• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Give us yer donny

I thought 'All Round the Wrekin' was a Shropshire phrase that had got as far as the Black Country but not to Birmingham where I had never heard it used. I was surprised when a friend from Birmingham used it and it turned out that he had been to school at Wrekin College.

I remember 'Barley' from school often with crossed fingers meaning 'truce'. I am told it is from the French 'parlez' which is the command 'speak'.

I have also been told that 'Donny' is from the French 'Donnez moi le main' which is 'Give me your hand' although if talking to a child (or girl/boy friend) it should strictly be 'Donne moi ta main'
 
Last edited:
My mom used the phrase “I’ve been looking All Round the Wrekin for you”. Her dad was from Shropshire, but it did seem a Birmingham phrase.

I recall “Arly Barley” as a truce phrase too when playing tig and tag and feet off ground.
 
My mom used the phrase “I’ve been looking All Round the Wrekin for you”. Her dad was from Shropshire, but it did seem a Birmingham phrase.

I recall “Arly Barley” as a truce phrase too when playing tig and tag and feet off ground.
As a child I used Arley Barley and Feet off Ground. :laughing:
 
Hi jmadone and Hi Moturn. I think "Arley Barley" might actually be "Allez, Parlez" - French for "come on let's talk." if so, I'd really like to know why there are so many French words in Brummy language! What's weird is in French they have the same kind of expression. "Chat perché!" is what kids say when they play "tig off ground." It means "cat perched (off ground) so they can't be touched. And my children (who grew up in France) used to cry out "Pouces!" ("thumbs up") when they wanted to call a truce in a game.
 
When I was a kid at Raddlebarn Primary School, if we were playing a game in the playground and wanted to pause the game to talk or negotiate we'd shout out "Barley!" and everyone would stop, gather round and listen to what we had to say. Sometimes we also held up crossed fingers. When talking about this with friends from other part of the country they also had a special word, but never "Barley." I've come across "Feyknights" in the north of England, "Pax" in the south and also "Crusoes." is Barley something used across Birmingham or was it just in my school? Is it a corruption of "Parley?" And I guess that comes from the French "Parler" to talk or discuss.

Hi bull ring boy, , Yes we always said "barley" if we needed to stop a game for something, , if you were playing tag or chasey, you couldn't be tagged etc while you were "barley" with your fingers crossed. I lived in sheldon, i think it was a common word for kids to say.
 
Hi jmadone and Hi Moturn. I think "Arley Barley" might actually be "Allez, Parlez" - French for "come on let's talk." if so, I'd really like to know why there are so many French words in Brummy language! What's weird is in French they have the same kind of expression. "Chat perché!" is what kids say when they play "tig off ground." It means "cat perched (off ground) so they can't be touched. And my children (who grew up in France) used to cry out "Pouces!" ("thumbs up") when they wanted to call a truce in a game.
At the risk of straying off topic I think a lot of pseudo french phrases were brought back with soldiers returning from the Great war. Plonk is one example (Vin Blanc), San Fairy Ann (Ca ne fait rien) is another. Those two phrases are known throughout the country so why particular ones such as Donny and Arley Barley are peculiar to Birmingham I have no idea.
 
Hi jmadone,

San Fairy Ann was certainly something my dad learned to say from his father's generation- and I've certainly drunk a lot of plonk in my time! It's an interesting idea that all these French words found their way into our vocabulary via the First World War but I suspect that certain may date right back to the arrival of northern French in our language back in 1066. Why they've stuck in the region in and around Birmingham I've no idea, but I'd like to find out. By the way, have you ever as a child eaten barley sugar and do you know why it's called that?
 
Originally it was made from an extract of barley, though I doubt if it has been made that way for many years
 
Well not exactly. When the Normans arrived in England in 1066, they brought their cooking with them, including a little dessert called "sucre brûlé" (literally "cooked sugar"). But the Anglo-Saxon population who rather liked this new kind of food couldn't say "brûlé" (the French "r" is difficult for Anglo-Saxons to pronounce) so they changed it it to "burley." Also, as French adjectives come after the noun they qualify, but in Anglo-Saxon they come before the noun they qualify , "sucre burley" became "burley sucre" and then over the years "barley sugar." The weird thing is, in the nineteenth century the French discovered a sweet in England called "barley sugar" and imported it literally as "sucre d'orge" - as it is still known today. "Orge" in French means "barley." So in that sugary sweet we know in both countries, no barley, just "cooked sugar" with a misunderstanding on both sides of the Channel! Not very Birmingham I know but there you go.
 
Here's another one. In Birmingham we often begin a comment with "Any road up..." or end one with "actually." I've never heard this use anywhere else in the country. Sorry to bang on about the French connection but in France people often begin a comment with "à propos de rien" and finish one with "actuellement." Are Brummies and Froggies closer than we imagine?
 
Here's another one. In Birmingham we often begin a comment with "Any road up..." or end one with "actually." I've never heard this use anywhere else in the country. Sorry to bang on about the French connection but in France people often begin a comment with "à propos de rien" and finish one with "actuellement." Are Brummies and Froggies closer than we imagine?

I have heard, but possibly not in Birmingham, a comment starting "à propos of nothing" which is a Franglais version of "à propos de rien".
 
Hi DavidGrain. Why on earth do we Brummies say "any road up?" It sounds like a corruption of something else, rather like "San Fairy Ann." Perhaps I'm trying to stretch a point but "any road up" sounds like a confusion of "à propos de rien." If so, perhaps it came back with the troops after WW1, but if so why just in Birmingham?
 
From what I can make out most of the saying in French came from WW1
LIKE PARLEZ VOUS .THINK EVERYONE KNOWS THAT.
 
Here's another one. In Birmingham we often begin a comment with "Any road up..." or end one with "actually." I've never heard this use anywhere else in the country. Sorry to bang on about the French connection but in France people often begin a comment with "à propos de rien" and finish one with "actuellement." Are Brummies and Froggies closer than we imagine?
na,we are uneek....sorry Mikejee.
 
Here's another one. In Birmingham we often begin a comment with "Any road up..." or end one with "actually." I've never heard this use anywhere else in the country. Sorry to bang on about the French connection but in France people often begin a comment with "à propos de rien" and finish one with "actuellement." Are Brummies and Froggies closer than we imagine?
actually. i have never heard that said."Any road up":confused:
 
Back
Top