truly unique.

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wieldymouse@reddit

I knew this guy that was from Ohio near the Kentucky border and he was really difficult to understand. It was like he barely moved his jaw to talk.

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SabresBills69@reddit

different parts of the country have different accents. some southern ones are very strong.

the strongest is in the Chesapeake bay. there are a few isolated island that are only accessible by boar in parts of Maryland and Virginia. they speak in a very old english accent

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Fuzzy-Garage2020@reddit

Cajun

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Intelligent_Fish3728@reddit

Definitely Cajun for me. I can u see stand pretty much everything else, but that always throws me. Especially when it’s thick like in The Waterboy 😂

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LadderMaster600@reddit

Deep down east Maine accents are wild. Being from there I understand them just fine but my friends from away always have a hard time understanding any of the older folks.

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Ok-Possibility-9826@reddit

I will say, Cajun whoops my ass. I’m a native English speaker, but outside of English, I have more of a hispanophone ear, not a francophone one. The French influence is certainly abundant and unfortunately, my ears aren’t tuned for the phonics.

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Moons_of_Moons@reddit

Cajun and Rhode Island

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caldv33@reddit

Cajun. “Home is where you make it.”

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spintool1995@reddit

Whatever British dialect Gary Oldman was speaking in Slow Horses. I had to watch it with subtitles on to know what he was saying half the time.

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1DietCokedUpChick@reddit

Cajun

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MattieShoes@reddit

Thick Cajun accents are rough. If you're in New Orleans, you'll probably be fine, but get out into the country and who knows?

The Outer Banks accents are rare enough that I've never heard them in person, but good lord...

As for non-American accents, some Indians border on incomprehensible. Inevitably, you run across those doing tech support, and they get mad at you when you can't understand their failed English. Also some farm areas from the UK like thick Cornish accents, or up in the Highlands.

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theniwokesoftly@reddit

Mainer is rough. My sil, who is not American but has lived in the us since she was a kid and has a perfect typical American accent, was completely lost in Maine.

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cecil021@reddit

I grew up in podunk Tennessee, so I’m pretty used to country ass accents. I was working retail one time with another guy from a similar area. I don’t have much of an accent myself, but Nick certainly did. We were hanging out at the edge of our area one slow day when an old country guy came up to us and asked us a question. It took him asking three times before we finally discerned what he wanted. It was gravelly and poorly enunciated, lol.

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PIP_PM_PMC@reddit

Southern Mushmouth is pretty hard

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vanillablue_@reddit

Cajun and Boston.

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Lilylake_55@reddit

Gullah Geechee. And some of the Appalachian accents from more isolated regions.

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Eagle206@reddit

Scottish.

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Normie316@reddit

Cajun

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KiwiSuch9951@reddit

Cajun

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Embarrassed-Cause250@reddit

Southern accent can be difficult to understand.

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comrade_zerox@reddit

Appalachian or Cajun can get quite inscrutable

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sanka@reddit

Exactly these.

I travel a lot for work. One time I flew into WV and drove up into PA coal country. Our handler, I had no idea what he said half the time. He was a young guy, 20's, and if I had to peg his accent I would say dirty Quebecois. Nope. He was a local in this coal mining place.

I worked with a ton of those guys in the mine, and every single one sounded like fucking Boomhaurer, and I'm not even joking a little bit. I think the mining people there have their own language.

Same goes with cajun stuff way down in LA. You have to have a handler, and half the time you can't understand the handler.

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Hopeful_Scholar398@reddit

The PA Deutsche accent can be hard to understand

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jessipowers@reddit

My grandpa grew up in an Appalachian holler. I spent a significant portion of my youth understanding maybe only 50% of what he said. Not quite as indecipherable as Cajun, but it’s still pretty tough.

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RarePrintColor@reddit

Our neighbor in the house next door when we moved here had the most perplexing accent imaginable. I could understand ~50% of what he said. We got along via vibes. I would swear he sounded like your grandpa. But we live not too far outside Nashville and he was a mechanic for the county for decades, so I never understand how he sounded so extremely backcountry after all that time.

When we had a BIG flood in 2010, we were genuinely worried the pond upstream of them was going to break and wreck them. We hiked down to knock on their door to let them know and ask them to come up to our house to be safe. It was a comedy of a conversation. We finally got the gist that they insisted they were fine and didn’t want our help. They weren’t ever rude, and I don’t think we were. But I lost sleep over worrying about them. We hiked down regularly to check on them. Damned if they weren’t ok! I don’t even know how it’s possible, but they didn’t flood. Just sitting on their porch watching the chaos around them.

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Cooperjb15@reddit

People are underestimating far north east accents. I have a harder time understanding people with a strong accent from Maine than Kentucky

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OnionLayers49@reddit

Coastal North Carolina/Barrier Islands dialect. Check it out

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ihatethesidebar@reddit

Appalachian would be my guess. Maybe Native Alaskan but that's more due to the fact it's a slower manner of speech.

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Zvenigora@reddit

I heard an African-American accent in Warner-Robbins, GA that was hard for me to understand. There may be similar accents in parts of Mississippi.

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Suedeonquaaludes@reddit

The old timers on Ocracoke island. Really threw me for a loop. Then we went to this island off the coast of Virginia. Forgot its name but I really didn’t know wtf those people were trying to say to me.

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gwferguson@reddit

Tangier?

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Suedeonquaaludes@reddit

YES OMG THANK YOU! they place was so much fun!!! I have a New Orleans accent so they thought I sounded weird too lol

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Illustrious-Tart7844@reddit

Whatever you want to call it, in some parts of LA, the accent is very hard to understand.

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Snoo_16677@reddit

My wife worked in a Ronald McDonald House. Once, in the middle of the summer, a man from Boone County, West Virginia, who was staying in an un-air-conditioned room on the top floor, asked her for a "fee-in.* I was there, and I had some familiarity with the dialect from having been a court reporter for Federal black lung hearings. She said, "What!?" He repeated his request, and she repeated her response. I said, "I believe he wants a fan." My wife then asked what she calls the stupidest question of her life: "Why, is it hot up there?" He answered, "Hotter than tits on a boar." Again, "What!?" And again, he repeated what he said. And again, I translated: "I believe he said, "hotter than tits on a boar."

