How are regional accents formed?
In: Other
I’d imagine it’s like playing telephone. The retelling of the words and phrases are altered by each individual who uses the language and they in turn influence others. Put them in isolation from the original speakers and then they develop a style all their own.
It is premised that the Question relates to the USA- then the answer is— The English/Scots/Irish/Other early settlers to the USA brought the English dialects with them. I’ll take New England for an Example; as I know the subject/region the best. New England/Maine was largely settled by people from East Anglica {sic} which was ‘seasoned’ with Scots/Irish words/phrases. The famous Maine word for YES is “Ay-Uhh”. And why is the word YES, said that way. Because YES, when yelled over a distance between two fishing smacks, would be ‘lost’ and not understood. Most of the ORIGINAL Maine dialect is formed for communication at sea. This in an era long before radio and the Industrial Revolution. Now we have ‘imposed’ on all the USA a mid western accent, why I do not know
For some ‘accent fun’ search up the “Bert and I” recordings
Latest Answers