posted on Mar, 26 2006 @ 03:59 AM
If you go back in history to around 600AD or thereabouts you will see that there is no England, Scotland and Wales, but instead there is Wessex,
Mercia, Northumbria etc, go back before the Romans and Britain is even more fractional with tribal nations dotted all over the place. All these areas
had their own languages or dialects that were different from each other, modern accents such as Geordie or Yorkshire etc are the last remaining traces
of those ancient dialects, as are the slang words you would associate with each region, like me and thee saying gi'ower' for 'give over' or a
Geordie's stereotypical 'wye aye' for Oh yes.
The English language gradually evolved over time from Frisian roots with regular influxes from Danish, French, Latin etc but also different regions
adopted different words from those languages, for example up here in Yorkshire we used the Danish words 'They, Them, Thing, etc centuries before they
became 'standard English' as we think of them today when they spread throughout the whole country around the 11th century.
That is just one small exampole but there are many more. With central Rule over 'Britain' and a conscious decision to introduce a standard English
in the late 1400's began the linguistic 'snobbery' that lasted until quite recently that our local dialects were somehow inferior or even a sign of
ignorance among the general populace. Our dialects are more rich and worthy than the artificially imposed RP and at last this is now recognised.
[edit on 26-3-2006 by waynos]