Accent

Two words immediately spring to mind although one is a little archaic:

- point : when asking for beer

- carbolic : the pronunciation of which would identify a Brummie in any crowd.

My dad says pieson for poison, ties for toys, tielut for toilet, and byes for boys.

And a bus is a buzz.

“All roight!” seems to be the universal West Midlands greeting….

As a southerner working in Brum I have millions of these…”Cluck” for clock…as in “Noine O’Cluck” is nine o’clock…

Mayonaisse is a favorite of moine. Try asking for it abroad and see what they make on it.

I have a pal named Jason who met some Americans whilst on holiday. They asked what his name was and then told him “Gee, that’s a name I never heard before, Jaaaaaysun

it’s strange (or possibly not, depending upon where HIS Dad comes from) for Brad to identify the pronunciation of toilet as “tielut”. My family came from Aston and Great Barr so I always remember it as “toy-lit”.

I like getting geordies to say ‘kit-kat chunkie’ or ‘kawazaki ninja’, but my Walsall/Birmingham hybrid accent gets a few odd looks too.

Can’t think of any exmples off the top of me head, but if I did i’d just avoid saying them for a bit.

Watchaam’ duin? (what are you doing) ay’it (isn’t it just.) and aar (yes, I agree with what you are saying) are ones i’m very guilty of. :)

I lived in Brum for three years and there’s two words I can’t say any other way but Brummy. These are ‘ridiculous’ and ‘brilliant’. Real emphasis on the middle of the word. Love it.

Living in Scotland, I struggle understanding anybody, but there’s nothing quite so satisfying as lapsing into “the Mother Tongue” to really get some confused looks!!

One phrase I love (and have now gotten my Scottish wife to pronouce perfectly) is “GOO AN BUGGER OFF!!” Just doesn’t work in any other accent.

Well, people who live in up north find our accent hard to understand.I was speaking to somebody from newcastle the other day.

She asked me how do we say “I” so i said it. .
She thought i said “Oi”

Then she told me to say “Oi” so i said it and she said it sounds like im sayin “I”

Its hard to explain unless you realise how different people say things.
Quite funny tho :)

I used to say, “Oooh Arrh” meaning “Oh yes” back in the 70s. An Australian came to visit and when I said that he said that I sounded like a donkey!

“Yow littul varmint” was quite a popular saying around Birmingham (see the books by the Brummie Kathleen Dayus for this)

I always say “a piece” (or “piecey” by some) for a slice of bread.

There is a very good book about the way Birmingham (Brummie) people speak by Dr Carl Chinn who is a leading Historian and has shows on West Midlands radio.
Its called Proper Brummie and is a dictionary of words and phrases.

When we went to live in Cornwall, in the 50s, my school head mistress wanted me to join an Elocution class somewhere as they couldn’t understand me and I couldn’t understand them either. I refused.

I am a Proper Brummie and proud of it!

The traditional brummie greeting of “oi-right mayt?”
The word “factory” (”fakteroi”) accentuates a Brummie accent as well, all the better considering WE invented them… ;-)

I am a Brummie and it always makes me laugh when I hear people talking and saying ” I ent got non” as in “I have not got any” even as a Brummie I still find that very amusing

KRO.

i was in the uk for a few years for studies. believe me i preferred this accent. i didn’t like the cockney one. i still sometimes use this brummie accent with my students.

Brummies sound like farmers.. But i love the accent :) even thought it doesnt beat a true manchester accent