Originally posted by metal manthere is a lot of variety in accent almost wherever you go which is more noticeable to a person from the area.
I think people from England and Scotland sound the same but here in the U.S there are diffrent accents around the country like in the northeast, the south and the north.
the distances which noticebale changes occur is the main difference.
rural to urban divides is a commonplace where accents start changing rapidly.
educational backgrounds in general in a area may make it different.
historical diifferences (the lisp in catalan language is due to a king or ....that had a lisp i think)
the differences in accent in the states can be quiet different in the big cities from places in general bet seem fairly similar to an outsider for hundreads of miles then.
in places like england/scotland a few hundread miles will transport you through many more varying differences.