I watched the Netflix series "The Ripper" this week about the Yorkshire Ripper. The question does not pertain to that, nor is it even important regarding the question. In the documentary, a dialectologist listened to about a minute of tape of a man speaking. After much careful scrutiny, the dialectologist and a colleague determined that the man not only hailed from Sunderland, but narrowed it down to the the very neighborhood of Castletown. This is quite remarkable.
My question is, how the hell is this possible? While I realize you may not be a linguist, but can you sniff out certain areas of cities that people are from? Here in the States, I could probably ascertain what part of the country and, at times, what state or city a person is from. Never, could I say, "Oh wow, he is from Southwestern Indianapolis" from an accent alone. Even the major cities like Boston, Philadelphia, and New York, how does someone deduce that a fellow is from Long Island and not Staten Island or Manhattan?
England is much smaller, obviously. The language has existed there for some twelve hundred years or so, I think. I understand why and how the dialects are the way they are and understand the fact that they have been localized. It is still difficult to fathom that a man could locate an accent within a square mile or two. What is the reason there? From a country that is so large, it is difficult for me to imagine. Never have I studied the nuances and subtleties of dialects within dialects as was done by this man of the Geordie accent. As aforementioned, I could deduce that a man has an Appalachian accent. I could probably go even further and tell you if it is Carolinian, high, or low. I do not think I could tell you where precisely the man is from. Does this come with acreage, you think? Is it the same sort of science, but in a much smaller area? I'd love to hear the English take on this.