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Lower_Kick268@reddit

Up here in South Jersey we got an interesting accent, people down in Florida always give me shit about it and don't understand what wooder ice is.

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Mr_Feces@reddit

Those are the two toughest by far for American English if you're not from those parts. I'd put it right up there with Scots speaking English. I can understand most of it if they're speaking to me, but listening to two locals talking to each other I need a translator for a lot of it.

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justmrmom@reddit

Virginia Tidewater accent can be tough at times, and I saw that as someone with a thick Appalachian accent.

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02meepmeep@reddit

Western South Carolina / North Carolina in my opinion. Rural Mississippi 2nd.

Some neighborhoods in New Orleans have people who are harder to understand than any of those but it’s just some of the people, most you can understand fairly well.

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Madreese@reddit

I always thought some Texas accents were difficult to understand, but on vacation in North Carolina I had to ask people to repeat themselves constantly. I had no idea what they were saying.

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WhatWouldRaccoonsDo@reddit

Agree with Cajun & Appalachian.

Asked someone in Appalachia territory for directions approx 2008, & holy hell. I was told, “Chewna doonus guana Donna Rhoda lull attorneys inguana Donna Rhoda lulmore tilagetta manvl.” (“What you want to do now is go on down the road a little & turn east & go on down the road a little more until you get to Martinsville.”)

[-]

Melone_Selvatico@reddit

Out of American ones none really, but some of the British ones like Glasgow or Liverpool I go blank and wish there were subtitles for real life.

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Keta-Mined@reddit

Cajun

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PeterNippelstein@reddit

Those very strange coastal island accents along New England.

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MrTeeWrecks@reddit

I’ve been all over the US. And grew up where everyone speaks ‘newscaster American English’
Baltimore is kind of tuff to catch all that is being said ‘Jeet Jet’ is ‘did you eat yet?’ For example.

Otherwise it’s Bayou Cajun accent, but technically that’s a French accent to English

[-]

transhighpriestess@reddit

The Pennsylvania Dutch English accent

[-]

Ok_Preference6999@reddit

I see people trip up over the elderly with really strong southern accents. A deep accent with a good amount of mumbling. I dont hear is as often as I used to. Like I said, if its coming from anyone it's the elderly. I had a coworker actively do a ??? face right in front of the man and i had to step in quickly to translate. It was hilarious

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Ok-Equivalent8260@reddit

I had an ex boyfriend from Memphis and sometimes his accent was so thick, I couldn’t understand him lol

[-]

Grindar1986@reddit

I struggle with what I call Southern Mushmouth.

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Ok_Preference6999@reddit

In that, I am an expert.

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Particular_Bet_5466@reddit

I’m pretty sure that’s a racist term

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NoMonk8635@reddit

Rural southern

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TopperMadeline@reddit

There are some isolated groups in either Virginia or North Carolina that have really strong Scottish-like accents.

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Doone7@reddit

I'm in Appalachia. Even I can't understand the old timers who are from deep in the mountains sometimes lol That accent gets thick.

[-]

midwestblondenerd@reddit

Southern Appalachian, aka Chattanooga, Tennessee. Went to a Waffle House, and the waitress just said
" meeenyoo!" She said it three times, loudly. I finally realized she was asking us if we wanted to see a menu.

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Superb_Plum_1399@reddit

I was going to say Cajun before reading the body of your post and seeing you already mentioned it.

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Impressive-Put9617@reddit

Yinz are all giving good answers, but you need to leave go of your presumptions.

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Puzzleheaded_Math973@reddit

Found the dude from Pittsburgh.

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nunyabizthewiz@reddit

I once met a couple guys from Kentucky (not sure what part) but I couldn’t understand a word they said.

[-]

Luckypenny4683@reddit

Let’s put it this way, there’s a show called Swamp People, it’s a reality show that follows alligator hunters in the Atchafalaya River Basin of Louisiana. THICK Cajun accents.

The show automatically includes English subtitling.

[-]

WinnerAwkward480@reddit

One Wife was from Boston , I'm from The South . First time we went up and met her family I couldn't understand half of what the folks were saying.

[-]

stuck_behind_a_truck@reddit

If I had enough bandwidth, this thread is begging for a link to the “I speak Jive” scene.

[-]

belowaverageforprez@reddit

Slow speaking southerners. My brain cannot process those long drawn out sounds into syllables. Maybe it’s my adhd but I just can’t listen slow.

[-]

stabbingrabbit@reddit

There are some in Louisiana that are very hard. Friend worked in a hospital and they had to have a janitor translate.

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Inevitable-Panda4824@reddit

I’ve met a few people, all older, that grew up in the Deep South that replace words with grunts or just noises.

First one I met was a guy I worked with. Took me a full year to just accept that not every noise that came out of his mouth was a word, and that I would have to piece together the sentence with what was words and the general vibe of it. Met a few dozen like him over the years though.

Also if you talk to someone who grew up in the inner city, they can be incredibly hard to understand as well at first. They do at least use words though, even if a quarter of them are not in the dictionary.

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jmilred@reddit

Look up the Whittaker family in West Virginia. That region. That’s the only answer

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DarwinGhoti@reddit

Cajun. Hands down.

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HobsHere@reddit

I'm good with Appalachian and Cajun, but there's an accent in northern New Hampshire that's incomprehensible to me. I don't know what it's called.

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Flimsy_Equal8841@reddit

Appalachian. I know enough French I can understand Cajun.

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Ugly-as-a-suitcase@reddit

can't believe no one has said midwest emo yet

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Affectionate-Crow605@reddit

Anything rural is difficult for me, and I live in the South. I once visited a New England state and stopped at a convenience store in a rural area. I could not for the life of me understand the cashier. I've had similar issues in the South when running into elderly men in a very rural area, like the old men who sit on the porch of the country store and play checkers. I cannot understand a word they say. My spouse, otoh, can have a conversation with them in their dialect.

