I'm fascinated by accents and where they come from, but I'm also completely ignorant on the subject. What were the influences that went to form the New York accent, for example? Where did the pronunciation of 'tube' come from? The Dutch pronounce it the same way as New Yorkers, but so do Corkonians. The Dutch got there first, to Harlem, Brooklyn and Bedford-Stuyvestant so maybe it's a legacy from them? Or from the West country of England?

One mystery to me is the Australian accent. Ebbie above talks about a difference between Melbourne and Sydney, but the vast majority of Aussies will tell you their ear is not sensitive enough to discern any difference in accent from one part of that enormous country to the other. Only relatively few people claim to detect regional differences. Perth is 2000 miles from Adelaide but the twang is (almost) identical.

How come? Something to do with being a new country? In that case, how did people come to adopt such a uniform accent so quickly? And why does it sound like it's part of the South East of England family of accents, without any trace of an input from the Scots or the Irish who went there in big numbers, not to mention those from the rest of England?

It's not at all like North America, another 'new country' for the purposes of this subject, where there is a range of different accents, none of which sound like they they might be British.

It's quite normal for individuals to adopt an accent not originally their own in order to fit in in a new environment. But young people in the middle class parts of Dublin are now speaking with an accent never spoken by their parents. It's a horrible bastardisation in which certain sounds are clipped, that's supposed to sound genteel and cool at the same time. To me it's a sign of lack of confidence in their identity. Are there other examples of whole groups/classes of people adopting a new accent quite so quickly?

You wouldn't want to be hearing the likes of it at the end of the phone when you're looking for a loan, you'd only end up feeling sorry for the lost little things.

Has anyone got any insights to offer?

Arthur O'Malley