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Origins of the Brummie accent

As someone who has a right mix of ancestry I have always been fascinated by accents. My mother was born in Brum and my father in Ireland. I was born in Coventry and raised in Perth, Scotland. Go back a few generations on my Irish family side and there you find Jones' from Wales!

To all my friends I sound English or Posh Edinburgh. My father thinks I sound right Scottish as do any of my relatives in England- it's amazing how much an accent depends on who is listening to it. I always find it amusing when we go back to the Midlands to visit relatives and my father's accent changes slightly although he doesn't notice it. The key word is "Albany". In his "at home" accent he would say all-bany. As soon as he gets off that train at Coventry station its a sharp "Al-banee".

My father always had to be adaptable with his accent when growing up. Once when trying to explain he and his two friends slight drunkeness to his fearsome Irish grandmother he had to switch between Cork and Midland accents so everyone could understand each other.
 
Vivienne14 said:
Just heard Noddy Holder on Radio 4 reading from a Richard III speech. Surprisingly seems to work!! Viv
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Years ago I heard some re-enactors delivering an act they do regularly to schools to a Black Country audience. One item was Shakespeare's Henry V speach before Harfleur (Once more into the breach). It was claimed that it was delivered exactly as it would have been delivered back in medieval times. The Black Country audience just did not get the point as it was delivered exactly as they speak today.
 
The first posting on this thread makes a comment on a theory that Shakespeare may have spoken in an accent near to Brummie. There is something on the internet about Shakespeare OP - Original Pronunciation - where two men (I believe they may be actors, they are father and son), have taken Shakespeare's work and investigated it thoroughly. The video explains how they did it, and in fact it seems that most of England spoke with what sounds very much like a West Country accent. If this is so, and I personally can see no reason to disbelieve it, I think dialects probably come from part laziness (we sall say things quickly at times and therefore not correctly, taking a short cut) and grew from there. I find it fascinating - some accents I like very much (Welsh and West Country) and some I don't like much at all, however, the older I get the more accents I find are acceptable. I loathed the Liverpool accent until I spent a day there, and found that they were amongst the friendliest folk I have ever met. I doubt we will ever find out exactly how each accent came about - added to which there will always be differing opinions, but it is an interesting topic, nonetheless.
 
Its amazing that at MY age People still can tell where I am from! I have been out of Brit land for over 56 years living in Yank land and once in a while I will meet up with some Brits and right away thay say "You from Brum arnt you?" Once a Brummie always a Brummie I guess AND PROUD of it. John Crump OldBrummie in Parker, snowy Colorado USA
 
I've been told I still have my Coventry accent after 41 years over here in West OZ! I think it has softened a bit especially the hard vowels, when I hear myself on the answering machine I still sound like I come from the Midlands. I use Aussie slang & local terms for things but a few old sayings pop out every now and then! I'm proud of where I come from - "Eh our kid?"
 
you never quite loose the way brummies and english people in general pronounce certain words. they are a dead give away. i also have been in australia 43 years working in retail . mixing with the aussies mostly ,and never having a strong english accent i have leaned a little to aussie twang ,but still i get picked out as english,which i never want, or try, to change.
 
I think the "Birmingham", as opposed to "Black Country or Warwickshire Accent" is very unique, and does not have its equal inside the Uk, scouse or Liverpool certainly has a great Irish, proberly (Dublin) infuence.
paul
 
Well the more I read this the more I'm at home with my brummie twang. I'm now associated to Shakespear and Richard III. Things are getting better and better. I'm now wondering if Boudica was black country :)
 
Big Gee said:
Anyone who ever tried to wade through Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" in the original Middle English might be interested to know that according to some scholars this was essentially a West Midlands dialect. Chaucer could only approximate in the written word the pronunciation of the dialect he was writing. I did spend a couple of years at college studying English Literature, especially older literature, and our lecturer used to recite Chaucer in a distinctive Brummie accent, and it sounded great. How authentic this was, of course there's no way of knowing.

I remember reading that, in Chaucer's time, everyone spoke with a Brummie type of accent. The same article also claimed that in Elizabethan times a Geordie kind of accent was in vogue. I doubt that the whole of our country EVER spoke with a common accent. When I first came to live in this part of Cheshire, (after 23 years in the army), I ran in to a completely new dialect. "Yer conna" meant You can not. "I anna" meant I have not. It took a while to catch on but that's nothing, I defy ANYONE to understand the Belfast accent, without a month's acclimatisation !
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I don't have a problem with Belfast accent, possibly because I visit that city regularly. Belfast is split between the harsh Co. Antrim and the softer Co. Down accents. There is a story about the actress June Whitfield who is a master of accents. In one play she was required to use a Northern Ireland accent so she used the Antrim accent but the producer said he wanted a softer accent so she switched to Co. Down. He still was not satisfied so said he would prefer Bangor in Co Down so she asked him which street he would like.
 
Never had a problem with the NI accent myself, from Port Stewart,Crossmaglen, Londonderry, Newry, Balfast, some South Armagh, Ardoyne, Coal Island, accents when spoken quickly could be challenging though.
paul
 
Things were so bad during our first days in Andersonstown that one of our blokes, (from Carrickfergus), had to act as interpreter.
 
Its funny how once you get the hang of the twang then the brain cuts in and the more you experience the accent the more you understand it.
 
