Peter Lofting wrote:
FWIW In England, within the first 30 seconds of someone opening their mouth, its still possible to place a person to within half a county or less purely from pronouciation. With longer listening that picks up key marker vowels its also possible identify what class of person they spend their time with - via either community, work or travel. That is particularly true of immigrants who learn their English from different classes of contact. e.g. an Australian who lived in Canada and then moved to S. London bears the footprints in their accent.
My accent nowadays varies wildly with who I'm talking to ...
- d.