Arwel Parry (arwel@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.