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XitPersuedByABear@reddit

Easily the Cajun/Creole accent for me. Some of the inner-city southern AAVE (African American Vernacular English) can be really thick and hard to navigate. I would also mention the Maine Northeastern American accent can be hard to follow with its non-rhoticity and long, drawn out vowel lengths.

I'm from the Midwest which is considered a neutral accent, so I hear pretty plain speech ofte lb, and my family is Hispanic from the southwest, so I can navigate a Mexican/Latino accent pretty easily.

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nobodyhere9860@reddit

I can understand Cajun and appalachian just fine.

Tangier Island, however, sounds like a different language to me

[-]

Cheers_u_bastards@reddit

Not that I can’t understand what’s being said, but the uptick at the end of a sentence that you hear from the California crowd makes it difficult to figure how to respond. When everything is a question? I have hard time knowing what and when to say something back?

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Final-Excuse-7236@reddit

I bet understandability is region-adjacent. Dialects and accents ARE regional but rural citizens come into the city and the "city folk" do go out to the farmers markets. I am a city boy in the deep South and can understand every accent that comes thru from a \~200 mile radius. But this -

A guy from Baton Rouge came to work with us after Katrina and it was a month before I really was able to parse out a good conversation! I bet someone from Jackson Miss would latch onto it much faster or even just naturally. I don't know a Maine accent on hearing but I'd wager someone a state away wldn't have as much a problem. Just guessing.

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Remarkable_Table_279@reddit

Cajun

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ClapClapFlapSlap@reddit

Outer Banks NC

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NATWWAL-1978@reddit

Rhode Island. Growing up you could buy RI to English dictionaries in Boston.

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Universally-Tired@reddit

Cajun

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Username98101@reddit

Delaware

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Ok-Change2292@reddit

I used to know some people from Kentucky or Tennessee, not sure which. They were from deep, deep in the mountains. And their speech was basically a bunch of noises. One of them had a girlfriend who would translate for them. I’ve never heard anything like it.

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BrazilianButtCheeks@reddit

Cajun.. because WHAT?! 😂

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Pernicious_Possum@reddit

Deep South AAVE

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heathercs34@reddit

West Virginia, Maine, Long Island

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Hwy_Witch@reddit

Cajun was definitely the one I struggled hardest with.

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Asaneth@reddit

Very heavy AAVE is the hardest for me. I'm usually good at understanding accents, but that young woman who testified at the Trayvon Martin trial was almost incomprehensible. It was a real problem that she couldn't be understood because she was the most important witness they had.

[-]

Asaneth@reddit

Anyone downvoted or thinking this is somehow racist should go watch the videos of the young woman's testimony.

[-]

born-screaming@reddit

i think you need to meet more black people, washingtonian

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reditday@reddit

The Carolina Brogue is found on and around Okracoke in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

It is as hard to understand as any dialect of English I have heard.

[-]

severinusofnoricum@reddit

For me, it’s some of the Southern ones buts it’s nothing compared to some Scottish accents (like comedian Kevin Bridges). For strictly American accents I haven’t come across any that I couldn’t understand though as you’ve said ones like Cajun can take a bit to get used to

[-]

ChirrBirry@reddit

I have to watch some UK shows with subtitles. Cockney, scouser, manc, Scottish, most Irish accents/vocabulary are only technically the same language. The “made for TV” version of English that is used in US news broadcasts is the cleanest form of the language…it all goes various kinds of sideways after that.

[-]

katlian@reddit

Kiwi can be hard too and there aren't many shows that feature it available in the US. We were in the Cook Islands and they speak a form of kiwi, which we could mostly understand face-to-face but was hard over the phone. The guy who ran the gas station spoke it with a Chinese accent and I couldn't understand him at all.

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shelwood46@reddit

I used to need the subtitles for UK shows, now I wing it and still get things extremely wrong until I rewatch with CC (I have a lot of hubris). Like I was watching a show set in Wales and they were calling small children a word that started with a D sound and ended with a T, and I assumed it was "dirt" since I insert a lot of Rs to the non-rhotic speech, but it turned out to be "dote".

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Shoddy-Secretary-712@reddit

I started watching a lot of UK shows a few years ago, i needed subtitles and have used them since.

[-]

Classic_Breadfruit18@reddit

Appalachian accents are some kind of version of Scottish from 200 years ago.

[-]

Budsygus@reddit

Ever seen the show Yellowstone? Teeter's accent was basically indecipherable without subtitles the first few times I heard it.

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AVDLatex@reddit

Cajun

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Repulsive_Repeat_337@reddit

The really difficult occasion accent is dying out. I'm 54 and I think there are very few people younger than me who still speak that way. The modern Cajun accent is much more a variation of a traditional Southern accent.

[-]

SisterShiningRailGun@reddit

I can't understand Boston accents.

One time I was bartending and this dude comes in and asks me a question. I could tell he was speaking English because I could pick out a few words, but I could not comprehend what he was asking. It sounded like "Can I paaak my caaaa in the caaaaaa paaaaak?" I asked him to repeat himself like three times. I still couldn't understand so I made him write it down on a beverage napkin. He wanted to know if he could park his car in an empty lot across the street, which he was referring to as a "car park" (not a common turn of phrase where I live). His vowels were so abrasive that his speech was just incomprehensible to me.

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stattish@reddit

Gullah can be challenging

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dragonsteel33@reddit

Cajun for sure.

Almost all living Appalachian speakers I’ve heard are understandable to me, but I’ve seen videos from a few decades ago of very old speakers (not from living generations) that were a lot harder to understand. Still more understandable than even some modern UK accents, but harder.

[-]

Drgonmite@reddit

Family is from the mountains and have been around the accent all my life. You go to some of the areas deep in the mountains and it gets difficult for me to follow what they are saying. The deep accent is dying off but it’s not gone yet .

[-]

Vyckerz@reddit

First time I went to a fast food place in Georgia in the US, this was the mid to late 1970s, this young black kid behind the counter asked me a question after I ordered my burger. I had no clue what he said, so I said "what?". He repeated it. I still didn't get it and asked asked him to slow it down a bit. He did but I was still lost. Then this other girl repeated what he said in amost as heavy an accent, but I figured it out.

