We went with friends to a particular tearooms in the forest for afternoon tea.
As we were leaving I got collared by a waitress. She said "I know your accent, its Salford, Swinton or Pendlebury. I was amazed. I was born in Salford, moved to Pendlebury when I was three.
Accent adulterated a bit by Five years in Rochdale, twenty plus in Warwickshire and thirteen in the forest.
How can people do this?
When I was 19 I was working in an Ipswich pub during the summer vacations. A stranger came in and we got talking about accents. He said "Southerners can never tell the difference between Yorkshire and Lancashire accents". I assured him that some of us could so he challenged me by saying: "So which side of the Pennines do I come from then?"
I tried to pretend I was really struggling for an answer and said: "Let me think. It's definitely Yorkshire. South Yorkshire, I'd say. Probably Sheffield but over on the Rotherham side. I'd guess at Attercliffe".
He looked stunned: "Ruddy 'ell. I come from Darnall, just a mile up the road from Attercliffe. How the 'eck did tha' know that?".
It was then that I had to confess that I was doing my teacher training in Sheffield, which did make my task just a little easier ;-)
I'm not always so good at accents though. I was interviewing a lady in Cambridge recently and detected what, to me, was clearly a transatlantic accent. Knowing how upset Canadians can get if you accuse them of being Americans, I asked her which it was. "Neither", she replied, "I'm from Northern Ireland"
I like the way brummies sound, they always sound depressed even when they're happy. They is no gaging that one... I'll leave Bristol aside for now... that's some kinda hieroglyphical language they've made up... but scouse and Geordie accents.... slow down take away the helium.