In your country, are there cities near to each other that nevertheless have very different accents?

[Graham]

Edinburgh and Glasgow is another possible example, though I would like Graham's opinion about that.

They are quite different. Glasgow is more naisley or has an upward inflection like Northern Ireland. Working Class Edinburgh is more like the other parts of the east coast/Central Scotland. Saying Ken, like and eh alot.

[PaleoEuropean]

Alabama has like 4 main accents , not the most diverse state for accents.

[Seya]

Not in Romania. Most accents are very mild and perfectly understandable.

There is a slight exception when it comes to Iasi, former capital of Moldova, a city close to the border with Rep. of Moldova. There the accent is similar to that of RM, because in the not so distant past, close to half of the population of Iasi was Jewish who spoke Russian natively. Russian influence results in the same accent and sentence word order in Romanian - it's very noticeable, but still just as easy to comprehend.

This is not true at all. People in Iasi don't speak like the people in R. Moldova and they don't have russian accent. They just speak with heavy moldovian accent, not russian. They speak like the people in the Republic, yes, but not the ones who have russian accent but like the real moldovian ones, not the russified ones. But this is valid form most of Romanian Moldova. Only in the south the accept is very mild.

Who told you the jews in iasi were russian speakers? They were speaking yiddish.

[KirillMazur]

Sevastopol and Rostov-on-Don.
Yalta and Krasnodar.
As a Crimean and Muscovite, I can say that the Russian language in Crimea (among the natives) is quite pure, purer only in Siberia and the Far East. There are only a few local endemic words.
The rest of the southerners often have a characteristic intonation and this famous Ukrainian sound "G". The active dictionary is more Russian with an admixture of surzhik, but the sound is more Ukrainian: many use that "G" sound and speak in a Gorbachev's manner.

[Ouistreham]

Cologne and Düsseldorf.
Two similarly sized big cities with strong identities and old rivalries.
The difference is amazing. Even foreigners with a rudimentary command of German can easily hear it — all the more since one of the main limits between Central- and Northern German dialects (the Benrather Linie) runs halfway of both towns.

[Damião de Góis]

I think Porto has a different accent from other nearby cities.

They are quite different. Glasgow is more naisley or has an upward inflection like Northern Ireland. Working Class Edinburgh is more like the other parts of the east coast/Central Scotland. Saying Ken, like and eh alot.

I watch snooker and i always thought strange that Stephen Hendry sounded very different from other scottish players like John Higgins or Stephen Maguire. I googled and Hendry is from Edinburgh and the others are from Glasgow so if those are good examples both accents sound very different to me.

[JosephK]

Alabama has like 4 main accents , not the most diverse state for accents.

I was going to suggest New Orleans, Mobile, and Pensacola.

[CordedWhelp]

Speaking in terms of my immediate locale to the rest of the State (not entire U.S.)

Well, Chicago has it's stereotypical accents (that are slowly dwindling though). I have it to a smallish degree, but more diluted compared to my father who has a Thick north side accent. South side's is a bit different. Now as far as other nearby cities in NORTHERN IL like Rockford, you logivcally have a lot of former Chicagoans so you hear it's influence here and there, but once you get outside of Chicago, most of the rest of my state is operating under the "General Midland American" flat accent. An exception would be Southern Illinois just south of East St. Louis. They are Southern-influenced, Kentucky-like down there, specificall. Some rural parts north of Chicago and south of the WI border sound more WI-like, but it varies by family basically in that instance...

[CordedWhelp]

Alabama has like 4 main accents , not the most diverse state for accents.

Which one do you have?

[JosephK]

Speaking in terms of my immediate locale to the rest of the State (not entire U.S.)

Well, Chicago has it's stereotypical accents (that are slowly dwindling though). I have it to a smallish degree, but more diluted compared to my father who has a Thick north side accent. South side's is a bit different. Now as far as other nearby cities in NORTHERN IL like Rockford, you logivcally have a lot of former Chicagoans so you hear it's influence here and there, but once you get outside of Chicago, most of the rest of my state is operating under the "General Midland American" flat accent. An exception would be Southern Illinois just south of East St. Louis. They are Southern-influenced, Kentucky-like down there, specificall. Some rural parts north of Chicago and south of the WI border sound more WI-like.

Absolutely-- Also, the stereotypical working class (essentially SW side White) accent seems to have moved to the West/Southwest Suburbs. In fact, especially since the older generations of my family have passed on, the accent is really quite difficult to listen to when you're unused to it. Sitting at a Bolingbrook Starbucks I've had to keep my ears covered when the middle aged ladies come in... jeesh.