Why do certain regions of countries such as China or the US develop accents? If a country is speaking the same language, how does one area start speaking the language slightly differently over time? Is it possible for a large country to not develop any particular accents?

Bryce-

People live in different areas of a large country, and these areas are seperated by thousands of miles - hence accents develop... Jul 14 03, 10:20 PM

lothruin

It doesn't take a large country to develop different accents. Look at all the different accents on the british isles. And not only that, but look at the different accents just within England. Its all about geography. You don't even have to be born somewhere or learn the language WITH the accent to develop one when you are in that region. I don't think the last question is valid though, as these accents are already developed. In the modern age, where geographic differences are not as big a deal, I think the languages would develop much differently than they have. And as to why certain areas develop accents, etc... Well, in the US, each geographical region had an influx of immigrants of various types, which certainly influenced the various accents of those areas. Also, when an area is cut off from other areas, by mountains or bodies of water, etc., they tend to develop their own set of colloquialism, etc., based on things at hand, and the language begins to diverge. Jul 14 03, 10:33 PM

KIWI IN OZ

in Bhutan, a very small country in the Himalayas,47,000 sq km, the first wheel in this wonderful land arrived on an indian army truck in the twenties I believe it was. The land is very mountainous and the villages are in seperate valleys and the people there walked everywhere. Because of this and their isolation from each other not only are the accents different they actually cannot understand the differing dialects. It has only been in the last fifty years or so that the languages are blending together again and mostly now they speak english as well. The advent of the car has helped this process in aiding the movement of people. Jul 14 03, 11:40 PM