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A 'brummie' accent will hold you back in life.

A

Alberta

Super Moderator
Staff member
Another'know it all ' group has come up with a list of accents that either hold you back in your working life or make life good for you.
Having a brummie accent apparently means you will not be a success in your career.Crikey Dr.Chinn have you read this.?
Take heart, we were 2nd worst,poor scousers won.

I thought that this way of thinking had long gone along with newsreaders with a plum in their mouth.
 
It doesn't hold me back! Why only today, whilst having a drink in our local supermarket, I wasn't held back in talking to two fellows, whose accent I "homed" in on, to find out they were from Stetchford and had been down here for a couple of years. :cheers:

Balderdash to those knowalls, I say!!!!!!!! :uglystupid2:
 
Its never held me back and im a true Brummie. Its more to do with the other persons pre coceived ideas of our accent being a sourse of micky taking.
 
Why do we give those that criticise brummies any credence by discussing them and what they say. It's just racism in essence.
 
Hi ya

I am a true Brummie and proud,mind you got a bit of stick when i moved to Tamworth,i was called an 021er,i say take no notice peeps and just be proud 8) 8) 8)
 
Most of the time when I was working away I'd get are you from Liverpool or Manchester. Most folk outside Brum call Black Country Folk Brummies :tickedoff:
 
Not sure if this is true but would love to find out, i read it somewhere that the Birmingham accent and black country dialect is the closest you can get to old English spoken word. I think an American told me years ago whilst researching stuff about accents and local dialect. There was a thing a while back on the bbc website about local sayings and words we use. They put them all into geographical areas and i will look for a link.
I worked in the USA and was always told that i sounded Australian to them. I met a chap who was from Birmingham Alabama and his grandparents were from here and he could understand me perfectly well but some people were just rude and said things like where the hell are you from. I was told to try and loose my accent to get on but i said no way. Some Irish people i know have been in Brum for 60 years and they sound as true to their accents as when they arrived on the boat and i always think people who try and change their accent are fakes.Its something to be proud of to me. :crazy2:
 
There is nothing wrong with the way
us "Brummies" speak I read somewhere
that Shakespears play were written in a "Brummie"
accent,if it was good enough for him,
it's good enough for me
as for the way "Scouser's talk I think it great
Anyway I am proud of the way I talk,if you
don't like it? too bad O0
 
dennis said:
There is nothing wrong with the way
us "Brummies" speak I read somewhere
that Shakespears play were written in a "Brummie"
accent,if it was good enough for him,
it's good enough for me
as for the way "Scouser's talk I think it great
Anyway I am proud of the way I talk,if you
don't like it? too bad O0
Click to expand...
Bill Shake the spear was right but i could never get into his works at all.
 
dennis said:
There is nothing wrong with the way
us "Brummies" speak I read somewhere
that Shakespears play were written in a "Brummie"
accent,if it was good enough for him,
it's good enough for me
as for the way "Scouser's talk I think it great
Anyway I am proud of the way I talk,if you
don't like it? too bad O0
Click to expand...


Stop shouting Dennis I haven't heard you talk yet, but you write in a good Brummie accent :eek:
 
Even though I grew up in Brum I never did have a strong Brummie accent - in a way I am glad I didn't - at the time even with the right credentials I may not have been hired for an office job - it wasn't right but that's the way it seemed to be - Thank goodness it isn't that way now

When I was evacuted people called Brum the YO - YO city - Living in Canada people just think I have an English accent - my sister lives in California has a stronger accent than i do - is taken for Australian

My grandparents who lived in the city had Brummie accents and were the kindest people in the world - In short It doesn't matter how one speaks - it is more important what kind of a person you are - Beryl M
 
I've had a Brummie accent for 60 years - been everwhere - done very Ok - and always boasted about being from Brum.  Regional accents are one of the last vestiges of the cultural diveristy we have left.  One of the problems, apart from sheer snobbery, is the media perpetrating streotypes - eg if you want to sound tough get an N. Irish or a Glaswegian - thick a S.West - dopey Brummie, working class Manchester  etc etc.  Shameful destruction of our national heritage.  I live in Scotland now and they just take my voice as English even if  - whenI tell them I come from Birmingham they ask which part of Dudley is that in !! Only joking! Scots , Welsh, Irish are all happy with their regional accents - why arn't we?
 
What about those people who come to Birmingham and dont know how to pronounce
the place names propa like wot l do.
 
I,M A TRUE BRUMMIE, COMMON,THROUH AND THROUGH, AND I,M A TRUE ASTONIAN,BORN IN THE SLUMS OF ASTON WITH THE COCK ROACHES, AND WITH THE OLD PLASTER BUG, COMING THROUH THE BACK WALL OF THOMPSONS SLAUGHTER HOUSE INTO OUR TINY 2 BED ROOM HOUSE , PRE WAR , AND IT HAS,T KEPT ME BACK, I TELL EVERYBODY THAT I AM A COMOMNER FROM BRUM , AND THEY LOVE TO HEAR OUR ACCENT, BUT WHAT GETS ME HIS THESE ACTORS WHOM TRY TO IMPERSONATE OUR BRUMMIE ACCENT ON THE TELE, AND THEY END UP TALKING BLACK COUNTRY LINGO, THE YANKEE,S LOVE OUR TRUE GRIT ENGLISH BRUMMIE ACCENT, IT VERY HARD TO SPEAK BRUMMIE IF YOU ARE NOT A TRUE BRUMMIE , TERAH OUR KID, CATCH YA LATER, FROM ONE BRUMMIE TO ANOTHER BRUMMIE, ASTONIAN ,;;;;
 
What really hacks me off is when people try to guess where my accent is from and most think I come from Liverpool! :crazy2:
 
Astonian & Gillian,

I have lived away from B'ham for over 20 years now and people often try guess my accent - usually they'll say southern or guess Liverpool (sure people are deaf around here :2funny:) I sound nothing like Liverpool it's just a wild guess from people who haven't a clue where I am from.

