Quote Originally Posted by jon1959 View Post
Interesting question.

I have lived in England most of my life - and for the longest time in Sheffield. Soon after arriving I got a job on the buses and was working with people from all sorts of backgrounds - including Pakistani Muslim Sheffielders, West Indian Sheffielders, ex-student Sheffielders and a bunch of odd people from Barnsley!

Barnsley is just 17 miles up the road, but although based on coal and ironworks (like Sheffield) it was always more insular. It had far fewer immigrants, far fewer non-native students and far fewer 'outsiders' moving in to work. Most of my mates who were born (or parents were born) in South Asia or the West Indies or the East Midlands sounded like locals to me after a while. Although 'local' was becoming different from two generations before. The lads and lasses from Barnsley sounded totally different - both accent and dialect words.

I think it has to come down to insularity and exposure to outside influences.
Your final sentence makes total sense and is probably the reason why accents change so much within a matter of miles. Here's one;My mate moved down to cardiff at 14, his family were from Liverpool, his mum and dad sound as scouse as they come yet he lost his accent in a couple of years, his mum and dad sound the same to me whenever i meet them. Maybe the young pick things up quicker. The Sheffield accent is very distinctive, out of all the yorkshire dialects i'd say that it sounds the most Feminine and softer.