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They are at our Brummie accent again

Alf

Alf

Gone but not forgotten. R.I.P.
Latest survey Brummie accent is least liked.
Adrian Chiles says it has helped him and he's proved it.
 
Alf, I wonder if these Brum accent knockers ever listen to there own voices, people who live in glass houses should`nt throw stones!, i just ignore these surveys. Len.
 
I do Len especially when they say are you from Liverpool or Manchester
 
Alf said:
Latest survey Brummie accent is least liked.
Adrian Chiles says it has helped him and he's proved it.
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Alf, let em get on with it! I'm proud to have been born a Brummie and sometimes my Brummie accent still peeps through my Flemish.
 
Mine comes on strong when I'm annoyed Cadeau, the family always tell me.
 
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These people are getting huge amounts of money presumably, for repeating what we have already had to swallow many times by now. Wish they'd just get over it!
 
Cheer up its not that bad

[ame="https://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=o8DLVY_KQLE&NR=1"]YouTube - Birmingham Rhapsody[/ame]
 
I left Brum a few years back and always get told my accent isnt obvious. However when you listen to what they think Brummies sound like they are so far off the mark its scary.

Wife says she notices it on odd words.
 
Can we get one thing straight - Brummies do not have an accent! It is all those others that speak funny.
 
I recall colleagues of a friend being stopped back in the 1960's by a TV crew who asked if they thought the Brummie accent held them back. The TV crew were most disappointed when they heard a normal(?) Brum accent as it was not the distorted version depicted upon Radio and TV in those days.
 
Hi,
When I was in North Carolina USA, some people thought I was an Aussie. I used to tell them I was from Iceland. They often said they just loved the accent anyway.
 
Attitudes are important not local accents. The attitude of Birmingham people is second to non. To consantly gripe about someones local accent shows what an attitude these sad people have. Do not moan about how we speak, praise us for the way we treat visitors to our great city.
 
Wendy, they annoy me because any local accent can grate on anyones nerves, but that is not a valid reason to castigate a regions population. Is castigate the right word. I have driven a lorry,coach or taxi through every city, town and many villages over 50 years and I had great difficulty understanding what some people were saying but I would never make a point about it.
 
I've lived outside the UK for 31 years and I have still have a Birmingham accent. As I'm a volunteer tour guide on a special farm I constantly have people either ask where I'm from or comment on my accent. This week I was talking about the cows and I said Herefordshire and one of the staff didn't know what I was saying as the second e is silent here making it Herford. When they say "oh it is your accent" I usually say you have an accent too. But a lot of people don't realise that if they haven't been outside the country.
Oh well I don't think mine is going anywhere after so many years. Strange thing is when I come to the UK they can here the Canadian accent, which amazes me. I think it is just the different pronunciation Mo
 
Mo l know what your talking about..l arrived in Texas 50 yrs ago this year (where has the time gone) l was called German French and Australian, the Aussie bit l did,nt mind but then some brilliant person accussed me of being cajun...that l took as an insult...how anyone could confuse a Brummie for a cajun is beyond me..still as years rolled on l'm still asked "where do you come from" ....my oldest boy Karl had a brummie accent when he started school but of course he lost it...many times my children were asked why does your mom talk funny....instead of saying oh my mom has an accent ..their reply would be" my mom always talks funny"...dont think l've ever heard a brummie accent called funny...Brenda
 
....my oldest boy Karl had a brummie accent when he started school but of course he lost it..
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Brenda - Our son was 5 when we arrived so he was like your son, even the crossing guard would ask him questons just to hear his accent. His kindergarten teacher didn't understand why he wouldn't speak up in class but children can be mean. But then so can adults and on the very odd occassion I'm still on the recieving egde. Mosy people are very nice and say they like it. Our daughter was only 2 so she never had an accent.
We have a lot of Brits in our town so it isn't unusal to hear many accents. Mo
 
Adrian Chiles has a nice, soft, sing-song accent, more than can be said for the bird who sits next to him on The One Show, the one with a gob from ear to ear who rattles on incomprehensibly in a Belfast accent - I can't understand a word she says, to be honest.