But I still speak Brummie although maybe accent is not so strong now unless unless I have spent a few days at home with family (see it's still home!!) But I reckon the give away is in the question "well did you put the kettle on then?" when I arrive anywhere or the big big "terah!!!" when I leave any place

Where I work is in a big pool office 60+ people and my colleagues tease the living daylights out of my "terah" - as I more or less sing it when it's home time :2funny: :2funny: Often when I leave my office I will hear someone call me back and shout "Liz Terah" just so they hear me say " Terah" back ;D ;D and I get a chorus of "terah" back as I leave the room. My catch phrase has to be the "Let's put the kettle on" first thing every morning at work - it amuses my colleagues no end still - it's a brummie thing and nobody can impersonate that!!

I think Brummies are the hardest for people to impersonate as they'll never get it right will they??
 
I have been away from Brum for 40 years now and I still have a Brummie accent and as stated here by others I still regard Brum as home and think about the place a lot. It's probably not a Brummie phenomina though, it's probably the same no matter where you come from. If the accent held you back somewhere, so what. Probably saved you from a bad situation, if the people used that as a yardstick and not your expertise. The midlands area was the manufacturing engine that spread of the English language around the world. Without the manufacturing capacity combined with transportation to spread British commerce around the world the English language would not be the power house that it has become. America would probably be French or Spanish speaking. Made in Birmingham had much more significance than we realise. Up the Blues....er..or Villa.
Regards.
 
HI YA LIZ , AND RUPURT, ITS NICE TO KNOW YOU HAVEN,T LOST YOUR ACCENT, LIZ, I USED TO HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM WITH PEOPLE WHO THOUGHT I WAS FROM THE SOUTH , ITS JUST THE CASE OF EDUCATION, I HAVE PREVIOUSLY STATED THAT I AM A RETIRED PUBLICAN , AND I HAVE TRAVELLED THE BREAST OF THHE LAND IN MY THIRTY YEARS IN THE TRADE , AND THERE IS ALOT OF PEOPLE DON,T KNOW WHEN THEY MEET A BRUMMMIE, THEY AUTOMATICALY THINK OF BLACK COUNTRY FOLK , YA KNOW WHAT I MEAN LIKE,, OR A SOUTHERN , WERE A PROUD BUNCH AINT WE ; RUPURT, ITS A TRUE TO FORM WHAT YOU SAY IN YOUR STATEMENT, A GOOD RESPONSE, I ENNJOYED READING YOUR STATEMENT, I KNOW THE BLU,ES ARE SURPOSE TO REPRESNT BRUM , AND A FLAG SHIP FOR B,HAM, AND I AM A TRU BRUMMIE ,THROUH AND THROUH , BUT I AM A DEDICATED AND HARDEND VILLA FAN , BECOS I WAS DRAGGED UP IN ASTON ALL OUR GENERATIONS OF AUNTS AND UNCLES AND COUSINS, TRULY SUPPORTED THEM , MY OLDEST BROTHER RON WAS AN APPRENTICE FOR THE OLD MEB AT CHESTER STREET AS A SPARKIE, HE HAD THE PLEASURSE OF PUTTING UP THERE VERY 1 ST FLOOD LIGHTS AT VILLA PARK, ALSO THE GREAT JOHNIE DIXON AND HIS BROTHER, USED TO THE DRIVING OF DELIVERY,S FOR MY GREAT GRAND FATHER OUT OF THE FOOTBALL SEASON MY GRAND FATHERS ARE THE JELF,S CATERING RESTURANTS AND COFFEE SHOPS,WHOM DONE ALL THE BIG FUNCTION,S IN THE CITY OF BIRMINGHAM DEPARTMENTS, WE,LLL OUR KID I,M GONNA SHOVE OFF NOW AND GET ME A PIECE OF SOMTHINK TO ATE, SEE YAH TERAH,, BEST WISHES ASTONIAN, ;;;;;;;
 
Alf, that site is funny :2funny: :2funny: :2funny: A GOOD REMINDER OF THE STRANGE THINGS WE SAY??

It really is true English is such a difficult language to master!!

Aston my mum laughs at my "Terah - see ya later" she still calls me "me babby" and despite being the eldest in my family I am always "the babby" - even my younger brother calls me "bab" still. Guess I will never be grown up in their eyes?? ha ha :2funny:

There are some things that only a Brummie will say!!

Had to laugh about the football comments - I went to school with the Hopkins Brothers (they played for a Brummie team together ;D) I went to Pitmaston Secondary from age 12 onwards - and one thing we did well there was team sports - school always had a rough reputation somehow - I never understood why when I said what school I went to people shook with fear and legged it!! (we were nothing like St Trinians honestly!! :angel: :2funny: )

I guess I am amused when people say I sound like a southerner or from Liverpool - I guess our Brummie accents are difficult to place by most? :)
 
Hi. Everyone,
Alf, priceless have added to favourites, thanks.
Astonian, thanks for your comments. Just got a B,ham City mug for father,s day from one of my sons. Will buy him a Villa one for his birthday. Hope you approve.
P S. If Gil Merrick is still alive don't tell him. (or Len Boyd)
 
Thanks Rupert and Gil Merrick has never seen a live Birmingham match since he was sacked and don't blame him ::)
 
Astonian, I'm intrigued by your mention of the plaster bug. I have not heard of this.

Is this a bedbug which can live under wallpaper, or a separate type of insect?

Can you describe it and its habits? What did you to to kill it?

Daleaway
 
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