Does anybody know?

[Rich7]

I wonder how many accents are there both in England and the u.s. of America.

Got any ideas???
This is gr8 now. lots and lots of fun.......

[Torsten]

Richard,

That's a very general question because in order to answer it, you would have to define accent. In addition you would have to distinguish an accent from a dialect which in many cases is very difficult.
Basically, you will find more variations of spoken English in the UK than in the US. This topic is very interesting because it triggers such questions as how exactly an accent emerges and develops and how to identify accents, dialects and other variations of spoken English. I personally think it's amazing that English can be spoken in so many different ways and still people understand each other. Mind you, English is the official first or second language in a great number of countries all over the planet and every day people start learning English.
By the way, we had a similar conversation here:
http://www.english-test.net/forum/ftopic1699.html
and we can continue it if you like.
Regards
Torsten
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary