It gets mocked, but its a glimpse into the past…

http://hubpages.com/education/The-Black-Country-Last-Haven-of-the-Mercian-Tongue

Also related http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-34832781

Err the black country accent is very different to the Brummie accent!!

Common mistake by an outsider. 😉

You all sound the same to the rest of us

You?

You?

Yow

You?

I think he meant to say “Yaouw” 🙂

[edit]
Beaten to it. With those speedy translation skills you should be working for the UN

I have family from the Black Country and they sound totally different to the city brummies

Sling yer ook lads! 😉

Common mistake by an outsider.

Not one they’d need to make for us to spot um though. Can smell um cor we.

I’ve seen the burial sites where those that called a yam yam a Brummie & vice versa ended up

Yow do know much about accents dun ya

That reminds me of the best joke ever said in a Brummie accent..
What’s the difference between a buffalo and a Bison?
You can’t wash yer hands in a buffalo…

IGMC. 😉

I’ve seen the burial sites where those that called a yam yam a Brummie & vice versa ended up

😆

The M5 is like a modern day version of Hadrian’s Wall. There may be very few miles between them, but confuse them at your peril!

[video]https://youtu.be/vrIqSlt9PXg[/video]

Totally different accents, I can understand Brummie but Black Country is in a different league

You all sound the same to the rest of us

A cor stondeht! Amya saft?

Avalissen why dowya?:

Brummies am slow an sing-song en theh? Butchowkonunderstondem corya?

Naew …. yowovalissen to our aunteh illery frum Colley Gate – ‘er aewun kids dow naew worrez sayin! Erz like a glade under a dowah. Er spakes quickan’er diaerlekt is bostin.

Funny growing up in the Black Country, the rate of diction and depth of dialect often changed from town to town, sometimes (perceptibly) from street to street.

Brierley Bonk, ferinstance:
[video]http://youtu.be/HmYTWlvXuoM[/video]

Modern accents are very different to those of 100 years ago, before TV, radio and mass-travel diluted them.

A German academic recorded British prisoners of war and colonial troops held in captivity on German soil between 1915 and 1918.
The recordings are here and make fascinating listening:
http://sounds.bl.uk/Accents-and-dialects/Berliner-Lautarchiv-British-and-Commonwealth-recordings

Burn it. Let the fires of purity devour it and it’s ashes poured off the edge of the world

IMHO

Fastest way to tell a brummie from a black country accent is when you say laugh. Brummies say larf. Black country say laff

As a certified Yam Yam it always make me smile that so many accents and pronunciations differ in such a relatively small area. I am based around Darlaston and Wednesbury yet struggle to tune my ear to the Gornal accent, very often it sounds almost German to me.
The Walsall insistence on putting a “U” in words with “OO” in is also very distinctive, School becomes Skewul and Food becomes Fewud.

Thames estuary for all when I am President. Enough of these ninny nonks

Thames estuary for all when I am President. Enough of these ninny nonks

Do you mean the Thames Estuary accent? or are you advocating the reintroduction of ducking stools?

Get in the **** estuary!

I spent the first nine years of my life in Rubery at a time when many of the people worked in Longbridge. I reckon having an “English accent” is less of a handicap in any mainland European country than having a Brummy/Black Country accent in England outside the Midlands conurbation.

first nine years of my life in Rubery

waseley side or beacon side?

ot one they’d need to make for us to spot um though. Can smell um cor we.

. This.

Brummie accent to me is warm and friendly. It says I am home.

Yow do day know much about accents dun ya

FTFY

34 Grange Crescent, so Waseley side. Gannow School.

R.
My Dad could have entire conversations with different pronounciations of that letter.

As a certified Yam Yam it always make me smile that so many accents and pronunciations differ in such a relatively small area

this used to freak me out when I was growing up in Cheshire – you have Runcorn scouse, then proper Liverpool scouse, then Manc and then general Northwestern – all quite different accents but within 30 miles of each other. I’ve no idea where the dividing line is on the map between Liverpool and Manchester but it’s got to be there somewhere given the massive difference in language.

