• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

They are at our Brummie accent again

lerryngal said:
I DO remember backslang.!
Click to expand...
I like it! Thank goodness my memory is still ok. One thing ref my earlier post, I didn't tell the Germans I had learnt German. Strange really because they dropped a bomb on our house in the War. I've mentioned that in the Blitz thread.
icon7.gif
 
Hi Alf, you dont sound the kind of fella who gets annoyed, I havent lived in Brum since 1957, but my daughter tells me "Dad youre still a Brummie
on the phone" which surprised me, I was in the army with a guy called
Jim Sewell who was from Spinnymoor Co; Durham and he spoke really
good clear English, he said they were noted for it!The people I have a
problem with are the Scots, when Setarnta did the football they had Craig
Burley(son of George) and I could never understand a word he said.
We speak the way we are tought, remember when Alf Ramsey won the
World Cup in 1966 he had lessons and everyone thought he was too posh
Bye then take care Bernard
 
oldMohawk said:
When we used to go to meetings in Germany, most of the Germans could speak English and listen in to our private discussions until we started talking in 'backslang'. Anyone else remember 'backslang', because I've just tried it and am now wondering whether my memory is letting me down.
Click to expand...
OM use to use backslang in market trade and very effective it was especially for insults lol thought it was just market KLAT lol
 
I used to be able to understand it because my grandfather and two uncles were butchers and they used it a lot. I have embarassed a few market lads in my teenage days by answering them!
 
I and my family left Brum when I was about 12 in 1954, and headed for the North Somerset/Bristol area. Thats 55yrs ago, and still the locals say 'your from Birmingham aren't you'. But when I visit my Brummy relations they start mimicking a Somerset accent, saying I sound like farmer giles. As kids we moved about all over north Birmingham--I think the old man had gypsie blood. We usually had no problems being understood--or understanding the new locals--except, when we lived in Smethwick for a while. Boy were we in trouble. Yo Dae, Yo core, Bostin, etc etc . Mind you, this helped a lot when we arrived in Bristol--or Bristle as they say. De cassent, cass? de bissent, biss? De muss be owt de ead, silly auld coo. Without doubt though, old Bristol is not heard quite nearly as much as when we arrived all thos years ago. We are all influenced by popular film and television. I heard a radio 4 programme many years ago--in which the subject was Britains officially recognised 162 regional dialects and accents---yes, thats right ! How on earth did so many develop in so small a country, Unbeleivable. I think it was the university of Keel that had the library of recordings of these people speaking in their local dialect, some going right back to the earliest recordings possible. They had just got tp hear of some village elders up near Chester I think it was--all in their 80s --90's who spoke a dialect known only to them, and the uni-team had raced up to record them for posterity before it was too late. Nobody else in the village could understand them.
 
Hello there, I may be a little bit off thread, but I had a newsletter from
the Hearing Dept the other day, article in there tells the story of a man who
could hardley hear anything, after they had fitted him with two new digital
hearing aids he hear almost perfectly, A month later he went back for a
check up and the lady who fitted them said to him"What do your family
think about the new aids then" and he "Oh I havent told them, I just sit
around and listen I have have changed my will three times already!
cheers Bernard
 
Bernard67arnold---Nice one ! My sister inlaws father was quite deaf, and usually had his hearing aid fitted, but when his wife, who talked loud anyway, was making demands on him as usual, he would pretend his batteries were low, or he had it switched off altogether. Bliss!
 
It's nice to see a bit of humour on this subject/thread. A large number of people are so uptight about their accent or local twang. If you hear a person of the opposite sex speak with a local accent, would it not be possible to fall in love or would the accent get in the way? My stepbrother married a Scotswoman 65 years ago and I still have a little difficulty with the occasional word when she is speaking. Could any of us refuse a friendship because of the local accent?
 
In my latest edition of the 'Black Country Bugle' I noticed an advert for printed 'T' shirts saying : ''Ar bay a Brummie!''
icon7.gif
 
Stitcher said:
It's nice to see a bit of humour on this subject/thread. A large number of people are so uptight about their accent or local twang. If you hear a person of the opposite sex speak with a local accent, would it not be possible to fall in love or would the accent get in the way? My stepbrother married a Scotswoman 65 years ago and I still have a little difficulty with the occasional word when she is speaking. Could any of us refuse a friendship because of the local accent?
Click to expand...




Only if they're flippin' Cockneys Stitcher. I can't take to Londoners.
 
Stitcher said:
It's nice to see a bit of humour on this subject/thread. A large number of people are so uptight about their accent or local twang. If you hear a person of the opposite sex speak with a local accent, would it not be possible to fall in love or would the accent get in the way? My stepbrother married a Scotswoman 65 years ago and I still have a little difficulty with the occasional word when she is speaking. Could any of us refuse a friendship because of the local accent?
Click to expand...


An exact case in point: many years ago I found I couldn't continue a relationship with a really lovely girl because of her pronounced 'scouse' accent.....it did more than 'do-my-head-in' - I began to have 'panic attacks' after an hour of her company! I'm quite serious, I used to break-out in sweats and feel dizzy...not unlike the symptoms of claustrophobia (sp?). Prior to that I'd had a 'scouse' room-mate at college. He was a great bloke, but after the first couple of days I found myself imagining his death! By week three I'd got a single room, and he lived!
 
I love accents and it makes me concentrate more on what is being said. I love all accents. My aunt is quite strong Black Country and because she has been so kind to me since childhood I get a lovely warm feeling when I hear the accent. I also loved my Dad's friend Uncle Eric he was a Londoner and such fun. I suppose it could work the opposite way though by association! It's the person that counts not the accent!
 
Wendy said:
I love accents and it makes me concentrate more on what is being said. I love all accents. My aunt is quite strong Black Country and because she has been so kind to me since childhood I get a lovely warm feeling when I hear the accent. I also loved my Dad's friend Uncle Eric he was a Londoner and such fun. I suppose it could work the opposite way though by association! It's the person that counts not the accent!
Click to expand...


Alas, the ''person that counts'' seldom gets a look-in; we are all of us the products of a complex chain, matrix, of past experience/genes/environment/whatevers...some of us love the colour 'red' whereas others might loathe it. I can't abide the colour purple, but I have no idea as to why that should be; I just don't want to be anywhere near it. I know that there is nothing intrinsically 'evil' in that colour, but it still doesn't matter, I can't live with it! Whether we like it or not, we perceive accents in much the same way; and, perhaps with greater reason, as we are essentially 'tribal' in nature. It's a fascinating subject.
 
Ealier on this thread I posted that I travelled all over England Scotland and Wales during my working life, and I have heard all the different dialects and accents. I have never heard one that I could say "I didn't like". I had no trouble at all in The Gorbals area of Glasgow or the East End of London when speaking to people about my deliveries or in the pub on the evenings. I enjoyed nights out in Liverpool and the West Country, as I did in N. and S. Wales. It has always been peoples attitudes and mannerisms that caused me to like or dislike them. That said, I will repeat that I think the news and such like in Scotland, should be read out by a Scot. In Wales by a Welsh person and in England by an English person. Of course I would welcome anyone who speaks English as good as Trevor McDonald.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top