Experts have revealed the hardest accent in the world, and the answer is unsurprising. Some Scottish regional dialects can be hard to understand even for Scottish people, not to mention mastering it by trying to imitate the accent. Shetland accent is officially the hardest to master in the world, and was given its new title by a number of experts at Preply.
Online language learning platform Preply has conducted a study on the world’s most difficult dialects, teaming up with experienced dialect coach Ashley Howard. Ashley has 15 years of experience in the field, naming Shetland the hardest accent to master in the world, due to being influenced by Old Norse language used by the Vikings.
For example, according to viewers, the hit BBC TV series ‘Shetland’ only has one actor who has got the dialect nailed down perfectly. Only Steven Robertson, who was born in Shetland, was the only one who sounded truly authentic.
Ashley Howard said: “One accent that a lot of actors find hard to impersonate is a Shetland accent of Scotland. What with its rich dialect, distinctive rhythm and unexpected vowel distribution.”
He added: “The rhythm of these accents has more of a gliding quality to it and the pitch pattern is more major than minor, giving it a warm quality. The Shetland accent can catch out even experienced actors, who tend to observe the typical characteristics of an Edinburgh accent.”
Howard went on to explain what sets the Shetland accent apart from other Scots dialects: “Shetland belongs to a collection of accents thought of as Scottish Highlands and Islands. Compared to Lowlands Scots, these accents have a lighter and brighter quality to them; almost feather-like. L’s are light, not dark.
“The LOT, THOUGHT and sometimes even FACE vowels are pronounced more like /æ/ in ‘cat’ rather than /ɒ/ and /eɪ/ respectively. You might hear the MOUTH vowel pronounced more like /ʉ/ as in GOOSE.”