tinyE: Do they actually not speak it or is it just a really heavy dialect because we have that over here.
It's a really thick dialect. When I was there for a field trip years ago, I had serious trouble understanding anybody. Made it kind of a pain in the ass to order things in the restaurants there.
Then again, there's that stereotype that Bavarians like to consider themselves to be separate from the rest of Germany...
(I think I just offended any Bavarians who might be reading this. I hope they can forgive me.) There's actually quite a
lot of different accents and dialects we have over here as well. Some are easier to understand even if you don't know them, others... not so much.
EDIT: I guess Psyringe was faster than me.