Author Topic: the brummi accent  (Read 7675 times)

kadoodey

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 26
Re: the brummi accent
« Reply #11 on: September 19, 2006, 10:49:32 PM »
i left brum twenty or so years ago,and not hearing the accent often i could always pick out a brummie straight away.
people say to me they love my accent!!i hate it,and hard as i try to get  rid of it,it it still there,not as prominant,but it's there.funny though how some people have a real broad  brummy accent,others it is softer?

Graham

  • Guest
Re: the brummi accent
« Reply #12 on: September 20, 2006, 10:33:21 PM »
As a kid in the 50's & 60's I too was ashamed of speaking like a Brummie, or in any accent for that matter, but these days no one should be ashamed of their accent. On the contrary you should be proud of any accent that you speak.

When I first moved to Flanders in the late 60's people here all used dialect, it was so (bad?) that every village and town had it's own dialect. In some parts dialects varied from street to street, or even in the same street! This was, in those days, because most Flemish people didn't move about anymore than was needed, a lot of them still don't. For most of them going to another town or city was just not on, why should they? That was their way of thinking. I can imagine that life in England some 100 years or more ago was the same way.

After my first heart op last year, I came in touch with a 70 year old Flemish farmer that was also in for a heart operation. Through moving around all over Flanders to ride bike races I have become quite an expert in dialects, but this farmer used a dialect that I had never heard before. After a few days I began to understand what he was saying, my skill was so great that the nurses asked me to translate between them and him every time they came to nurse him! The farmer told me that in all his life he had never been further than outskirts of his farm, his visit to the hospital was the first time in 70 years that he had been out of the farm gate. Then and only then did I discover how dialects and accents come about. People in a community, be it large or very small, as in this farmers case, develop their own language or dialect. It is for them enough that they understand each other, no need to understand other people as they never travel out of their area. I am no professional but I can pinpoint where someone is from in Flanders.

Luckily we don't have class barriers in Flanders so no one trys to talk posh all the time, as you still get a lot of in England. I always say "if you're not born to the manor, why try and pretend you're something you're not?" That is down right snobbery.

There were attempts to level out the language here in Flanders, but luckily that died a death and now the dialects are being recorded to save them for future generations.

This is getting a bit long so I'll stop here, I have more to say about Brummies and I'll do that soon.

Graham.

kadoodey

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 26
Re: the brummi accent
« Reply #13 on: September 20, 2006, 10:50:45 PM »
hi graham
that sounds  very interesting indeed! you may well be right about that.when i lived in somerset,there i met people who had never been out of thier village,and they had a broad accent that i could hardly understand.
same here in spain,at the olf farmhouse,one lady said she had only ever been to the local town and no where else,nor did she want to!her spanish is different to the locals too, so maybe there is something in it eh?
years ago ,knowone was allowed on tv with any kind of accent,in the early days of tv one had to speak the queens english,today,it is everyone with an accent on there.
i must admit i do like all the different accents.
i do think you will talk like the people around you after a while,just look at all the,asians,africans,indians living in brum now with brummy accents !!

Graham

  • Guest
Re: the brummi accent
« Reply #14 on: September 20, 2006, 11:02:15 PM »
Kadoodey, you are very right in everything you say about the Brummies, they all look so miserable. Not only that, they all seem to be looking for a fight! I find that they are also very rude, the BBC confirmed this earlier this year saying, on the news, that "Brummies are the rudest people in the UK" more like in the world if you ask me. Try writing to a Brummie, that lives in Brum, & expect an answer. It's like trying to get blood out of a stone! Just dam rude.

Even my own family in Brum have trouble answering me.

I left Brum and the UK in the 60's, the best thing that I have ever done with my life.

Graham.

Graham

  • Guest
Re: the brummi accent
« Reply #15 on: September 20, 2006, 11:10:34 PM »
I have great fun here in Flanders. I speak perfect Flemish and love it when the people try and pin-point which part of Flanders that I'm from. You should see their faces when I tell them that I'm from Birmingham.  ;D

Graham.

kadoodey

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 26
Re: the brummi accent
« Reply #16 on: September 20, 2006, 11:19:09 PM »
hi gra
i bet!  i was thinking last night how nice birmingham was in the 50's,i remember as a child going to rowheath park in bournville, how we took our parents back down memory lane,visited all these places,only to find the boating lake had shopping trolleys in the water.graffiti everywhere,it was so sad to see.in those days too you had the park keeper looking after the place,and the kids of those days had respect for him.
what has gone wrong with the place now gra?there is just no respect out there anymore,i tell you,i would hate to be young now in this world!
i too got out of brum,and never regretted it,i would never feel safe living there now.
kadoodey

