Why do we have regional accents?

Question

How do they work? What is it that makes us sound like we do?

Answer 1

Imagine back in time when there were less people around. A little village with 3 families working the land and living a simple life. They were born, lived, married, had kids, and died there. One day a child is born into the family that has trouble saying a word like Robin and instead says wobbin. Years pass and he has children of his own....he teahces his children to say wobbin instead of robin. They then go on to have children that outlive all the old residents of that village. In the nearby village which has little to do with the first village they still say robin until......a woman from the village wanders away by a stream meets the man of her dreams and they marry. She goes to live with that village and spreads her way of saying the word wobbin.

This is an explanation in the simplest terms. Words become regional because those people many many many years back decided together through growth that that is how the words were said and that those words meant those things.

You could today make up a word and if you could get enough people to say it the way you wanted and for them to spread it on...it would also become a regional word!

We have a lot of invading forces to thank for a lot of our words....little groups of invaders stayed put and brought not only a new genetic stock with them but new words which became spoken in a certain way.

Hope this has helped you somewhat.....interesting question by the way!

Check out the link below about how a shift in our language took place because of the King James Bible (1611)

Answer 2

I think it has to do with the level of education and the atmosphere one grows up in. If the community you grow up in is not that educated and cannot read properly, they will find different or pronounce ceirtain words differently other than the proper way. Kids growing up in this environment will mimic the speaking habits, therefor you have a region with an english language that has similarities and differences to that of proper english. Also if a community is of a specific race or ethnicity and they have an accent when speaking, that creates the same results as above.

Answer 3

It is based on the locales from which the people who originally populated an area came. I grew up just west of Penn. Dutch Country, and most of the people there came from German-speaking backgrounds. Many of the idioms and phrases used there are based on German words and German word order.

Answer 4

well i just dont wanna sound like a scouse ok