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birmingham accent,good or bad

i cant be sure nick...but i am going on the times i have met carl and been in his company and each time i have always thought of him as kind genuine person who would give the time of day to anyone... in fairness we are all entitled to our opinons and thats just mine...will leave it at that now as this is going off topic...

lyn
 
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The Brummie accent is great,the people who annoy me are those who when they imitate the accent(mostly on TV) think to be a brummie is not only to have an accent but to be unable to use proper grammar.Not all Brummies drop their aitches and say things like 'we was going'
As for Professor Chinn,like a lot of other proud brummies in the public eye he often plays to the crowd and why not.
I was in a theatre foyer a few years ago and he was next to my shoulder talking to the friends he was with and believe me his accent was not as thick as it is when he is talking about 'things Brummy', on TV or radio.
 
Astoness said:
i cant be sure nick...but i am going on the times i have met carl and been in his company and each time i have always thought of him as kind genuine person who would give the time of day to anyone... in fairness we are all entitled to our opinons and thats just mine...will leave it at that now as this is going off topic...

lyn
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Lyn as you know I also know Carl and totally agree with what you have said. He does a lot for people which never reaches the papers or T.V. I know people he has helped and I include myself in that. A family member of mine has been quite poorly recently and as he knew her from his early years researching at the Library. He sent an email and asked me how she was. I was quite stunned he even remembered her. I saw him at the Alex once and well remember a group of people who's taxi hadn't turned up. Carl offered to take them home. He is a very genuine and kind man.
 
how kind of carl wend..but im not surprised one little bit...i could write a whole lot more of the good deeds and free time he has given up for other folk that i know of for a fact.... not to mention that without his kind permission i would not have been able to post the many hundreds of photos that i have on the forum for other members to see... but i guess as long as we know the man he is thats all that really matters...

cheers

lyn
 
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There's nothing wrong with the Brummie accent or for that matter with any accent or dialect. Here in Flanders virtually every city, town or village has its own dialect, it's fantastic and I love it. Varity is still the spice of life and that goes for our verbal communication too. When I speak to people they say that even after 45 years in Belgium they can still hear that I'm a Brummie. I'm proud of it and only wish that my Brummie was as good as my Flemish!

I've never met Carl but he did do me proud in his magazine and only this month he sent me an email congratulating me on being inducted into British Cycling's 'Hall of Fame'.

Graham.
 
Having been brought up in a family where the following languages/dialects were spoken, Spanish, Welsh, Black Country, Potteries (Staffordshire).

I always thought I did not have an accent till I came to NZ and it got picked up - as I was doing some broadcasting I was sent for lessons to loose it - they could not break it - my late husband used to go at me as I always said "garidge" for garage amongst other things, he was in broadcasting in the "BBC speak days". Even now after 40 years away from Brum people still pick up on my "accent" though when I go to Brum they ask if I am from OZ now that IS an insult!!!

Dyan
 
As someone born and bred great barr, lived in Warwickshire, Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire and Lancashire, I thought I had lost my accent. No chance and I don't like it but toolate to get rid. BUT what I hate more is media speak. You know the sort of people who are employed by BBC local stations who seem to have been on a special elocution course who say "Lurk" for "Look""Burk" for "Book", "bate" for "Boat", and "wever" for "Weather". Don't know Carl but what a passionate ambassador for the City. However he must have to work really hard at the accent cos with his education it is natural that an accent gets flattenned. he also uses expressions that died out years ago, which he is determined to preserve. good luck to him.
 
Accents are funny things aren't they i was born in Birmingham,my parents,and aunts uncles were Irish,and i remember when i was a child
in the house i always spoke with an Irish accent, as soon as my foot was over the step like magic brummy,never a deliberate
action just a completely natural thing,and that has never really changed, although i have noticed or rather people have pointed
out to me in recent years i simply change from one accent to another,which sometimes sounds very funny,
 
lencops said:
What difference does it make what accent a person has?, every person should be shown respect no matter what creed, colour or race. Len.
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This is a comment i posted before on this thread i see no reason to change it. Len.
 
Hi, Fellow Brummies,

A few years ago, my son took me on a "safari" of the Middle-West (cowboy land !) of America as a retiremernt present...

We lived mainly off the back of an American equivalent of a Land Rover, getting our provisions from supermarkets in the various towns we went through.

In one supermarket we picked up our provisions and went along to the checkout to pay up. As we made one or two comments to the girl on the cash till, she grinned and said: "Gee ! Love your accent..." !

I think this is enough "evidence" about the Brummie accent, don't you...?

Cheers,

Jim Pedley (pedlarman)
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Hi, Fellow Brummies,

A few years ago, my son took me on a "safari" of the Middle-West (cowboyland !) of America as a retiremernt present...

We lived mainly off the back of an American equivalent of a Land Rover, getting our provisions from supermarkets in the various towns we went through.

