Why Does English Have So Many Accents?

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⏱ TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Intro
0:28 - British English
3:04 - Scottish English
4:21 - Welsh English
5:12 - Irish English
7:12 - American English
9:54 - Canadian English
12:04 - South African English
14:49 - Indian English
16:04 - Australian English
19:01 - New Zealand English
20:09 - Bermudian English

📜 SOURCES & ATTRIBUTIONS:
🎬 Video Clips:
HOW CAPE TOWN GIRLS HUSTLE - funny videos - funny moments - funny fails

Posh family reacts to northern nanny | The Catherine Tate Show - BBC

The Queen's sense of humour remembered: from off-mic quips to tea with Paddington

How to Learn a British Accent *Fast* - (Modern RP - ALL Vowels & Consonants!)

interview with millen eve - true yorkshire accent!

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SCOTTISH ACCENT - EDINBURGH Vs GLASGOW

The sound of Wales

Jamie Dornan Teaches You Northern Irish Slang | Vanity Fair

Irish Schoolboy With Thick Accent Warns of "Frostbit"

Irish Farmers Glorious Accent Is So Strong Here is the subtitles!!

Irish Slang and Phrases

John and Ned - Ballyscough Bridge | A Quare Place (Now with subtitles)

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Appalachian English

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How to speak Canadian (Nova Scotian accent)

A Newfoundland Language Lesson with Mark Critch, Candice Walsh and Travel Yourself

All aboot Canadian accents

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South African Slang 🇿🇦

How To Speak With A South African Accent

South African Accent

You know You're a South African when...

Don't catch crabs!!! - Sakhile Dube

Cape Coloured Lingo

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The Indian Accent (Indian English) ✔

Aussiest. Interview. Ever. What a legend!

How to speak Australian : Abbreviate Everything

HOW TO DO AN AUSTRALIAN ACCENT

🖼 Images:
“Hugh Blair” by John K is licenced under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

[malcolmstockbridge]

When I was younger and lived in the North of England I met a guy who was able to listen to a local in an area about 30 miles wide and he would be able to narrow your birth place down to about 6 streets or roads...not 100% of the time but was well known for a success about 85% of the time. So not only do we have different accents we obviously are affected by those close around us.

[reedperrino]

I like that you included Bermuda. Nobody really knows the island, just the triangle. I loved it when I went

[Wuzza]

Lived in London for 75 years. The change in the dialect is phenomenal. So many words are completely different. South was pronounced sowth. Horse was howss. Now sarf and ors.

[prof.emanuelpaiva]

I'm Brazilian. I appreciated your informative video. Thanks a lot ❤

[Marshallreall]

Ive noticed that in Scotland, not only do different cities have their own accents, but even smaller parts of cities. Smaller towns and even different parts of towns

[kevin.d]

I speak Guyanese Creole. Similar to other English dialects in the Caribbean region, it is based on 19th century English and incorporates loan words from West African, Indian, Arawakan, and older Dutch languages.

[Achernarstar]

As a South African, I hear every accent you mentioned everyday and even as a native, it can be difficult to understand them all

[nathancloete]

Thank you so much! Loved your explanation on South African English 🇿🇦. You just missed one little detail that every city in SA has its own English accent and today it also differs more on social class rather than ethnic groups.

[jackie]

Olly, I praise your work! It is such a pleasure to follow you and learn from your videos. I am a native French Canadian speaker, "Quebecoise" who is perfectly bilingual and the fact is not too many people take an interest in languages like you do. You should have mentioned in your video, the Normand conquest and how the French language influenced it.Merci Olly! Tu es le meilleur! 🙏

[jackie]

Hi there from Quebec city, Quebec Canada🇨🇦! Wow! Such an informative video! My favorite English is definitely the English spoken in Newfoundland. Their accent is unlike no other! They're awesome!

[cdgh]

One thing i find interesting about Australian accents is that they are not particularly regional. Unlike the UK where people from Liverpool, London or Newcastle sound quite different you'd struggle to tell where in Australia you were from based on your accent. For such a large country the regional differences are small.

[SteveGouldinSpain]

Decades ago I was in the car listening to a talk show on London's Capital Radio. A girl came on and when she started to speak my blood ran cold. I knew without a shred of a doubt she grew up locally to me. Towards the end of the interview she said she went to Tolworth Girls School (where Debbie McGee went and also my mum). TGS was less than a mile from my house. In Pygmalion, Henry Higgins was right - "[by his accent]...I can place him within two miles in London. Sometimes within two streets"

[eosborne]

Where I live in the US is right on the edge where Midwest and Appalachian and Southern dialects meet. Generally I speak a pretty mild midwestern “television” English. But I like to joke that when I drink my accent moves about 10 miles further south.

[williswameyo]

Am from Kenya, I speak a variety of English known as Kenyan English, It is the official language of education, business and media in Kenya. Most people in my county speak it as a second language alongside Swahili and other indigenous languages, hence the different accents even to foreigners.

[BMC_]

Never come across your channel before, but just wanted to say how great that video was. Very informative!

[VanillaMacaron]

I loved the clips you found to illustrate the video. That Aussie guy was a classic, and that clip got replayed here a bit n Oz and the fellow was interviewed again later so people could hear more of his classic "bogan" way of speaking. I think he went on to say how the guy in the car took off on foot and the guy being interviewed chased him in his undies.
I loved the way that guy immediately went into "storytelling" mode, or maybe "yarning". You can imagine him spinning it out into a fantastical yarn where you're not quite sure what's true - pretty typical Aussie thing to do, especially to bullshit foreigners, eg winding them up about drop bears and shark and spider stories. "Yarning" is a term well-used in Indigenous talk. I think Aussies like to think we are natural storytellers, maybe from many long nights around a campfire back in the day. Indigenous folk still have organised "yarn circles" and places dedicated for them. Journos love to tell you when they are on to a "great yarn", meaning they have a good story in the works.

[martalli]

I'm a Midwesterner from rural Illinois, so my accent is fairly neutral in the US, but I also spent a year in India, doing volunteer work in Karnataka, where I leaned some ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada), but also returned having fairly naturally picked up some of the rhythm and stress of Indian English. Ofc, a few months back in Illinois and I drifted back into my Midwestern accent.

[JohnCraig-yf]

In my area of West Yorkshire our dialect is heavily influenced by Norse. Words such as "ought" and "nought" are pronounced "owt" and "nowt". A street is a "gate" and a gate is a "bar" . Most people are not aware of the history of their dialects, but I find it fascinating!

[BrennanZeigler]

I'm from Chicago. Been here my whole life, but my accent is primarily just a standard American accent. The thing about the Chicago accent is that there really isn't just one accent. There's actually about five distinct accents in Chicago and it depends on what your ethnicity is and what side of Chicago you're from. The stereotypical Chicago accent is really only spoken by one group of people in Chicago and that is the Irish American population of the south side, or the South Side Irish as we call them. Italians have their own distinct accents, as well as people on the north side, Hispanics, and African Americans. Like you can tell if a Hispanic person is from Chicago or if an African American person is from Chicago. Hispanics and African Americans in other parts of the country have a different accent

[notnt]

South African English first-language speaker here. I can relatively easily distinguish which of the major cities of SA a first-language English speaker comes from. Even within those groups, there are many sub-groups, some of which get more coverage than others. The Afrikaans and Cape Street Taal you covered are often a result of it being spoken as a second language or where aspects of the accent are emphasised to emphasise wishing to be associated with a cultural group.

I've been told that a "normal" SA English accent, spoken by a first-language speaker, has one of the best chances of being understood in most other English speaking countries.