accents part 2

[pontifex]

is there a scientific reason why people from different areas have different accents?

i mean, how many are there in the US alone? you have southern, new york, boston, etc.

and then you have the accents from other countries like british, scottish, russian, etc.

how did these accents come about?

 

[Ika]

Localization, sort of like natural selection, but without the killing.

When dialects are isolated long enough, they change. If we could stop people from moving about the US and let everyone stay in the same area for 100,000 years, all the different regions wouldn't be able to understand each other. It's kind of like a small-scale version of that.

 

[Sc4freak]

Down here in Australia's case, our accent was likely created by the fact that Australia used to be one of Britain's penal colonies. Since there were so many different people coming to Australia from different places, a unique accent was formed.

 

[Stunt]

I think it all starts with one moron pronouncing a word incorrectly and all his friends/relatives/region using the word incorrectly. If you look at your group of friends I'm sure some call linux: lie-nux. That would be a simple example how a different dialect is started. When people are exposed to the same group of people for generations and decades, sometimes centuries they will create their own accent.

 

[dullard]

Individuals come up with new words, slang, abbreviations, etc all the time. Sometimes these sweep around the world and everyone uses them. Most of the time, however, it goes nowhere and dies a short life. But then, sometimes, it spreads locally. You say it, your friends start saying it, they say it to their friends, but it just doesn't go much further than that. It just is a local word. Outsiders think it is silly and don't copy it. Local people keep saying it because they like it.

Repeat that with every area of every part of the world and you get different accents.

 

[AMCRambler]

Originally posted by: Stunt
I think it all starts with one moron pronouncing a word incorrectly and all his friends/relatives/region using the word incorrectly. If you look at your group of friends I'm sure some call linux: lie-nux. That would be a simple example how a different dialect is started. When people are exposed to the same group of people for generations and decades, sometimes centuries they will create their own accent.

Bingo