Which brings me to ask: why on earth is the BBC in England and Wales so keen on promoting broadcasters from Northern Ireland? When I was in Belfast not so long ago, none of the TV presenters there had anything other than a local accent.

I am not a prejudiced man, but...

Big Gee
 
Big Gee my husband says the same about the woman with the permanent grin from ear to ear. I do like Adrian because he does a lot of fund raising and one of his causes is my autistic sons school Sunfield in Clent. I cannot stand people who play the part of a Brummie and sound nothing like a Birmingham born guy or gal. Jean.
 
I love the one show and think Adrian and Christine have made it what it is, they have a great team too, love the guy in the turban and as for Giles and John I think they are wonderful, cant remember some of the names but the nature guy and the female doctor are a pleasure to watch!
I have not watched TV for ages as there is not a lot I like but the one show is the exception together with wossy who I watch on Fridays!
 
Maureen I have heard your accent and to me you sound typically English - had I not known I would never have guessed where you were from Brum - probably that goes for me too. Here where I live I am taken for English - Even Stuart my husband a Scot is often taken for Engl;ish -
What on earth does it matter anyhow - people are people. Like Trevor says it's attitude that counts and what kidnd of person you are that makes a different in this world not what kind of dialect or accent one may have. . . .
 
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Like Keith says it's attitude that counts and what kidnd of person you are that makes a different in this world not what kind of dialect or accent one may have. . . .
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Beryl - I think we would all agree with you but as much as we would like everyone to feel that way they don't. You certainly don't have a Birmingham accent but you have lived most of your life here. I think you came at a much younger age than me, in that case people do loose what ever accent they might have. Mo
 
My husband and I are also Brummies living in Ontario. I lived in Weoley Castle and my hubby in Frankley Beeches growing up. My husband has a broad Brummie accent and as mentioned in previous posts has been mistaken for Aussie or South African. The funniest thing I ever heard was when he told me that someone at work had asked a Glaswegian to interpret what my husband said to them. Now Glaswegian is one very difficult dialect to understand. Most people do not pick up on my Brummie accent, I have definitely not chosen to loose it, quite the contrary, I am very proud of where I come from. I think it just softened as I have always been in customer service types of positions. I really get back into the sing song of Brummie when I come home.

I think that anyone that takes ones accent as a sign of ones intelligence is certainly not intelligent themselves. I love the variety of accents in England and have never really thought of judging someones intelligence based on their accent. We can only feel sorry for anyone who thinks that way!
 
I Have been told many times I have the worst accent in the world, people from essex and lots of people down here in Brighton.
BBC toffee-nosed ....s who speak with a plum in their gob are partly to blame, and any one else who thinks that they have the god given right to judge a person by the way they speak-MAKES MY BLOOD BOIL.
 
Hi All !
I have suffered all my life from the snobbery of other people over the Brummie accent . The first few years I just got on with things and ignored them but recently I am very angry about it .
I live inYorkshire and teach in a Grammer School , so I am not exactly stupid .
I teach and play all string instruments as well as flamenco guitar and I also play 5 other instruments reasonably well including piano .
That thank god is my answer to being put down . Yes I do get put down on a regular basis by certain members of staff :) One in particular has a broad Yorkshire accent and I have more talent in my little finger than she's got in the whole of her body grrrr. But she manages to get her little crowd in the staff room to laugh at me when I talk . And yes I am old enough and wise enough to recognise the difference between laughing at and laughing with .
I do put a brave face on it .. but after 10 years of this its driving me mad . But inside I know I can make the violin talk with a clear sweet voice and they cant :)
I also am an artist and speak spanish really well .. knowledgable in most subjects .
My mum keeps telling me that I have got where I am through sheer hard work and to be proud .. but some times its very hard when you get put down so regular .
There .. sorry to have a bitch but I feel in this thread I wanted to say something about the hurt this causes too .
Jean :) God bless you all .
xxx
 
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