Every language has dialects, including French, German, Mandrin, Thai, etc. Language evlolves over time, different words being stressed. These changes tend to be local (be it the American South or Australia).

English is even pronounced differently in the various parts of England. The silly “Pirate” accent you hear on TV and in movies comes from what they call the West Country in England. (Not that the West Country accent is silly, just the idea that all pirates spoke like that.) Then in the East End of London you have the Cockney accent where they rarely pronound a beginning “H” and have the lovely glottal stops. Then in Yorkshire, the north of England are several more accents with the most odd probably being the Newcastle accent that is nearly another language. Also, even though Wales is right next door to England and they speak English there, they have a totally different accent.

Part of the different accents in other countries comes from the people who settled that area first. Since accents or dialects, which are two different things, come about due o isolation of a group of people, you can see the influence of Irish, Scots, and Welsh speaking people all across North America and Australia. South Africa has a different accent there as well. A lot of accents depend also if people from different countries settled an area. The northern midwest has a lot of Scandinavian influence while New England has a lot of Irish and Scots influence.

I was born and raised in South Carolina and my parents came from families that lived about 60 miles away from each other and both of them had slightly different accents. When I went away to Navy Boot Camp in Orlando, Florida, my Father said after two months there I sounded like a Florida Yankee. After 3 years in Scotland I sounded Scots. It wasn’t that I was putting on the accent, lord knows that one of my pet peeves, it was just hearing things said a different way made them come out of my mouth differently. Neither of my sons has a southern accent which I am thankful for as even I find it annoying sometimes. Since their Father grew up in England, they have a mixture that is about 80% American and 20% British.

The thing I find most hilarious is that any word that has a French origin in the English language is purposely mispronounced by the British. Filet is pronounced as though it were spelled fill-it and garage as though the accent were on the first syllable. I asked my husband why he thought that was and he said the English have never forgiven the French for the Battle of Hastings.

there is a publication called World Englishes.

We should celebrate diversity even in English!!

English developed differently in diffrent places because of differing cultures and influences, even class. In the UK, there is even a diffrenece that can be detected between people who went to a fee-paying or “public school” and people who were educated in the state system.

Have fun

Read (or rent the DVD) “The Story of English” by Robert MacNeil.