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Origins of the Brummie accent

  • Thread starter Thread starter Seabird
  • Start date Start date
Peg Monkey said:
Inner Circle 8 Route? Doesn't alter my status, but you may need to going into hiding - have you recalculated the epicentre?

Peg.
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I can emulate the Scarlet Pimpernel by the way, "they seek him here, they seek him there!"
Cannot contemplate about an epicentre. I stick by my earlier propositions. :D
 
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I think the essence of a Brummie accent maybe is its rhythm. Is it called 'cadence'? The further into the north of the region you go the stronger this seems to be. Closer to Walsall and around there. I was trying to explain to a friend in the USA what the accent actually sounds like (we were discussing Peaky Blinders at the time). I came up with Geoff Lynne and Ozzy Osbourne as examples. The trouble is that if you have an accent yourself everyone else who has the same one sounds normal!
 
Lady Penelope said:
I think the essence of a Brummie accent maybe is its rhythm. Is it called 'cadence'? The further into the north of the region you go the stronger this seems to be. Closer to Walsall and around there. I was trying to explain to a friend in the USA what the accent actually sounds like (we were discussing Peaky Blinders at the time). I came up with Geoff Lynne and Ozzy Osbourne as examples. The trouble is that if you have an accent yourself everyone else who has the same one sounds normal!
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My response to anyone who says You have have a strange accent is I haven't, you have.

Peg.
 
Not the origins but I always believed that Beryl Reid managed to mimic a Brummie accent exceptionally well. Of course for the native voice Jasper Carrot would be a good example and so were some of the cast of Crossroads especially Amy Turtle and the one who went on Juke Box Jury. I will leave it to the real Brummies to explain the sound about the five marks. :D
 
Radiorails said:
Not the origins but I always believed that Beryl Reid managed to mimic a Brummie accent exceptionally well. Of course for the native voice Jasper Carrot would be a good example and so were some of the cast of Crossroads especially Amy Turtle and the one who went on Juke Box Jury. I will leave it to the real Brummies to explain the sound about the five marks. :D
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Tut Tut, Alan! If I remember correctly the oill give it foive girl Janice, came from Wednesbury, so that makes her accent Black Country, I would advise extreme caution here, we've already been re-threaded once today.

Peg.
 
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Radiorails said:
I can emulate the Scarlet Pimpernel by the way, "they seek him here, they seek him there!"
Cannot contemplate about an epicentre. I stick by my earlier propositions. :D
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Epicentre has been re-vectored using GPS, which places it just south of the New Science Museum (Think Tank) - not sure I'm 100% happy - in my view not a patch on the old museum - will this help to regain your popularity? - Jury's out.

Peg.
 
I think if you were born in Birmingham and love it then you're a Brummie. As far as the accent is concerned I tend to do 'u's for 'o's so I say 'wunce' for once and 'bunfire' for bonfire. I hadn't realised this until quite recently when one of my son's friends pointed out that he said 'bunfire' which he obviously got from me.
 
Lady Penelope said:
I think if you were born in Birmingham and love it then you're a Brummie. As far as the accent is concerned I tend to do 'u's for 'o's so I say 'wunce' for once and 'bunfire' for bonfire. I hadn't realised this until quite recently when
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...................as in No. 8 buzz :D:D

aw! zorry me beauty, that was z's instaid of s's. Us een Debm be quite used to evin a z instaid of an s. ;) As een Zider.
 
Agree with Zs for Ss - also true brummie drops 'is Hs, slight diversion - I once worked with a guy born centre of Dudley and I heard part of one of his telephone conversations: youm rit to wee - see what I mean? - Black Country nothing like Brummie.

Also must consider Brummie sub-accents, have I got one in mind? How about Kingstanding? Epicentre: Kingstanding Island - you can almost tell the street a person was born in - Pygmalion? (Alan, I may need to join you in hiding).

Regards,
Peg.