They were saying "Y'all want an orange drink" but it was like all slurred together without any of the spaces or half the letters pronounced.

So the southern accent can be difficult. I think Cajun would be the toughest, though.

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monsoonsiren@reddit

Creole

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JulieThinx@reddit

I polled me (California native living in Arkansas, husband from Colorado living in Arkansas and mother in law from Boston, living in Washington). Cajun dialect is the most challenging for all of us.

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AdMindless4665@reddit

Baltimore lol

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Several_Holiday_4129@reddit

Eastern shore md/tangier/smith island is semi impossible to understand as a central marylander

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gidget1337@reddit

Tangier and Smith Island accents are very unique and not well known outside of the area. It’s basically 17th century British English still being spoken with minimal modernization.

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Quix66@reddit

Cajun. And I’m from South Louisiana.

And I found Bostonians incomprehensible when I first moved there. One burst out laughing when I had to ask her to repeat herself.

It’s a wonder how she understood me (Louisianan, not Cajun) just fine, haha! They must be used to tourist or newcomers, I guess.

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whosaidwhat123@reddit

When I first started going to Delaware a lot for work, I honestly couldn’t understand some people. Philly accents are fine, but Delaware took it a step too far.

But the right answer is Cajun, that’s definitely the toughest.

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Grouchy-Stand-4570@reddit

Appalachian all the way

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Pitiful_Fox5681@reddit

Down in the Hollers of Kentucky I understand maybe 40% of what people say. That's a rough accent.

[-]

Wink527@reddit

Geechee/Gullah

Southern AAVE and its many dialects.

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DrBlankslate@reddit

I met someone who spoke pure Cajun once. I couldn't understand a word he said.

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Major_Spite7184@reddit

Upper Minnesota. I felt like I was in a foreign country.

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Surprised-elephant@reddit

It’s basically Canada

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JonCoqtosten@reddit

I have known quite a few West Virginians in my time, and I am descended from hillbillies. I usually had no problem understanding them, but I had one uncle from West Virginia that, hoo, boy, it took me a long, long time to be able to decipher what the hell he was saying. It didn't help that he was a serious alcoholic. But I loved the guy and we eventually had the best relationship between my brothers and him (I was the only one that liked getting a beer with him - he was a happy drunk). R.I.P.

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Human_Management8541@reddit

Tangier island in the Chesapeake has been mostly isolated from visitors since the 1600s. They speak old English. It sounds like a foreign language...

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CoffeeChocolateBoth@reddit

Cajun for sure!

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Snoo_16677@reddit

On my first trip to Massachusetts I stopped at a Burger King on the Mass Pike. I knew I was in MA when the man in front of me in line ordered a wappa.

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PittsburghCar@reddit

New Orleans - Cajun. That shits just crazy.

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Western-Willow-9496@reddit

Ask SIRI, just don’t ask in a coastal New England accent.

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uberphaser@reddit

I was born and raised about 22 miles south of boston and sometimes I have to ask Boston natives to repeat themselves multiple times.

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Icey-Emotion@reddit

Cajun.

Appalachian accent isn't too bad. But they do have some unique words that are more regional.

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DrWooolyNipples@reddit

Most difficult for me is Baltimore. Although I’ve met hicks that leave me feeling like that farm scene in “hot fuzz”.

Did you know American and British hicks sound exactly the same after a certain level? It’s kinda fascinating

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sadeland21@reddit

A heavy Bronx accent can throw off some one not used to it

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42ElectricSundaes@reddit

Creole

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Snoo_16677@reddit

My wife and I were friends with a couple where the wife was from Pittsburgh and spoke Pittsburghese, and the husband was from Boston, but he didn't have much of an accent. The husband's cousin visited them from Scotland, and he couldn't understand anything the wife said, which is amazing considering that Pittsburghese came from Scots-Irish immigrants. The cousin didn't have any trouble with his cousin from Boston.

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Zesty-B230F@reddit

Delmarva peninsula, like Smith Island area.

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Capable_Suit_7335@reddit

Growing up in Louisiana it’s hands down them Cajuns and creole people lol

I love my people but you can’t understand a lick of what they say unless you’ve been around for awhile.

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Stimpisaurus@reddit

A lot is going to depend on where you're from in the US. I'm from the North East, and can understand people with the Boston, New York, Maine etc accents and dialects. That being said, southern and Cajun accents throw me for a loop.

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Federal-Membership-1@reddit

I used to pick up loads of crabbing gear on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. If the guys were talking amongst themselves, and getting wound up, foreign language.

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OneSignature7178@reddit

So I'm a Georgia girl and I thought I could understand any country accent. But my Great Uncle Clarence spoke a form of Boomhauer that no person could understand.

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Snoo_16677@reddit

Hillbilly dialects in eastern Kentucky and nearby states. Once an eastern Kentucky sheriff was interviewed on ABC (American Broadcasting Company) News, and they put subtitles on the screen. I'm a court reporter, and some of the people in eastern Kentucky and Southern West Virginia were unintelligible.

Also, some African Americans, when they speak to each other, are almost impossible to understand if you're not also AA.

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PromiseThomas@reddit

I’ve met a few people from southern Missouri where I couldn’t understand a goddamn word they were saying.

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GrimSpirit42@reddit

Cajun, hands down.

When they had a show about Cajuns, even when they were speaking English they had to put subtitles on the screen.

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Sandy233@reddit

If you understand standard english you should be okay.

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aoeuismyhomekeys@reddit

Scottish people can be a bit harder to understand with their accent although I also love their accent

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Loud-Bee-4894@reddit

Deep South especially. Louisianna

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latin220@reddit

Appalachian accents they’re not understandable for most people and Cajun people with that French flair it’s creole mixed with English that confuses Americans then for some reason people can’t understand rural Mainers outside of New England. The infamous Boston accent can sound familiar to those in the Northeast but some consider it difficult due to the ahs and ers.

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FlyingCupcake68@reddit

Boston for me

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AWTNM1112@reddit

When I was a kid, we traveled to Kentucky to see one of my dad’s Army buddies. He said he was from the mountains. His accent/dialect was like nothing I’ve heard before or since. I definitely wanted subtitles.

