A new survey has revealed that Britons have more trouble understanding Lancastrians than they do French and Germans.

The report, from hotel company Travelodge, also revealed that locals were in the dark about their own dialect – with four out of five not understanding the term "chitty" meaning "a young girl", compared to 76% of Britons who failed to understand the term.

The Evening Post took to the streets of Preston to ask visitors if they had got to grips with the local dialect.

Mark Grant, 20, from New Zealand is studying health and education at the University of Central Lancashire. He said: "I work in a bar and so many people order drinks and I have to get them to point to them because I don't understand."

Andy An and Vivian Liu, both 20 and from China, are studying International Journalism, and said that understanding English was a challenge sometimes.

Andy said: "I went into the bank and I didn't know what the staff were saying. Often I have to ask 'can you say that again?' or 'sorry, I didn't catch you'."

Vivian said: "Maybe some accents are difficult but I have been here for two months now so I am getting familiar with the accent in Preston, so I think now I can almost understand what people say."

But even Prestonian William Wilson, 21, studying to teach English to foreigners, said he found it difficult to understand people from different parts of the county.

"They all have different slang words and dialects and colloquialisms. Wigan has the strongest accent – it's difficult to understand."

Professor Paul Kerswill, linguistics expert from Lancaster University, said dialect is "teetering on the brink of extinction."

"Britons should be encouraged to experience the rich diversity of accents and language to help keep the idiosyncrasies of our language alive."

>> Vote in our latest web poll