[pjc50]

There is the little detail in there that when the kid is speaking like that the other miner assumes he's joking, because that's not his natural accent. It's very regional. The bit in My Fair Lady where Higgins places people to the street level by accent isn't quite realistic but it's very close.

(a map for our American readers:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/Methley,+West+Yorkshire,+U...

[robocat]

Movement of households, radio, TV, and internet are homoginising accents. E.g. yoofs speaking Ebonics in island nations.

Some people have an incredible ability to place accents e.g. I was hitching in Ireland, he picked up another guy, and then thw driver guessed the birthplace of the hitcher to a tiny village (10s of people) just by accent.

I have picked that someone I met at the pub was from a particular house (flat) by accent once (students sharing house).