Accent....and not the Hyundai variety

I had to make a phone call today, to someone in Nashville. 
Sadly, I have no idea what they were saying because I was too enthralled with their accent.

Which led me to start thinking, leading me to ignore them completely because once the brain starts-a-turning nothing can stop it. 

Why do people have accents?  Why is it that certain areas have certain accents?  And where did they come from?  

Now, before you go ahead and start Googling this, think about it and try to answer. 

My idea is that, let's take for example, the United States.  We won't get into other countries so to keep this on a smaller scale. 
The United States. 
You have the South. 
Southerners have an accent.  A drawl if you will.  Their manners are impeccable too.  But why? 
How about the North now.
Northerners have an accent too, but more of a mobster I will stab you in your sleep type of thing. 
And we can't forget our friends to the far north who can't pronounce 'car' for the life of them. 
And finally, the Texans.  Because everything is bigger in Texas, including their twang. 
Why? 

My answer.......

Because each area had a Britney Spears as a founding father.
Some crack-a-doodle decided that he was going to start talking like a nut and everyone who came after him followed. 
And I will take that answer to the grave. 

So, what do you think? 
I would love to collect them for their own post.  And compare them to what Google has to say. 
However, Google is not God.  So if I like your answer better, than that's the one I am teaching the kids.  Who said you can't screw them up? 

Comments

[Lisa (Jonny's Mommy)]

Huh? I don't where they came from.....an interesting thought. My family is from the south (North Carolina) and while we thought we could make fun of them they pointed out all these weird things we say up North. I would say it all goes back to which ethnic groups lived in that area and mixed around to create the accent.

[karen]

I had no idea we had accents here in NH either until my cousins from Maryland came up to visit and commented on our "weird accents".

I think accents started to differentiate people in different parts of the country. Our forefathers liked that and just exaggerated their mispronunciation of words until everyone could tell where they came from.

[debbie]

I had no idea we Tennesseans had accents. None at all.

[KLo]

What this made me think about is how so many people (myself included) are so adamant that they don't have accents when they clearly do.

I'm from New Hampshire (near the Massachusetts border), so I don't say, "Ayuh" or anything, but I don't "pahk my cah at Havahd Yahd" either. That said, clearly I have an accent ... I just don't seem to know what it is.

Thanks for giving me a tangent to think on : )