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  1. Bobowler

    Peaky Blinders - A world away from Downton!

    ’Ow do Elliott, sorry y’dun’t like me typin’, as I never meant it t’upset anyone an’ am surprised y’ve taken offence. Maybe best for ya to ignore me postin’s from now on then, an’ I’ll be sure not to reply t’any more of yours. All I was doin’ was addin’ a bit of Brummie colour, so, like I say...
  2. Bobowler

    Origins of the Brummie accent

    ’Ow do Nico, glad y’liked the recordin’s, there’s another good un of an Aubrey Walton of Perry Common which is a bostin’ comparison to that of Harry Phillips from Small Heath I put up before. I’d ’ave said the former is more like what I think a northern Brummie sounds like, as y’d expect give...
  3. Bobowler

    Peaky Blinders - A world away from Downton!

    ’Ow do Elliott, ar that’s interestin’ about ’em filmin’ that at the Black County Museum’s school – I liked the pic. of the copper an’ the chalk mark where the body was! By the way, did anyone else clock it when Michael said “been out in Maypole”? I thought t’meself, hang on, dun’t us Brummies...
  4. Bobowler

    Origins of the Brummie accent

    ’Ow do muckers. Right then, I trust everyone’ll bear with me whilst I try an’ ge’ t’the bottom of the Shakespearean pronunciation of ‘dignity’ an’ ‘memory’, so that they rhyme with ‘die’. In order t’do this we ’ave t’turn to the research of David Crystal, Honorary Professor of Linguistics at...
  5. Bobowler

    Origins of the Brummie accent

    ’Ow do Parsley & Nico, ar that’s a good point about ‘floor’ an’ ‘door’ bein’ said summut like ‘flo-er’ an’ ‘do-er’, or p’r’aps even more like ‘flow-a’ an’ ‘dow-a’. It’s right an’ all that more often than not these days it’s only older folk that tend t’say things that way, an’ so would be a...
  6. Bobowler

    Origins of the Brummie accent

    ’Ow do David, many thanks for comin’ back t’me about the pronunciation of ‘dignity’ an’ ‘memory’ in the Black Country. Apologies t’other members if we’re startin’ t’go a little off track agen, an’ I ’ope Smudger an’ others dun’t mind too much, but I just want t’clear this up. I mus’ also say...
  7. Bobowler

    Origins of the Brummie accent

    ’Ow do muckers, ar I know what y’mean Nico, with ‘Bobby Dazzler’, an’ ’ow at first glance it does look like it could be linked to ‘Bobby-owler’, an’ thereby to ‘Bobowler’. But, as David says, ‘Bobby Dazzler’ tends t’mean someone who’s smartly dressed, not a moth or butterfly. In the Oxford...
  8. Bobowler

    Origins of the Brummie accent

    ’Ow do Smudger, ar y’right ’ten’t nunk t’do with the Brummie accent – sorry about that! We do seem t’ave gone off on a tangent dun’t we, but in me defence I was only tryin’ to answer David’s query about ‘ooman’ an’ a possible Welsh influence on the accents of the Black Country an’ Brummagem...
  9. Bobowler

    Origins of the Brummie accent

    ’Ow do David, been lookin’ int’things after yer last post, an’ I think I may ’ave found summut of relevance. I’ve got a book ’ere called Word Maps: A Dialect Atlas of England, which ’as a map showin’ those parts of England where the word ‘woman’ is said without the ‘w’: The map, like the...
  10. Bobowler

    Stonehouse Farm area

    ’Ow do Mike, just a quick en about the snap y’put up ’ere t’replace one that was lost – I believe the one y’show is actually Weoley Castle Farm, with its old mill pond as it looked in the 1930s, rather than Stonehouse Farm. Mind, Bill Dargue’s got a nice en of Stonehouse Farm on ’is site under...
  11. Bobowler

    Origins of the Brummie accent

    ’Ow do David, ar they do ’ave a ‘bws’ over ’ere, which does sound a little like someone from the Black Country, or a broad Brummie, sayin’ ‘buz’ for bus. But I en’t sure y’could claim a direct link, an’ the similarity might just as likely be down to coincidence than actual Welsh influence on...
  12. Bobowler

    Origins of the Brummie accent

    Been ’avin’ a good ol’ mooch on this ’ere thread, which ’as been really fascinatin’. I think that Wessex is on t’summut in ’is post when ’e talks about Brummagem being on the cusp, as it were, of the accents of southern and northern England, or as JohnO calls it in his postin’ “the fault line...
  13. Bobowler

    Peaky Blinders - A world away from Downton!

    Ar I thought I’d ’eard ‘cheeky blinder’ an’ all Viv, mind, like Mike, I’ve also come across ‘cheeky blighter’ too! The Oxford English Dictionary certainly ’as ‘blighter’, which it defines as “A contemptible or unpleasant person”, but also says is “often merely as an extravagant substitute for...
  14. Bobowler

    The meaning of (what sounds lile) 'oil-tot' ?

    Ar I say oil-tot, picked it up from me ol’ man, and use it to mean happy, over the moon, equivalent to ‘in your element’. Apparently, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, this latter phrase is to do with one of the ‘four elements’, though “chiefly of air and water”, so means the...
  15. Bobowler

    Nonsuch Farm

    Bostin’ pics Mike, ta for sharing. Good en of the old Farmhouse, if a little skew-whiff! Whilst the other with everyone sitting on the wagon’s a real boster!! Anyroad, thought I’d add this copy of the old nineteenth-century Ordnance Survey map to things, showing Nonsuch Farm more or less on...
  16. Bobowler

    Peaky Blinders - A world away from Downton!

    ’Ow do one an’ all. Ar that’s what I was saying about it s’posedly being near Arrow, out by Alcester, which would be where the river Arrow is. Mind, if Steven Knight thought it should ’ave been out Coleshill way, then somebody’s geography’s a bit out! Maybe there’s another river or stream...
  17. Bobowler

    Peaky Blinders - A world away from Downton!

    ’Ow do Viv, ar it does look like Aston Hall a little dun’ it, though on a smaller scale. When it switched from the church to the Hall, at the beginning of the first episode in this Series, it was captioned as “Arrow Hall, Warwickshire”. Seems this is purely fictional, but presumably is s’posed...
  18. Bobowler

    Peaky Blinders - A world away from Downton!

    ’Ow do Old Boy, ar y’re quite right about ‘cant’ and ‘canting’ meaning gossip and gossiping, in phrases like “they were ’avin’ a right old cant”, or even just to mean talking or speaking, and, as such, is a proper old Brummie word an’ all. Indeed, a common sight on the streets of Brummagem in...
  19. Bobowler

    Peaky Blinders - A world away from Downton!

    Ar spot on Maria about there being a Romani element in Polari, though from what I’ve gleaned it’s only a small part of that lexicon. Seems what Romani there is came through the older Parlyaree, which was used in fairgrounds an’ circuses, and which, eventually, made its way into musical halls...
  20. Bobowler

    Peaky Blinders - A world away from Downton!

    Ar y’re right Maria, the others did get what he meant when he said about his wife Linda being ‘up the Swannee’, though he did also say he was going to be a dad, which kind of made it obvious! Like I said, ’ten’t a phrase I’ve heard meself, well not to mean pregnant anyroad, maybe we need to ask...
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