"Give owa' - ye divvent kna' what ya' talkin' aboot!" That's what Auf Wiedersehen, Pet brickies, Dennis and Oz, would surely say about the results of a new study into UK regional accents.
A survey of 2,000 adults conducted by language learning platform Preply reckoned the Tyneside accent was the second hardest to understand, behind Glaswegian and just ahead of Liverpudlian. By way of contrast, most folk reckoned the soft tones of the Bristol accent were the easiest to understand.
It's 40 years since the smash-hit comedy-drama series Auf Wiedersehen, Pet introduced the full-on, unabashed Geordie accent to nationwide television audiences for the first time, courtesy of actors Jimmy Nail (who played Oz), Tim Healy (Dennis), and Kevin Whatley (Neville). Earlier TV and film representations had often smoothed off the local lingo's rough edges.
