Daft idea's.

[Pye Man]

Flemish is actually a number of dialects of Dutch which are so dissimilar that speakers from different regions have to resort to the high level language, Dutch, to be able to converse.

Not so dissimilar from the region I was brought up in! It varied from town to town. Words in common use in one district would be totally absent from the language a few miles away where a different dialect expression was used. I had to travel to senior school a couple of towns away and learned loads of new words. I use to love it when visiting my aunt and uncle with my parents and the discussion between them got heated - as it often did. The conversation descended into dialect indecipherable to an outsider.

Turns out a lot of the dialect(s) is based on Old and Middle English words and vowel sounds. I had a bit of advantage when we studied Chaucer at school.

I've heard that there is a lot variance in Welsh but as I have little knowledge of the language I can't comment with any authority.

Back on topic, it amuses me that instruction booklets often start with heath and safety information in two dozen languages and when you finally get to the operating instructions you are presented with a few pictograms.

[ppppenguin]

........and when you finally get to the operating instructions you are presented with a few pictograms.

I'm reasonably fluent in Ikea

[Mike Watterson]

Munster, Ulster (3 of 9 NOT in N.I.) and "SF Irish" are three quite different dialects. Also how English is spoken in Ireland, in grammar and idiom, not just pronunciation varies dramatically by region. Dublin / The Pale has three variations and sometimes called Western Britain.
N.I. divides by East & West of the Bann rather than simply Loyalist / Nationalist and is in some ways Elizabethan. The first one.

[Amie]

A comment.

Our home has light switches up for on, not sure why, (why not?). As for Andy's original point, I think terry is right with the 1=binary active, 0=binary inactive comment for the original reason behind the choice.

Kids at school (12 to 16)  are either "nurd" (talk with a neutral Norfolk accent), "cool", (a forced "made in Chelsea" speak), or, "street", (a ridiculous form of "gangsta"). I can't understand the last two, how's that for local variation.

Dad was born in the US, mum is from Irish family, (Co. Antrim), so my dialect is a little hard to place, while on holiday here in the US, people mostly assume I'm Canadian.  I guess you assimilate speech from those you're around most.

Thanks,
Amie.

[Mike Watterson]

Dad was born in the US, mum is from Irish family, (Co. Antrim), so my dialect is a little hard to place, while on holiday here in the US, people mostly assume I'm Canadian.  I guess you assimilate speech from those you're around most.

My brother and his wife are often thought of as Canadian in mainland Europe. Our family is also from Co. Antrim. I've been mistaken as Russian in the Middle East and most people here think I have a Donegal accent (because it's far away and northern and Donegal people are more common here). People in the North now think my accent is very Southern. Well, it's been a long time!

Lots of Canadians are from parts of Scotland with similar accents to East Antrim. Clue in place names. Others in Newfoundland are from South East Ireland. Places like Tilting.
Then there are French Canadians. France & Scotland also have a long history of friendship.

[Amie]

Hello Mike.

Grandma on dads side IS french Canadian, Grandpa was an Aussie.

Mums family are all from Broughshane. (Hopefully I spelled that correctly)

Thanks,
Amie.

[Terry]

Some people can change their accent to suit their surroundings whereas others can live in a different area for years and never lose the accent they were born with.

After the IRA bombing of Harrods, an Irishman I was acquainted with said to me, almost in tears, that he was terrified of opening his mouth anywhere because, he said: "I've lived in the country for 20 years but I can't lose this (expletive deleted) accent."

Ironically, his wife worked at Harrods, selling Waterford Crystal.

[brased]

I doubt I'll properly distinguish the Dutch prononctiation of sch- as in Schipol. Apparently during WW2 the Dutch used to identify Germans masquerading as Dutch by how they pronounced this.

I was told, many years ago that it was the pronunciation of Scheveningen that they used.

I was staying with Dutch friends last year in Den Haag (The Hague) and was also told that Scheveningen was used (which is effectively a seaside suburb of Den Haag). I failed miserably to get it right but fortunately they are no longer on the lookout for German spies.

Edward

[Richard_FM]

Recently I was looking at how power buttons were labelled before the standard power symbols became common, Thorn liked to use a black circle next to a white one.

Accent wise in spite of being from the Stockport area people often think I'm from further south, as I sound posh to many people.

About 20 years ago I was in a pub in Wells Next The Sea where one of the bardmaids had an accent that seemed to be somewhere between a Canadian & New Zealand one.

When my Dad asked where she was from we were surprised to find she was from South Africa! At the time I was only familiar with the deep Australian / Dutch sounding "Sef Efrikan" one Spitting Image liked to use.

[Mike Watterson]

There are two main "white" tribes in SA, I know people from both. One are Afrikaners, who originated in the Netherlands and the other are of British & Irish descent. Some like each other less than the Afrikaners liked Native or Asian origin South Africans. They usually went to different schools and often different culture and accent. I only once mixed up an Afrikaner and the "British"* sort, the Afrikaner had been sent to a "British" school in S.A.

Dutch people don't seem to like Afrikaners. They do understand each other's Language. Most Afrikaan speakers also have English. Other people in SA (inc non- Afrikaner "white") do sometimes know the Afrikaan language, which is sort of an older mangled Dutch.

(* Not actually British, but South African)