I don't know but would guess it has to do with the lack of movement way back when. i.e people tended to stay with their 'tribe' and not travel much. So the 'tribes' or groups were isolated from eachother. They probably spoke different languages too but as one language began to spread, it wa assimilated by all the groups but each spoke it their way. In facet some accents are also dialects and the language can be quite different and misundertsandigns arise.(I noticed this in the USA. i was surprised to discover how different American and English were). Here in the UK we have loads of accents and the distance between places is small. Just 50 miles can make a huge difference in accent.
kerry wrote: > Since we're on the subject of accents, there's something I've been pondering > for a while and I'm wondering if anyone has an answer. (Maybe I'm pathetic, > but this fascinates me...) I would like to know how so many accents and > dialects can spin off of one language.
