How did accents become to be in the UK?

Question

How did accents become to be in the UK?
How is that people in different areas have different accents. Where did it all begin and how?

Answer 1

Loads of info here:
http://linguistlist.org/ask-ling/accent.html

Answer 2

Dear Navarra,

Many people believe that accents vary across the UK due to the various migrations into the UK from Europe following the collapse of the Roman Empire.

For example the Dutch were very dominant in Norfolk and Suffolk and the Saxons in Essex (East Saxons) and in Sussex (South Saxons). In the East Midlands (including Yorkshire there was more Danish influence and up in from Yorkshire up into lowland Scotland there was a strong Norwegian influence.

The West Country Wales and Cornwall maintained more of their Celtic flavour.

Of course then the Normans came and implanted their own dialect on the Upper Classes.

The accents remained in these areas because the feudal British Society did not make it easy for most people to move far from home in safety up until the Industrial Revolution.

Accents in the cities were influenced by the outlaying areas that fed them. For example, The South London accent used to be different to the East London accent because when looking for work, initially people tended to gravitate to the that part of London which was nearest to their roots.

The First and Second World Wars began teh process of change due to the huge movements of people around teh country.

The advent of TV is gradually removing and ameliorating the differences in accents whcih is a shame! Which also causes cultural influence (good or bad - depending on your point of view).

The significant immigrations of new ehtnic groups in the past 40 years and concentration of settelment areas may cause new local acccents to emerge in some areas. And, in some areas the insignificant level of immigration will mean that the newcomers will adopt the exisitng local dialect..

Hope this was useful

Answer 3

i dont know