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Soggy-Attempt@reddit

Those two are definitely some of the toughest to understand

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Chrisismybrother@reddit

Cajun is the most difficult for me to understand.

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MiddlePop4953@reddit

Appalachian

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Aware_Acanthaceae_78@reddit

I couldn’t understand these people from Kentucky. Same with this woman from Mississippi. For all I know she was asking me out. I asked her to repeat herself 3 times with no luck. I’m from New England with a very neutral accent.

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codenameajax67@reddit

What do you mean? Appalachian folks don't have an accent. I would know I was born and raised there.

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tofutears@reddit

Same. I live in Buffalo and people say we sound Canadian but no one from Buffalo I know has an accent 😉

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codenameajax67@reddit

Funny how that works

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veritasinfinium@reddit

Atlanta AAVE

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tofutears@reddit

True, some Deep South AAVE is very difficult to understand to a Northener

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butchpoptart@reddit

Ocracoke

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InternationalRule138@reddit

The Gullah-Geechee people have their own dialect in the South East. It’s actually about 25% African roots, and the rest is English, but like old-southern drawl English…I can’t understand it and I’m a native English speaker from the Midwest…

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athenamarz@reddit

Pennsylvania Dutch is pretty wild

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tofutears@reddit

Isn’t Pennsylvania Dutch its own language entirely?

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AdhesivenessCold398@reddit

The outer banks of North Carolina. My husband had an uncle there and I couldn’t understand a single word he said. His wife had to interpret everything he said to me!

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OwslaPrimeDirective@reddit

I can understand Cajun, New England, and "redneckanese" fairly well. However, East Texas has some variants that are deuced difficult to comprehend.

Not only is it HEAVILY accented, it's incredibly fast. The best description I can think of is "words including local terminology all slurred together and spoken at a speed that should be impossible for a human to achieve".

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Straight-Shallot9258@reddit

Why has no one mentioned pidgin in Hawaii?

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Chickens-In-Pants@reddit

I tried, but it took too long to type because I wanted to give links as well. Had to start all over. It there though. I see a few other mentions as well.

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Dontyellatmeimnice@reddit

I live in the South and have lived in the South for most of my life. A fireman from Wilkesboro, NC, the mountains, once left a message on my answering machine, and I had no idea whatsoever what that guy was saying. I had to listen to the message 3 or 4 times and I grew up only about an hour and a half from there. No, nothing was on fire. Even for a Southerner some rural Southern accents are tough.

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frickenfantastic@reddit

Cajun

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Aspen9999@reddit

I’m going to say Cajun. I’m married to my Cajun husband and I love his accent! But it’s just so regional that most of the US would not understand at first.

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HermioneMarch@reddit

The descendants of Gullah Geechee (lowcountry, but not to be confused with white Charleston Lowcountry) definitely have a distinctive accent that is different from the AAE you normally hear. When I listen to them talk to each other I have a hard time understanding. But that’s likely because they don’t want me too. They can all code switch easily.

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ltsmash1200@reddit

Cajun

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Vast-Ad1915@reddit

Since Canadian accents are just a hop over the border, I'll say that Newfoundland accents can sound like a completely different language. (Also, I agree that the answer is Cajun.)

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Sensitive_Fuel_6943@reddit

I love a good southern accent but I chatted up a lovely woman in Tennesee before whose accent was beyond my wildest imagination. Like did she have an extra tongue in there? It was wild. But I still pet her dogs.

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freedomfromthepast@reddit

I am going to agree with everyone saying Cajun. They throw Cajun French in there too. But the food, yummy!

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Hey-Just-Saying@reddit

Louisiana

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Sea_Currency_3800@reddit

British people, like wtf are they even saying?

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Particular_Bet_5466@reddit

Yeah that shouldn’t even be considered English

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SigglyTiggly@reddit

https://youtube.com/shorts/jcX6Bh_wRzo?si=u9Dba2HJXy2LshL3

Some othern ones are really hard, i've some where other southerners cant understand

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Sad-Reflection-3499@reddit

Hoi toiders.

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Money-Mud912@reddit

Once knew a guy from Kentucky. Talked like he had marbles in his mouth.

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imissher4ever@reddit

Deep creole cajun.

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ReturnMetoEarth@reddit

Depends on a lot of factors. I'd say in general Creole (Cajun). However, I've had to translate for friends my deep south family. You get enough twang only those closest too you can understand you.

My aunt who many could barely understand due to her deep southern drawl dated a man who was born an Inuit raised in Alaska but jumped on a boat as a young kid to escape his life and landed in New Orleans and was raised by a creole family. He also had lost most of his teeth and slurred due to often being intoxicated.

Super nice guy but I couldn't understand a word he said.

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Accomplished-Ruin742@reddit

TV show Moonshiners had subtitles because people outside of Dixie supposedly would not be able to understand the characters in the show.

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Khpatton@reddit

Cajun for sure, at least for me. The Mississippi Delta region in general, really. I had to drive through southern Mississippi and Louisiana once, and encountered the only native English speaker I just genuinely couldn’t understand (and I’m a native Southerner).

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SaoirseMayes@reddit

I'm from appalachia and I have the most trouble with accents from along the west coast

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MSGinSC@reddit

Cajun, and I grew up around some of the hardest to understand hillbillies you could imagine.

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Barfotron4000@reddit

Cajun, Pennsylvania Dutch, Amish and Hutterite. Every one of those is like a creole, Cajun is English French indigenous, penn Dutch is kinda German but not really, Amish is German American and Hutterite is german

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Kenderean@reddit

Just to drop a different thing here, the downeast Maine accent can get quite impenetrable. I went to college in a fishing town in Maine and the local diner at 3am, before all the boats went out, could be like sitting in another country.

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born-screaming@reddit

yes!!! Rural NE is imperceptible to me

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mysecondaccountanon@reddit

Cajun. I’ve got a weird Yinzer accent (not a typical one, it’s a weird amalgamation) I can make pretty thick, but I hide it most of the time cause people have a very hard time understanding me with it. Been told it sounds like a weird Northern Southerner who talks with a fast drawl somehow.

