Question

Why is there a difference in accent of english speaking nations?

Answer 1

The reason there are different accents is becauselanguages change.Accents arise because people that speak the same language separate geographicallyor sociallyand the versions of the shared language they speak being to differentiate from each other.The reason that the version of the language spoken by the different groups differentiate from each other is because they are subjectto different forces of change:Language contactThis could be because thetwo groups are geographically closer to different languages. Forexample, Canadian French was subject to influence by American English; France French by British English and German and Italian; West African French from the African languages. These have allresulted in different accents.Immigration patternsAlternatively, a similar reason is that the substrate of the dialect populations may be different. Southern English was subject to influence by the huge population of former Africans that were speaking Southern English. The social history is complex, but it's been argued that Southern English carries a lot of features of the native languages of the African slaves.In contrast, Midwest English was spoken by a bunch of Germanic immigrants; East Coast English, spoken by a bunch of Irish, then Italian, then Russian immigrats.LuckYet another reason is chance. We don't precisely know how each dialect got their differentiating featuresbecause language changes in a non-deterministic way, so far as we understand it right now. So, some dialect might get their intervocalic consonants voiced (e.g.,greasypronouncedgreezy) while another might lose theirrs for no other reason than the chance pronunciation of some ofthe people in a social group.What's important is that these changes can spontaneously arise in different groups of people and those groups tend to speak to each other, and less to other groups. So, these linguistic features propagate within the group and not across groups.Note that this also opens the door for multiple dialects to evolve within the same geographic region so long as there are distinct social groups.Classis an important social divider and a classic early study in NYC found that peoplespoke differently based on class.Self-differentiationThis highlights another force in language/dialect change: Groups will also subconsciously self differentiate the way they speak to define their identity. Another important early study found that people in Martha's Vineyard that planned on staying on the island subconsciously accentuated the differences in their speech from the mainlanders that becomethe famous Martha's Vineyard accent.The key factor in all of this is that people tend to form social groups that perpetuate and propagate forms of dress, eating habits and yes, speech patterns. Sometimes these social groups are the size of your immediate social circle, but other times it can span millions of people across geographicboundaries.