P.S. With my accent can't imagine how on earth I got a CSE Grade 3 in English (my exam paper must have got mixed up with someone else).
 
ahh so like me you must have stayed on an extra year to take CSE exams peg...mind you i cant see why you think that having a brummie accent should deter you from passing your english exam..surely the brain cant distinguish between one accent and another:D ps grade 2 for me also in science and shorthand think 3 for typing...slumped to the bottom with geography simply because i had not the slightest interest in it...wanted to take history instead but that subject was not available:mad:

lyn
 
Astoness said:
ahh so like me you must have stayed on an extra year to take CSE exams peg...mind you i cant see why you think that having a brummie accent should deter you from passing your english exam..surely the brain cant distinguish between one accent and another:D ps grade 2 for me also in science and shorthand think 3 for typing...slumped to the bottom with geography simply because i had not the slightest interest in it...wanted to take history instead but that subject was not available:mad:

lyn
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Sorry (?!) to pull rank, Lyn - I was in the 5th year when you were barely in your 1st, the CSE English Exam included a oral test - nuff sed?

Peg.
 
Radiorails said:
...................as in No. 8 buzz :D:D

aw! zorry me beauty, that was z's instaid of s's. Us een Debm be quite used to evin a z instaid of an s. ;) As een Zider.
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praaper job boy us'll hear and zee .more dereckly m'dear. E's picked the speak up quick an praaper
Bob
 
Somewhat off topic but when I was in retail I had some books with the title "Krek Waiters Peak Bristle".
This translated meant correct way to speak Bristol(ian). It was written along with one or to other booklets by a newcomer to that city who was intrigues by their pronunciation. It was quite a humorous book.
 
I am reliably informed it is usually Bristle, but I guess as you get closer to Zummerzet it may change.
S's are quite often are pronounced as z's in the SW. :D
 
When I was at Stratford Rd Infant School c1945 we had a boy from Dudley join us. As far as accents were concerned he could have been from Mars but it didn't take long for him to start to talk proper like what the rest of us did.
As my parents were foreign, Dad from Buckinghamshire via Solihull and Mom from Elmdon Heath I was always being told " Don't talk common" which might explain something !
Cheers Tim.
Ps I've lived in Australia since 1961 but still get picked as a Pommy and some narrow it down to Brum , I wonder why our kid !
 
Except as the initial letter of a word has the letter 'T' now disappeared. We have always had 'wa'er' and 'bu'er' especially from Londoners but we now have new words like 'communi'ee' in place of community.

The wa'er in Ma-jor-ca goes mainly down the gu'er.
 
Strong feelings about accents are not confined to our hemisphere - I remember talking to a New Zealander who was most put out when I asked him what part of Australia he was from.

Peg.

P.S. I think my Brummie accent totally confused him.

P.P.S. Shouldn't Forum software be Brummie savvy by now? - it's not a spelin mistake.
 
DavidGrain said:
Except as the initial letter of a word has the letter 'T' now disappeared. We have always had 'wa'er' and 'bu'er' especially from Londoners but we now have new words like 'communi'ee' in place of community.

The wa'er in Ma-jor-ca goes mainly down the gu'er.
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The letter "g" at the end of a word ending in "ing" is also disappearin (sorry, disappearing). Examples are Votin, Nothin and Runnin instead of Voting, Nothing and Running. Agree that a middle "t" is often dropped. e.g. Hospi'al, le''er. Dave
 
The only thing that betrays my origin when I am on the phone is the hard G still obvious in any word where there is a G. Us duz try to give a foo words in the local dialeck, the best one being using drangway (a North devon word) for a passageway. Uz likes that boouy.(boy)
Bob
 
Bob, Not sure what you mean by a hard g. Take the word 'garage'. The first 'g' is hard because it is followed by an 'a', the second 'g' is soft because it is followed by an 'e', so do you say 'garrije' which is Brummie.
 
DavidGrain said:
Bob, Not sure what you mean by a hard g. Take the word 'garage'. The first 'g' is hard because it is followed by an 'a', the second 'g' is soft because it is followed by an 'e', so do you say 'garrije' which is Brummie.
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David
Yes I say garijje , but whenever I say a word ending in 'ing' on the phone it is 'inger' so 'going' sounds like goinger, hard to explain but all my West Country family like to replay my answer phone messages and then give me their best Jasper Carrot/Ossy Osbourne impressions.

Bob
 
what bob means, I believe David is that when 'g' occurs at the end of a word is is pronounced hard with some emphasis i.e. singing.
 
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