Michael Poxon wrote:
>
>Just after I replied to this post, I reminded myself of an occasion in 
>April. I was sitting in LA airport (the flight to Honolulu having been
>massively delayed) and could hear two people talking behind me. This was an 
>American dialect/accent, and one I have never ever
>heard. I say "accent/dialect" because it was only by the occasional, 
>obviously-English word that I could determine that it was actually
>English at all! It sounded terrific.
>I know very little about American dialects, but at a rough guess (and 
>probably from watching too many films like "Deliverance")
>I'd say it was from one of those Eastern mountain areas. It would not have 
>been surprising if a couple of banjos had been brought out.
>Do any US people have a dialect that is traditionally "weird" and hard to 
>understand - coz if they do, this was it!

I've never personally encountered an American accent that was truly 
incomprehensible, but I'd guess that the Appalachian area could have one or 
two.

One I've heard in a TV show (the Texan Boomhauer, in "King of the Hill") 
qualifies, and apparently exists in real life-- the Texan political writer 
Molly Ivins is said to have commented on a certain state legislator, "My 
God, he sounds just like Boomhauer!"
>
>>>>You don't have to go outside England for weird dialects, by the way!
>>>>Yes, there certainly are huge differences in both vocab and syntax just
>>>>within England.