In one supermarket we picked up our provisions and went along to the checkout to pay up. As we made one or two comments to the girl on the cash till, she smiled and said: "Gee. Love your accent..." !

I think this is enough "evidence" about the Brummie accent, don't you...?

Cheers,

Jim Pedley (pedlarman)
icon12.gif
 
The Americans don't appear to have a problem with our accent - take Cat Deeley for example. They took her to their own when she did that "Do you think you can dance?" program over there. Maybe because they're so convinced we all sound like "Landeners" or "Corknays"
 
Oh the Americans love the English accent whichever part of England your from,my son has spent time in America and always gets a lot of attention and compliments on his accent,i don't think they notice any difference in regions, to them its just English
 
s;284513]both the quote and the comment on post 57 totally uncalled for...especially as neither member knows carl chinn personally....

lyn[/QUOTE]


Really? Everyone here seems to express their opinions quite freely within the general guidelines. And as far as your latter comment, how can you be so sure???
 
i have lived in a few parts of the country, and never experienced with all honesty anyone say that the brummie talk is other than nice,i lived in berwick upon tweed,gateshead, scotland, glaucester, tamworth, now wales for thirty three years and all is good and , i still have me brummie talk an proud .
 
Hiya, Folks,

I don't know how I managed to get my post in twice, yesterday. Didn't mean to be emphatic, or anything. Slip of the keyboard or something I expect...

Cheers,

Jim Pedley (pedlarman)
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I do not suppose for one minute that anyone who says our accent is bad, could explain what they mean. The only thing it can be put down to is the dislike of it by some people, but the fact that they do not like it does not make it bad. Each area has had its own accent/dialect for many generations and although they have all changed a little over the years some words and the pronunctiation of others are still unique to certain areas. I may not be fond of how people from another area speak, but it is not correct for me to say it is bad.
My greatest dislike is the fact that too many school children are allowed at school and at home to drop the T. and the H. The ER has become AR so someone now has a MUVAR a FARVAR a SISTAR and a BRUVAR.
 
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The problem is that this petty hatred is taught. Many are learning to hate it before they even experience it. Just put it down to the snobbery of places like London who like to shout their mouths off because they are the capital.
 
hi all
my accent is part of who I am, my heritage so to speak, one thing I loved about britain was its diversity and what made us great as a nation my sister maralyn lived in Italy for some 20yrs and still has a great midland accent I do not know who these people are that knock one accent over another but it seems silly to me.
paul
 
Stitcher said:
I do not suppose for one minute that anyone who says our accent is bad, could explain what they mean. The only thing it can be put down to is the dislike of it by some people, but the fact that they do not like it does not make it bad. Each area has had its own accent/dialect for many generations and although they have all changed a little over the years some words and the pronunctiation of others are still unique to certain areas. I may not be fond of how people from another area speak, but it is not correct for me to say it is bad.
My greatest dislike is the fact that too many school children are allowed at school and at home to drop the T. and the H. The ER has become AR so someone now has a MUVAR a FARVAR a SISTAR and a BRUVAR.
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Stitcher: I totally agree with everything you say in the quote. And I was discussing with the wife, only yesterday, the TH and the AR business... The sad thing is: it's not only our schoolchildren who are now speaking like it - it's adults, as well...!

Another thought: schoolkids are, these days, allowed to take in calculators during maths exams. How long before the "shorthand" of mobile-phone text is allowed on the curriculum?

Cheers,

Jim pedley (pedlarman)
 
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I also agree with what you say Stitcher. My sister in law works at the DHSS and one of her biggest problems is trying to understand what is written as applicants are using text talk in LETTERS!!
 
Hello Pedlarman, a few months ago there was a thread about then and now and this is the sort of thing I was referring to when I said communities and social life was better years ago than it is now. So many members disagreed with me. The recent transformation in schoolage and youth mannerisms and communication skills is not the natural change that we know will always take place. Children in school are allowed to say NUFINK instead of FREE, and they use FREE in place of THREE. This is not unique to this city though because it is happening nationwide.
 
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I agree with the concerns about the way some people speak nowadays. Having an accent is nothing to do with speaking correctly, they are not the same thing, though some seem to think they are. We see the laziness with speech more and more often, & I think it is laziness, or not caring. When I was a youngster, if I didn't speak properly my mother would immediately tell me off - usually with a clout round the ear just to make the point!

It's a bit worrying, because soon we won't be able to communicate with different generations.
Even on this site in some posts people use textspeak for their basic posts & I sometimes find it very difficult to understand what they are saying (not being a text user). The add-ons are not too bad; I can usually guess what's meant, though it took me ages to work out what LOL meant.

ps Now there's a thought - perhaps somebody who knows could start a thread giving us the definitions of what all the 'text' abbreviations mean - I bet lots of us would find that useful !
 
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