Quote Originally Posted by JimC View Post
Back in the 70s when I was at college I did a course on Great Cumbrae, which is an island in the Glasgow estuary where they speak fairly thick lallan scots. One of the girls on the course was from up country in Devon, and had a strong local country accent. She needed a translator in the local shops, which is the only time I've come across mutual unintelligibility in the UK.
My grandparents were from Deptford, London, and when they came to Australia they formed a large extended family with other ex pats. So, I grew up with lots of accents from the UK, and it never occurred to me that they could be unintelligible to other English speakers until I was over in the UK with some Aussie friends who were totally stumped - particularly by strong Irish or Scottish accents.

Then, to my even greater surprise, my wife and I were in Scotland and neither of us could understand some people.