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East2west87@reddit

The ones you mentioned for sure! I’ll add, I’m from Maine but live in California now, and I’ve brought a couple boyfriends back to Maine that grew up in other parts of the US and they can’t understand some of my family that have strong Maine accents

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KhunDavid@reddit

My natural accent is Vermont, New York Suburbs and Scouse.

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Oktodayithink@reddit

Alabama country.

It took me 2 years to understand my father in law. And then I would have to translate for him when he came up north. No one can understand him.

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born-screaming@reddit

Northern, very rural Maine, VT, NH. It’s just a garble of grunts and mumbling

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Signal-Weight8300@reddit

Northern Indiana, around Starke and Marshall counties. It's thick.

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BookLuvr7@reddit

Cajun, Boston, and Appalachian can be hard to make out if you're not used to them.

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Significant-Way-7893@reddit

Cajun

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Shelby1022@reddit

Not southern but redneck - which is very different- I am lucky that I am fluent in both 😎

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EmmalouEsq@reddit

Gullah English or Cajun. I love hearing both, though. They're basically living history.

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triangleking@reddit

I’ve lived in North Carolina all of my life and my extended family is all from southern Appalachia. However, there is this small regional dialect near the coast of NC that is damn near indecipherable to me unless I am paying close attention.

Even more interesting, look up the Hoi Toider accent from a small corner of the outer banks. It sounds almost Irish.

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Regular-Tell-108@reddit

This is very dependent. If I talk with someone with a deep Appalachian accent, for example, I might be as hard to understand for them as they are for me because I talk nothing like what they are used to.

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santosvega@reddit

I'm a New Englander with Cajun family members. The only accents that have really gotten me are old-school downeast Maine and now that I think of it, some old-timers and a barmaid at a bar in Fell's Point Baltimore in the 90s. The old-school Bawlmer accent sounded to me like a mix of every accent on earth.

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stickytuna@reddit

Thinking about the “home is where you make it” scene from Joe Dirt

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Connect_Eagle8564@reddit

Don’t forget the Hoi Toid accent on the NC outerbanks and Geechee on the Sc outerbanks

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MageDA6@reddit

I know people keep saying Cajun, but I’d like to add rural Kentucky/Tennessee. Cajun is hard sometimes depending on the speaker, but rural Kentucky/Tennessee is just incomprehensible to my ears most of the time. lol

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boodler88@reddit

I don’t hear it often, and i don’t even know what it’s called, but there have been two occasions that i wish i had subtitles when talking to someone from Rhode Island. (I’m Midwestern.)

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Billy_Likes_Music@reddit

Of note would be the Tangier accent and the Pennsylvania Dutch accent, especially of the older Amish

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koreanforrabbit@reddit

East Texas, where the Texan starts to turn Cajun, especially when intoxicated.

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latestagepersonhood@reddit

The Calabasas "benzo brouge" can be really hard to understand.

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Colonelmann@reddit

Navajo

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cerealandcorgies@reddit

ayyyyyy

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TheYeast1@reddit

Outbanks Ocracoke Brogue is pretty hard to understand, sorta like a 17th century English pirate speaking to you. Or a really drunk fusion of Irish and an Australian accent.

[-]

cerealandcorgies@reddit

hoi toiders!

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wolfmann99@reddit

Appalachian https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03iwAY4KlIU

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Much-Sock2529@reddit

From New England. I don’t really find any accent itself confusing but the grammatical differences in regional dialects confuse me a lot. With Southern/southern AAVE English speakers I often have to think about what they mean because their sentence structure/phrasing is so different.

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DrMindbendersMonocle@reddit

Cajun, easily

[-]

JThereseD@reddit

I have never had a problem understanding Cajun. However, I have a friend who was born and raised in New Orleans and it took me years to be able to understand what he was saying. He is a musician and I have often had to translate for potential clients who wanted to book him. The most difficult accent for me to understand in the USA is Tangier Island, which is said to be like the early American accent due to the residents being isolated for so many years. Outside of the US, several years ago my friend and I visited her sister in a small town near Edinburgh, Scotland and I couldn’t understand a single word her friends said.

[-]

Top-Measurement9790@reddit

You are in good company - as someone on the west coast, I sometimes struggle to understand those regions too. And to be fair, the California accent I have (especially if I've been drinking) is, understandable, but nails-on-a-chalkboard to basically everyone.

[-]

PrettyOnProzac@reddit

I've been working in call centers for a decade so I'm pretty used to just about every American regional accent and a bunch of common international accents. But people from like the back country areas of Louisiana got me questioning if I even know English sometimes

[-]

CraftFamiliar5243@reddit

I moved from the Midwest to Appalachia. I've been here 6 years and sometimes I still can't understand them, especially the men.

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LQNova@reddit

I worked in a call center for three years, and the only people I couldn't understand were from Oklahoma. I have no idea why.

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roastedandflipped@reddit

Jive

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InternationalMap1744@reddit

I'm from Louisiana so I have no trouble with Cajun/Creole/any other Southern accents but I have a hard time with the flat drawn out midwestern accent.

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Poster_Nutbag207@reddit

Having lived in Maine for 13 years some of the more rural communities have accents that are very hard even for me to understand sometimes

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5141121@reddit

Cajun can be interesting because it's really more of a dialect/patois/creole than just an accent. Lots of influences there. I would consider it more like the belter patois from The Expanse.

Appalachian and deep south can be interesting but I don't have a lot of trouble with the accent itself. Some of the colloquialisms can fly over our heads because they're so regionally specific. Personally, the South Carolina accent just grates on me, and I can pick it out of a crowd and be angry about it. I don't know what it is, but ugh.

As an American the most difficult accented English for me is Glaswegian. I love it, and I love all Gaelic-rooted accents, but holy hell sometimes it's like they're speaking in wingdings.

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BigDamBeavers@reddit

Creole

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ksink74@reddit

I'm not gonna say it's the hardest, but I spent a good deal of time in a warehouse in Memphis, TN about 10-15 years ago.

They talk in Southern accents, but they're also city kids. So they talk really fast with Southern accents. It was a good month before I could tell what anybody was saying. And I'm from Kentucky.

