I lived and worked in many parts of England and Scotland, the Geordies in and around Newcasle- on -Tyne had an accent that bordered on a language of it`s own. They were not alone in this respect, I also found the Scots along the English border hard to understasnd, and people from Birmingham and London. So living in the north of Ireland I find that the people who are promoting our accent as some form of a language is another push by the local bigots to isolate themselves from their nationalist neighbours. The people who are behind this wild goose chase are the last you would hear speaking like your average northener, they try to imitate the posh BBC announcers, no way would they lower themselves to speak like the masses. So all you good people that are gifted with an accent you could cut with a knife, get on the ball and apply for a language grant. Ard Mhacha.