Arwel Parry (arwel(a)cartref.demon.co.uk) [050405 01:25]:
The real distinction isn't "north" --
the really impenetrable
accents are urban, and of course the accents which consistently end up
at the bottom of surveys of desirability are Scouse and Brummie.
Oh, yes. For a good example, listen to [[Benjamin Zephaniah]] speak (or
perform), and then realise he was in fact born in Birmingham. Authentic
native speech there.
By the way, I would strongly questoin GerardM's assertion that the person's
way of pronouncing their name is *correct*, in the sense of people
pronouncing it differently being *incorrect*. A proper noun can be a word
in a language susceptible to accent variations without being *incorrect* -
if someone says their name is "John Smith" in a Walthamstow council-estate
accent, someone saying it in Australian, American newsreader, Canadian or
whatever accent is not *incorrect* in pronouncing it the local way, not
even a little bit. It's *interesting* to know how the person pronounces it,
but it's not a firm guide to pronunciation. My own name would be pronounced
in vastly varying ways in various languages of Europe, but even then I
couldn't really assert the pronunciations were *incorrect*.
- d.