Magnus Archives question

[kindkit]

Can someone please place Martin's accent for me, geographically? I know in S2 we learn that his mother is in Devon, but does that mean that Martin grew up there?

Heh, while writing out this question I seem to have created a headcanon for myself that Jon finds Martin's voiced esses as endearing as I do. (He was extremely irritated by them at first. After all, he changed his accent and learned to speak properly, why can't everyone else do it?) But then he started not minding because he knew Martin, was starting to like and respect Martin more than he ever thought possible . . . and then months passed when all he had of Martin was a voice on a tape recorder . . .

Comments

[rydra_wong]

Martin's accent (and Alex Newall's) is Lancashire, round about the Manchester area, so he definitely didn't grow up in Devon.

Though Georgie's got a mildly Liverpool accent (that's what she means when she refers to "Scouse" in her statement), so Jon would have had at least the top layer of prejudice that "Northern accent equals stupid and uneducated" knocked out of him.

(As you may be inferring, British regional stuff is suuuuper bound up with the arcane mysteries of the British class system.)

After all, he changed his accent and learned to speak properly

Growing up in Bournemouth means he'd still have had an RP (Received Pronounciation) accent, though.

What he does (when he's in "I Am A Serious Academic" mode) is lean heavily into it and over-enunciate, which is why it reads as "more posh" and/or "fake".

So he definitely modulates it (and there's absolutely a story about code-switching and putting it on in there), but wouldn't have had to learn different pronounciation per se.