Stefan and Jupp, Many thanks for the information about the Dutch/German dialects, Plattdütsch and Friesian, I’m sure that will prove to be very helpful to me.
Stefan, like yourself I’ve lived in different regions of my own country going back to the 60s, originally I was from New York. Forty-five or so years ago, when I first went to states other than the one I was raised in I found the local accents fairly difficult to understand. Over the years I’ve continued moving around and noticed in this last relocation, from New Jersey to Florida, that the accents, even of those who’ve lived here their entire lives, wasn’t nearly as distinct as it was when I last lived here (only 50 miles from where I am now). I spoke with a sociologist about this a few weeks ago and said it must have been the effect of so many people moving here from other states. She said the greater influence was so many decades of television. Over the course of time local accents have been influenced by what people hear on television shows, a sort of neutral English. That seems reasonable to me. I’ve long noticed that regional accents of actors in movies from the 30s and 40s are much more distinct than anything I hear today. I’m wondering if television has had a similar effect in Germany and other European nations.
Mnb,I’d have known a little about Guyana, but learned some new info by looking up your own nation. I realize you’ve got a relatively small population, around 500,000, but despite that is there a lot of chess activity? I’ve found it varies greatly in different parts of the United States.
Your explanation of the dialect you speak reminds me of things a French friend many years ago told me about people in North America, mainly Canada and the US state Louisiana who speak French but because they’ve communities have been away from France for so many centuries it wouldn’t be easy for them to understand the language as it’s currently spoken in France itself, and of course the reverse is true.
I know of Friesia from Medieval history as raiders of the English coast, I’m assuming these are the same people. So I find the comment about their language predating Dutch to be especially interesting.
dfan, I stand corrected.

In any case I don’t think I can produce that special figure on my keyboard.
-- I’ve noticed GM Jim Pratchett is also very adept at properly pronouncing non-English names. I enjoy his videos very much, especially his side remarks which are often very amusing. He seems like a real character.