Why are there a much greater variety of accents in northern England compared to Southern England?
It depends what you mean by a greater variety of accents. It also depends how good your discernment of the vowel sounds is. What exactly do you mean by Southern England? Old Surrey people have a broader burr, while Cockneys pronounce their diphthongs such as “mate” almost like “mite”, they have glottal stops, pronouncing “fight” like “figh’ “, drop their aitches as in ” ‘ouse”. On the whole the confusion probably arises because Southerners are thought of as people who mainly use RP (Received Pronunciation), as a means of common language, while Northerners have certain speech characteristics which they maintain at all times.
