[HPFGU-Movie] Accents

[TACtalk at adelanta.co.uk]

Jen asks:-

>Can someone (I shouldn't ask for anyone personally, say Nicholas for
>instance....) please map out the accents for me. Where in your humble
>opinion are these kids'accents from? I thought Tom's accent was not
>posh enough for someone who's supposed to be pureblood. I know this
>must have come up so if someone wants to point me to a good
>explanitory post, I will humbly accept that.

Well, I'm not sure that my opinion is very humble; I'm actually pretty good
at accents!!!

Here you are then;

Britain has a huge variety of regional accents, and also something called
Received Pronunciation, or RP, which is usually accepted as
regional-accentless English. The BBC used only to employ RP-speakers, I
suppose on the principle that an accentless voice is understandable to all.
Here's a quick list of the HP characters and their accents:-

Harry; Mostly RP, occasional lapses into London. Clearly heard in PS/SS
when walking through Leadenhall Market with Hagrid, saying 'Can we find all
of this in London?' He pronounces is Lahndun, as a Londoner would. RP is
Lundun.
Hermione; pure RP
Ron; London, though not particularly strong
Hagrid; South-west, aka West Country (RC is naturally a Scot)
Dumbledore; Irish
McGonagall; Scottish (though MS is normally fairly RP)
Wood; Scottish, in character and out
Snape; RP
Lockhart; RP (KB's natural accent, rarely heard these days, is Northern Irish)
Vernon and Petunia; RP with a tinge of overemphasis, sign of
pretentiousness. Richard Griffiths's natural accent is pretty RP. Fiona
Shaw is Irish, to my surprise (always thought she was Scottish, but the
Irish brogue came through very clearly on the short interview on the DVD)
Neville; Yorkshire (northern England)
Seamus; Irish
Colin; RP
Lucius; RP with an aristocratic tinge (naturally JI is a Londoner by accent)
Draco; strange. RP in PS/SS, deteriorates to poor London in parts of CoS.
Most noticeable in the Quidditch confrontation, when Harry is surprised
that Malfoy is on the team; he says ' 'at's roight', which is very
lower-class London. I think GulPlum said that he was 'dredging the bottom
of the Thames' or WTTE, which is about right. Incidentally, when watching
the DVD at the weekend, I thought that maybe that bit had been redubbed,
because there was more of a 'th' at the beginning of ' 'at's roight' than
was evident in the cinema.
Aragog; RP (obviously a well-brought-up spider)
Tom Riddle; mostly RP; occasional hint of London.

Have I left out anyone you would want to know about? Let me know if so.

Regards,
Nicholas