Then again, you go into the Lake District and it takes a few minutes (a couple of hundred yards walk) to go from Near Sawrey to Far Sawrey 🙂

Carry on a bit further North from the proper black county, Cannock Chase is the dividing line from Yam Yam to oatcakes book me dook.

My Dad could have entire conversations with different pronounciations of that letter.

I know exactly what you mean. A couple of late old boys I used to be the same. Great blokes the pair of them.

An interesting article for those interested in what areas are commonly considered Black Country.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blackcountry/content/articles/2005/03/15/where_is_the_black_country_feature.shtml

kimbers – Member

It gets mocked, but its a glimpse into the past…

And you think the fact that the Anglo-Saxons apparently sounded like Lenny Henry when they spoke isn’t worthy of mocking?

I think it’s hilarious!

I suspect the Normans were in fits of laughter every time they heard the locals speak.

this used to freak me out when I was growing up in Cheshire – you have Runcorn scouse, then proper Liverpool scouse, then Manc and then general Northwestern – all quite different accents but within 30 miles of each other. I’ve no idea where the dividing line is on the map between Liverpool and Manchester but it’s got to be there somewhere given the massive difference in language.

The reason you get such a variety is because both Liverpool and Manchester had big influxes of populations – Liverpool from Ireland and Manchester sucked in lots of rural lancashire and yorkshire populations during the industrial revolution (and Manchester also effectively became a port because of the Ship Canal). So both those accents have been altered by incomers. St Helens and Wigan in the middle have never had the same influx so they are seemingly very different to both Liverpool and Manchester rather than a blend of both, but are really what everyone round there used to sound like.

What’s the difference between a buffalo and a Bison?

That’s excellent. My neighbour is a brummie, his wife is South African (and our dentist) – what a melange of accents their kids must have 🙂

general Northwestern

Objection!

I reckon it’s all to do with where you’re from. It’s a lot easier to tell local accents apart when you hear them regularly; the further from home you go, the less granular you get. We can tell Lower Postlethwaite from those bastards in Upper Postlethwaite but would dismiss our neighbouring countries’ accents as Welsh or Scottish and lump great swathes of entire continents together as American / Indian / Australian.

I was born in Dudley, lived around Brierley Bonk and Stowerbridge most my life and I can’t understand broad Black cuntray fowk. My partner at work is a proper old school Dudley lad, can’t understand a word he says. Truth be told I hate the sound of both brummie and Black Country accents (though not as much as I hate scouse!)

There are so many varieties of Black Country though, Dudley is totally different from Wolverhampton fer instance

Lovely video posted on previous page, a few of those pubs still stand

this used to freak me out when I was growing up in Cheshire – you have Runcorn scouse, then proper Liverpool scouse, then Manc and then general Northwestern – all quite different accents but within 30 miles of each other. I’ve no idea where the dividing line is on the map between Liverpool and Manchester but it’s got to be there somewhere given the massive difference in language.

30 miles?

People in the Black Country can barely understand what someone from 5 miles away is saying! From Stourbridge to Kingswinford is a notable change, by the time you’ve got to Gornal it’s practically indecipherable. Then a short hop up the road to Wolverhampton and the language is totally different again!

People from West Brom though… It’s less speaking, more like Machine Gun fire of various random incomprehensible words and letters! I was doing a lot of work with some people off the shop floor in a factory in West Brom a few years ago, the only people I could genuinely understand were those of Asian origin as their accents were nowhere near as harsh!

I’m from Worcester FWIW, and to go north of Stourbridge I’d say a translator is required at least until you get the other side of Wolverhampton…

34 Grange Crescent, so Waseley side. Gannow School.

Waseley road here 1975-83

I’m from Worcester FWIW,

Swede eater then 🙂