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linkxrust@reddit

Hillbilly in the Appalachian

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linkxrust@reddit

Hillbilly in the Appalachian

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RotationSurgeon@reddit

Bawmor or Cajun for me.

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rh681@reddit

I'm (Northern) American and Cajun can be difficult for me too.

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wvtarheel@reddit

Cajun is pretty hard. I would put it at a tie with people from southeastern kentucky and SW west virginia. The real appalachian accent .

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Bronze_Bomber@reddit

Coonasses in Louisiana

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Merivel1@reddit

I'm from the Rocky Mountain area and had to call an Arkansas institution recently. I only understood a maximum of 40% of what the woman said. Luckily it was enough, but it really made my head spin.

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misagale@reddit

Louisiana creole.

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No-Conversation1940@reddit

Underrated in this category: Yinzer.

It's like someone took the most cartoony aspects of the Chicago accent and smooshed it hard into the most cartoony aspects of the Appalachian accent while making people talk faster.

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BrainFartTheFirst@reddit

The Gullah accent can be tough.

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the_owl_syndicate@reddit

Years ago, I worked at a call center and got a lot of calls from the New England area. There were several callers that took longer than needed because I struggled to understand them. The one I will always remember was a woman from Maine. It took me, my supervisor, her and her son to complete that call. And it wasn't a speech impairment, it was the accent, we all agreed on that.

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TheSpeedyBee@reddit

Low County Gullah.

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rimshot101@reddit

"Bankers" from the NC outer banks are sometimes incomprehensible.

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BlackshirtDefense@reddit

Try visiting Ocracoke Island.

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broke_fit_dad@reddit

As an Appalachian there are places here where I have a hard time understanding people.

Creole’s use of French and French pronunciation throws me for a loop too

Absolute worst for me though is Mexi-Spanglish but it’s not “native” and usually after 3-4 years of speaking English it fades a good bit

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pah2000@reddit

I ate with an elderly gentleman in Port Neches, TX and could barely understand him. Especially when he asked, ‘You Cajun, boi?’

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Porcupine-in-a-tree@reddit

Cajun 1000%

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FaithlessnessSea1357@reddit

Missouri. Fucking gibberish.

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irishgator2@reddit

Maine - like real deep woods Maine.

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VariegatedPlumage@reddit

Like a ton of other people said, Cajun is absolutely the hardest to understand.

For example, in movies and TV, a lot of the time to show that someone is from a region of the US with a thick accent/strong dialect, the actors will frequently exaggerate it. With Cajun, they have to tone it down so people can understand it.

Appalachian is REALLY not nearly as hard to understand as Cajun.

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True_Coast1062@reddit

Appalachian

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Sirenista_D@reddit

Just a reminder of a Baltimore accent: https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/s/yOMJvfdvp2

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wifespissed@reddit

West Virginians always make me ask, what the fuck did you just say?

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Additional_features@reddit

Cajun makes me feel like at the UN with the wrong headphones on.

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random_ta_account@reddit

The Liverpool-Blackpool accent is something my American ears have a hard time processing. And heavy Glasgow Scots.

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EmploymentEmpty5871@reddit

It depends on where you are from in the first place.

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TheCrowScare@reddit

Gullah seems to get a lot of people who arent familiar with it.

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WhereINeededToBe@reddit

Creole accent.

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bmbmwmfm@reddit

Cajun. Doesn't it veer off into French?

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L6b1@reddit

I lived for awhile in Missouri and there's an accent found in mainly African American communities in norther Louisiana/southern Arkansas that is virtually impossible to undestand. They talk very quickly with lots of regional phrases, but the real kicker is there's a like "scratchy" quality to they way they speak, not quite a Donald Duck sound, but in that family and maybe the inspiration for Donald as the voice actor grew up not too far from that area in Oklahoma. They also tend to speak more quietly, so it makes their raspy/scratchy speech even hard to decipher.

Regardless, it's really, really hard to understand unless they slow down and enunciate more. I went to school with several girls from that region and not even people from nearby Baton Rouge or Little Rock could really understand them.

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Ponchyan@reddit

Gullah.

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Farewell__Hello@reddit

Gullah or geechee in the low country of SC and GA would like to enter the chat

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BatterUp1600@reddit

As a Texan… Boston is hard. LA. Valley is hard.

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Past_Worker_8262@reddit

Lol appalachia is great. A stronger Cajun Louisiana can be tough too

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signalsgt71@reddit

A lot of people are saying Cajun but I don't usually have a lot of trouble with it. The ones that get are the really thick west Texas accent and that weird New Englander accent you hear in Maine. I think it's called Downeast English.

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Ok-Opportunity-574@reddit

Georgia folks sometimes mumble so bad I find it hard to understand them.

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AdamOnFirst@reddit

Most of em aren’t that bad. A few of the east coast get a little goofy, but never that bad at all, nothing like trying to talk to a Scotsman or something.

But those rural Cajun accents, dear lord.

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666deleted666@reddit

Louisiana and the Carolinas

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redvinebitty@reddit

Cajun n Hawaiian Pidgin

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Deep_Contribution552@reddit

Cajun’s my first thought too. Just to zag a bit though, the USVI are also part of the US and they have a classic West Indies accent/dialect that can easily become incomprehensible to me if the conversation picks up speed.

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Fessor_Eli@reddit

I'm chuckling to myself a little. I see all these comments saying Appalachian is hard to understand and think, "How are these people having a hard time with Appalachian?" Then I recall that I grew up in part of southern Appalachia!

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Maleficent_Scale_296@reddit

I worked with a woman who grew up in Wallace Louisiana. I couldn’t understand her, at all. Ordinarily I don’t have a problem with really thick accents once I have a second to focus but this woman had me stumped. We laughed about it and wound up speaking a sort of business patois. It was fascinating.

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Rex_Lee@reddit

A Cajun, who mumbles

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MyUsername2459@reddit

Cajun

Though, to be fair, the Boston accent can be a little hard to understand too.

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AncientFloor5924@reddit

Whatever accent they spoke on “Honey Boo Boo”.

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czarrie@reddit

Geechee

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vetheros37@reddit

Born and raised in Texas, and I've known people from Texas who sound like Boomhauer from King of the Hill.

