Why do the English worry about accents?

Its definitely to do with stereotypes...

IDK, I'm from Yorkshire, and so's my sister, right, and when she went to Uni there were loads of people from the South and they all treated her like she was a commoner.

I think it might be people in the South, thinking that up North we're all common? I think middle-class and up are down South, and then maybe working-class are up North... but I don't know, I know it's not all like that all over England.

Also, some accents are annoying. (:

The main reason why it is a big issue is that, prior to the First World War, there were still difficulties in communication between different areas of England. Received Pronunciation was adopted by the B.B.C. and the army as official pronunciations that everyone would come to understand.

To illustrate just how big the gap was, listen to some old recordings:

http://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=021M-C0908X0048XX-0200V0.xml This is how people from Sheffield used to sound.

http://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=021M-C0908X0061XX-0400V0.xml On the other hand, people from rural Suffolk sounded like this.
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http://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=021M-C0908X0046XX-0400V0.xml This one from the Yorkshire Dales is impregnable. I doubt that this dialect is still in use.

I have an urban Yorkshire accent. I can understand the Sheffield clip here but not the Suffolk one or the Yorkshire Dales one.

Can an American understand any of these three?

There is still much stigma regarding regional accents. Sometimes we are pressured into speaking a stronger regional accent, it's a way of asserting our heritage, almost like bragging about being regional. But more often people try to lose their regional accents. I come from near Sheffield, Pontefract West Yorkshire. And I know that many people I know who have returned from university have different accents now! It used to be that everyone with a southern accent was a ponce, and everyone with a northern accent was a monkey... Well maybe the former is still true :p

If you are from Glasgow, Liverpool, Birmingham, Cornwall, etc there is still a good chance you will be discriminated against. But if you're accent is strong enough, you're f&%ked wherever you come from, mucka.

The only accent I really hate in the UK is the type spoken by the local cop (and the townsfolk) in the movie Hot Fuzz. I'm not sure what you call this accent but I'd shoot myself if I ever spoke like that.

i think the main reason there is still such stigma surrounding accents is the fact that accent is still, to some degree, an indicator of wealth and education. it's not a hard and fast rule, but privately-educated and middle-class people tend to speak RP or near-RP (RP = received pronunciation or "bbc english") no matter where they're from, because that is how they are taught speak. that means that RP is associated with the rich and the well-educated, and unfortunately a lot of people think that means people who speak with RP are smarter. that's completely ridiculous - the smartest person i know has a broad lincolnshire accent, and i've met a lot of toffs (posh people, for any non-brits) with less common sense than a five year old - but unfortunately that's what a lot of people think.

as for why we have so many accents in the first place, there are several factors involved. firstly, invasion and immigration have meant that different areas of britain have come into contact with different nationalities, and therefore different languges and accents, which have affected british accents in different ways (the main reason for the north/south divide is the fact that the vikings settled mainly in the north, so that old norse affected old english more there than in the south). secondly, there are environmental factors - for example, brummies speak very loudly, which i believe has something to do with the fact that the city was so industrial in the 19th century that people had to shout to be heard over the machines, and that habit has been passed down over the years; and the dust from the coal mines in the north of england affected the vocal chords and therefore the accents of northerners. it also has to be remembered that, until relatively recently, communication and transport were very poor, restricting contact between different regions. this allowed accents to develop almost in isolation, keeping each one distinctive.

I think that the main thing about different accents is people notice when other people are different from them, whether its clothing, skin color, accent, etc. If we are unfamiliar with something, we tend to be wary of it. I don't think that necessarily is prejudice, but obviously it affects how people make decisions.

I myself was born in Florida and raised in N.J. I love my N.J. accent and so do others...I also love all accents from the UK whether it be from England, Wales, Scotland or Ireland!! I love watching movies from those countries as well as Asian, European, South American, Afican, etc-what I'm trying to say is what I love about the different movies is the different accents and the different cultures. People shouldn't feel ashamed of where they are from or how they sound to others. It's who they are and they should be proud of that!!
Cheers!

"As Americans, we have a lot of different accents. We may remark that a person has a Southern, New England, or maybe a Brooklyn accent, but we generally don't think any less of the person."

Excuse me but I have to disagree. People with Southern, New England or Brooklyn accents may not get discriminated against, but people who speak with Spanish accent, Asian accent or Middle Eastern accent face discrimination and even rediculed for their "poor" English especially in the media on a daily basis.