Accent generally refers to ‘variation in pronunciation’.
In phonetics, accent is the relative prominence given to a particular syllable of a word over its adjacent syllables, or to a particular word in a phrase. The emphasis can be heard through the use of stress or pitch.
In sociolinguistics, an accent is a characteristic way or manner for pronunciation, which is distinctive to an individual, an area, or a nation. It may represent the regional or geographic locality of its speakers (i.e. where they reside), the socio-economic status of its speakers (i.e. their ethnicity, caste and social class), or the influence from speakers’ first language.
English, as a global language, is being used by about 335 million native speakers and 505 million second-language users worldwide. It is an official language of 79 countries and many regions. It is also the official language of many political, social and sport organisations.
Speakers with a native variety of English are mostly from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, where English is the de-facto official language and primary language. Other speakers from former colonies or territories of the United Kingdom, or speakers of English as a second/additional/foreign language who learn a model of Standard English (accent) through education, usually carry an accent influenced by their first language.
Let us listen to a selection of English accents below. You may refer to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) chart and the pronunciations on this website: https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/content/ipa-chart