Enjoying this thread but wondered if the Brummie accent had changed over the years. My old Nan was born in Aston in 1890 and used words that we don't use today but her accent was still Brummie. Does this mean that perhaps in the mid nineteenth century we would still recognize the Brummie accent, has any research been done on this i wonder?.
 
brumgum, I have noticed words we used when I was a youngster are no longer heard (I am approaching 83), such as 'blarting' (crying), 'miskin (dustbin) 'suff' (drain) there are others, these are just 3 examples, even the accent does not seem so pronounced. Maybe it is because we travel a lot more ?? Eric
 
cookie273uk said:
brumgum, I have noticed words we used when I was a youngster are no longer heard (I am approaching 83), such as 'blarting' (crying), 'miskin (dustbin) 'suff' (drain) there are others, these are just 3 examples, even the accent does not seem so pronounced. Maybe it is because we travel a lot more ?? Eric
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Yes i know, my Nan used to telll me to "keep out the horse road".
 
Words will change all the time. If you hear a word used that you have not herard for a long time it gives you a start. Accent however is different from use of words but how they are pronounced. I was on a train two days ago from Liverpool to West Kirby and it was noticable that the locals were pronouncing it West Kerr'by. One would expect that over time we would all speak the same way with films from the 1930s onwards then radio and television. Then people are more mobile moving to other areas for work etc. But this has not really happened. You notice that childen of the imigrant population are speaking with local accents different from their parenta and grandparents.
 
Suff - havent heard that for a long time. Down the suff. (drain). We get words added too, all the time, esp via the media.
Theres also the IM / SMS messaging speak coming in now as well > OMG, LOL - with younger PPL.

Agree with shortie ~ as you get older you get more accepting, or may be its because we feel theres more important things in life to get wound up about instead :) ... anyway accents seem far more in vogue these days than they were - and I guess variety keeps you young.

Oil see yar up the cut moyte
 
Shakespeare in Troilus and Cressida had one character insulting another with the phrase "rotten diseases of the suff" but unfortunately no one knew what he was talking about so now most actors say "rotten diseases of the south" which is meaningless
 
Changes in accent are normally effected by the young.A good example I'm told is the origin of the Aussie accent.It wasn't directly related to any accent,but was a mix of all the newcomers came over with.They talk about Shakespeare having a Brummie accent,but the accent that way was normally associated with the standard southern English,Brum at that time was a village,so not so sure of that.I can only assume that like Scouse in the 'pool,brummie evolved quite quickly as the town grew 18/19th century.
 
I watched an episode of QI last night & one of the subjects raised was "if the pilot taking you on holiday spoke with a brummy accent, would you have faith in him" & a astonishing 76% said no. Cheeky buggers. I think the Brummy accent sounds warm & friendly, whereas if the pilot spoke with a scouse accent i`d be worried he might come into the cabin & mug me :-} A scouse accent to me sounds slightly threatening ( sorry scousers )
 
If the pilot had a Scouser accent, I'd be checking the hub caps were still there !

I think the worst-sounding accent is to be heard in the London area. ("Joey in the jungle" for example !).
 
Seabird said:
You may be right - weren't there Italian immigrants working in the glassmaking industry around Wordsley?
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There was the man who brought his wife back from Estapona is Spain and named his house that. I am told that is the area called Stewpony not far from the glass quarter. My grandad' from Wordsley/Dudley/Kinver his fiend is named in a historical book as one of many immigrants I am told he came from Hungarian Gypsy stock.
But Black Country people say bonk for bank and French is banc (bonk) We would have had old French in our language and Norman.I am told Raddlebarn comes from an ancient Red Barn which stood on an estate. Raddle meaning red.
 
maypolebaz said:
If the pilot had a Scouser accent, I'd be checking the hub caps were still there !

I think the worst-sounding accent is to be heard in the London area. ("Joey in the jungle" for example !).
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My scouse colleague said folk would say 'hide the spoons' when they heard his accent. My colleague's mum from Elmdon, said of Northen folk, they sound thck when they open their mouths. Apologies to northern folk.
As to Cov being the start of the East Mids, the Post Office say we are the West with Brum being in Warwickshirem though we used to be Warwickshire. The old Cov accent is disappearing, if you go North to Nuneaton it is different and then Hinckley being Leics me duck, also used in old Cov, Bedworth (Beduth) is different again. I get in to Berkswell and they sound Brummie to me. My Selly Oak relatives are light Brummie but their parents were broad. My ex colleague from Aston is very broad. A real sort of stretched accent like weeeeeeel. And goes up an intonation at the end of the phrase.Black country Nan took the hump if she was referred to as a Brummie and I am should it would happen vice versa.
 
Hi
It all depends where you early years as a Child that formulates a lot of your accent.
My old mate from Land Rover now gone formulae was.
A true Brummie accent and all starts from the Bull Ring.
Moving North the change will gradually till say once you get to Walsall its completely gone.
Moving West as others have said its light in Selly Oak
Moving East Nico has given a true interpretation. Having worked in Coventry for years there is no Brummie there except me.
Clearly South by the time you leave Acocks Green in Solihull its virtually gone
Listening to conversation in Redditch there is a fair amount of Brummie from the huge movements of Brummies from
the clearances in the 50,s to Redditch New Town.
My Son works in Dundee and they are amazed up there with the Brummie.
Like here there are many dialects. Dundonian Scots is different to Glaswegian
and Edinburgh has another version. We aint alone

Mike Jenks
 
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