Graham

  • Guest
Re: the brummi accent
« Reply #17 on: September 21, 2006, 07:15:51 PM »
Kadoodey, unfortunately we can't turn the clock back in time, I for one wouldn't want to even if we could. The world as we knew it is slowly eroding away. In 1967 I was world cycling champ and even then, at a young age, I said "I have reached my pinnacle of my life, but so has mankind, it's all downhill from now on".

I was one of the first fans in Britain to follow Bob Dylan in the early 60's and he came from the states, where the rot had already set in. He was singing then "The times they are a changin'" and one line goes "the line it is drawn and the curse it is cast, the slow one now will later be last, as the present now will later be past". He had seen the writing on the wall and that is what you have seen in that, once so beautiful, park.

The way of life that you witnessed on your recent visit to Rowheath Park, is slow and unstopable, creeping all over Europe. Yes very sad for the youth of today but, lucky for them, they are being born into it and don't know any different. Life here in Belgium seems to be 10 years behind England, some people would call Belgium backward, but that's what I love about the place, but in time Rowheath Park will spread out to here. I hope that I don't live to see that day. I would rather be called backward that have to live in Brum or England again.

Graham.

kadoodey

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 26
Re: the brummi accent
« Reply #18 on: September 21, 2006, 08:43:24 PM »
hi gra
you are so right,i already know too that this is the beginning of the  end of this world as we know it,we cannot stop it,things will get a lot worse..
like you we live in a part of spain that is years behind the uk, and i love the slow pace of life here,the spanish are still very respectfull towards each other and to us brits who live here with them.the family is very inportant to them,and children are very respectfull to thier elders.
the down side is i see the uk children joining the spanish schools and this is turn is a big influence on spanish children,they want mobile phones, designer gear and all that rubbish,so they are going to copy,and become like the british kids in time.
i cannot just pop into a paper shop,we have a fair journey to get our basic needs,but it certainly teaches  me the values in life,yet all this going without what is at hand in the western world,makes life stress free,able to enjoy the simple pleasures in the world,money is not everything,the freedom of retirement, the time spent with friends and family are undeniable!
every day is a gift,that is why it is called the present !!!

Boomer

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 179
Re: the brummi accent
« Reply #19 on: December 17, 2006, 06:08:49 AM »
Being a Yank, I didn't know there was such a thing as a Brummi accent -- until my first day in B.  Being an ardent AV supporter, I wanted to pick up a few bits of AV memorabilia.  I was told to visit (at least as I now recall it 13 years later) a shop called Heavy Pocks on Corpolation Street.  Just to be sure I understood what I was being told, I repeated it to kind man who was giving me directions:  "Heavy Pocks on Corpolation Street?"  I asked.  "Yes."

I found it.  I left left several pounds with "Heavy" that day.

It's just one Yank's opinion, but I think the accent is wonderful.  By all means, I hope it endures. 
Live well; laugh often; love with all your heart.

roy one

  • Global Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 28322
Re: the brummi accent
« Reply #20 on: December 17, 2006, 10:13:10 AM »
hi graham
                 so when yo send a letta toour kid in brum they wunt send ya one back maybe yo think ya to good forum they think yo r a snob or sumot and as fer lookin fer fights if yo dont shut ya face yoll get my fist init lolololo    graham they are not looking sad they are just looking down to the floor they bin told brum is paved with gold and they are still looking fer it  or they are trying  not to step in dog s...t or they are trying to step over the drunks or keeping out of the way of of junckys just like most big towns in the uk or is it the world im not sure  if you live in a green house don!t sting bricks your part of the world is just as bad or good
each day is a blessing and I bless each day when it comes

Graham

  • Guest
Re: the brummi accent
« Reply #21 on: December 17, 2006, 01:38:23 PM »
Roy, ai fink oi've werkt it uit now, Brummies carnt reed or wright zo ow the cowin' el kan dhe reed wot ai um zendin em? oi muzt be as fik az a dee dah. Mi muver olwys luked down at de ors road cuz she wunz fownd a ten bob note da sombody fikker dan mi musta lorst.


 

Terms of Use     Privacy Policy