Accents

[redjay]

Why do we have regional accents and why are they so different over such a small area?

[happysax]

Accents are often influenced by national and ethnic differences, so Welsh and Scottish accents will be different from English accents. Regional accents are affected by the influences of the 'national' accents on their borders, e.g. the more 'Celtic' north of England will have a different sound to the more 'Saxon' south. The west of Scotland and the north of Ireland have similarities due to their proximity and cultural ties. For centuries, the regions were quite isolated from each other as communications were difficult until the days of modern transport, so regional accents had time to become more pronounced and stronger.

[IndieSinger]

The thing that amazes me is how different accents can be within such a short distance. I live on the Scottish border - if I go down a couple of miles to Berwick(-upon-Tweed), they speak in a thicker, heavier form of Geordie. If I go a couple of miles in the oposite direction (Coldstream, for example) they've got full-on Scottish accents.

[incitatus]

Accents are grown in isolation. as to why short distances isolate them, think of a world with no transport. this is the 18th century where a lot of the accents developed. small distances to us were big back then, and people tended to stay at home. As for the berwick one, thats easy. its a war thing. berwick was taken and held by the english =so its people looked to the south.

[mrsmac]

"so it's people looked to the south"? what does that mean? I think Berwickers speak the way they do (like Geordies) because they ARE Geordies. When the English took Berwick they would have either chased out the Scots or killed them - it was a war thing like you say. (I have lived in the Borders too and it is a remarkable accent change your right.)

[del_1690]

You cant distinguish between the geordie accent and the scottish accent though. They may be different sounding now, but that accent originated from the scots accent. After all the fighting, the injured scots decided to settle in that part instead of coming home. This is why the scots say that geordies are "scots with their head kicked in".