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GPB07035@reddit

Definitely Cajun. Traveled once in college in Texas (long ago) to attend a football game at LSU. The guys behind me were Cajun. It was quite an experience just listening to them.

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Sea2Chi@reddit

I was down in New Orleans years ago and met a woman from Hong Kong who spoke perfect english but with a British accent. We decided to drive around the Bayou and stopped at a roadside fruit stand.

The guy at the stand was Creole and I ended up having to translate English to English. If they'd been able to write down what they were saying they would have been fine, but neither of the two could understand what the other was saying despite technically speaking the same language.

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Paperclip01802@reddit

Cajun and for some reason a specific country accent from like the Kentucky/Tennessee area. They have a really weird “cadence” when they talk that makes it hard for me to follow. They will end sentences that are statements as questions, trips me up. They speed certain words up and slow others down. I’m fine with most Appalachian accents, but everyone I’ve met from Tennessee is hard to understand.

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hailstorm11093@reddit

Cajun probably, second is the intense Midwestern accent that sounds like Australian Swedish.

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Competitive_Web_6658@reddit

I am delighted by a very strong Up Nort accent. The first time I met someone from the UP, however, I thought they had a speech impediment.

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Lumpy_Branch_552@reddit

Cajun is tough for me, so is fast talking east coast

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emmie-claire@reddit

I've been the most tripped up by Appalachian. Like, deep in the holler Appalachian.

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WagWoofLove@reddit

Is it the dialect or our Appalachian words?

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emmie-claire@reddit

I feel like having different words for things is part of what makes a dialect? I don't understand your question. Either way I also don't understand what the real deep holler folks are saying well enough to answer it intelligently lol. Most Appalachian folks have close enough to a neutral American accent that I have no problems anyway though (which is broadly the same of every other group mentioned in this thread)

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usual_chef_1@reddit

Interesting note that much of the Appalachian accent comes from Scottish immigrants heavily settling the area. And the Scots accent is also one that many ESL learners struggle with.

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cruzweb@reddit

One of the wildest accents you can ever hear is a Scot speaking German.

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Odd-Bullfrog7763@reddit

French Cajun accent can be a rough one.

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Elaine330@reddit

Cajun

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Sadimal@reddit

The Baltimore accent can be hard to understand.

There is a reason "Aaron earned an iron urn" is a huge meme around here.

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FormalConcern4862@reddit

Australians, not because it's actually the hardest but because they think it's so easy for a mainlander to understand they won't slow down at all, unlike other accents who assume I need a tiny bit extra enunciation.

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noirknight@reddit

For me, Namibian English, then maybe South African, then into the like Cajun and West Country.

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HumanContract@reddit

As a Louisianian, I'm told I talk fast and am hard to understand. But a lot of ppl also comment how cool I sound and love to listen to the way I talk.

My parents are from the Midwest and I'm born and raised Louisiana so it's a very distinct mixed accent that's rare.

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bfs102@reddit

New Orleans

Mix southern and french

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fierce_turtle_duck@reddit

Cajun by a mile. I think I'd do better with Spanish and I know only a handful of Spanish phrases 😂

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Ssshushpup23@reddit

Being an Appalachian from Kentucky and reading these comments is hilarious. I’m speaking plain English y’all just ain’t listening

Cajun though? I don’t know what’s English and what they just came up with to screw with people

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Double-Bend-716@reddit

I don’t know if it counts because it’s an actual creole and not just an accent, but the Gullah Geechee creole that’s a mix between English and various African languages

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quietlywatching6@reddit

To be fair creole is well a creole/pidgin more than an accent. I from the south and studied and worked in the southern Appalachia for decades. For me it's cod accent if we are talking a true accent versus a pidgin.

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allaboutaphie@reddit

I would say people from the Appalachian region, very heavy southern accent, but they probably dont get my mid western accent.

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GulliasTurtle@reddit

Cajun. Unless there is an actual name for how Boomhauer talks on King of the Hill.

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thingsbetw1xt@reddit

Cajun is the obvious answer, but I'm gonna say I actually have more trouble with deep Appalachian people. Not that I meet them all the time so it's not really an issue, but when I have heard them speak it's almost completely unintelligible. As a language nerd I kinda love it.

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alwaysboopthesnoot@reddit

Acadian, Cajun or Creole. Too fast, the vowel sounds are unusual to me, and nobody enunciates the beginning have bring vi do ants enough either. Maybe because of the rapid-fire delivery.

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Broad-Cranberry-9050@reddit

Some of these accents from southern states get insane to me tbh. I remember being in dallas, i walked into a 7/11 and there was some kid (anywhere from 16-20) and he had this thick (maybe cajun) accent. Almost like southern hood (similar to how migos speak). And i promise you i could not understand two words of what he was saying. I was glad he was not speaking to me becuase i wouldve felt bad being like "dude what the fuck are you saying?"

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6gravedigger66@reddit

Down south. Like Louisiana bayou slang.

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Common_Vagrant@reddit

Haven’t had the pleasure of hearing Cajun but I have heard Appalachian and that one is tough.

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ThisMomIsAMother@reddit

I love Hawaiian Pidgin. However, Appalachian accents are too thick for me to understand.

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SorenDarkSky@reddit

https://youtu.be/lFvzPWiTCS4?si=xMfkfabaXztWx3o3

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xRVAx@reddit

I think Cajun is pretty unintelligible

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OkayDay21@reddit

A strong Appalachian accent is really something amazing

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NoContextCarl@reddit

Southern Appalachian is difficult, even for people in other Southern areas.

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HikioFortyTwo@reddit

Back in high school, I used to work at a warehouse. Most of my coworkers were Hispanic. They spoke English fluently, but it was very difficult for me to understand their accent. They ended up teaching me Spanish lol.

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ooopseedaisees@reddit

Cajun definitely for me. I grew up in the San Francisco bay area and got exposed to a ton of different accents and languages growing up. I kind of prided myself on being able to understand people from all different countries. My boyfriend’s uncle though had the thickest Cajun accent I’ve ever heard. I could only catch every third or fourth word he’d say

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