Read about different varieties of English

This webpage by the University of Duisburg offers a lot of information about different varieties of English, including maps, historic background, and sound files. To look at individual varieties, click on "Varieties of English".

Also Wikipedia has a list of all varieties of English and information about them.

Listen to different accents

Listen to English accents around the world in the Speech Accent Archive and the British Library.

For accents in Great Britain only, see the BBC voice recordings, which also give you more information on the speakers' background.

If you want to listen to a Scottish accent, you can also do this here.

You may also look at how English spread throughout the world.