Why is English spoken with different accents?

In Britain, every part of the country has its own way of speaking English. People in Yorkshire sound very different to people in Surrey; a Somerset accent is very different from any Scottish accent and it's hard to believe that people from Birmingham are speaking the same language as those from Cornwall. Most people in Britain can guess where someone comes from by the way they speak, either by their accent or by the words they use.

Identification of an accent can place the speaker in a general area of Britain. Geordie, Scouse, and Cockney* are well known dialects from Tyneside, Liverpool and London respectively.

Today the 'home counties' accent is usually accepted as Standard English. The home counties are the counties nearest to London (Southern England). A southern English accent is generally accepted to be the most easily understood, and is the accent usually taught to foreigners.