Brummie is the accent and dialect of Birmingham, England. The term derives
from Brummagem or Bromwichham, historical variants of the name
Birmingham. It is not the only accent of the West
Midlands, although the term Brummie is often erroneously used in referring to
all accents of the region. It is markedly distinct from the traditional
accent of the adjacent Black Country, although modern-day population mobility
has tended to blur the distinction. For instance, Dudley-born comedian Lenny
Henry, Walsall-born rock musician Noddy Holder, Smethwick-born actress Julie
Walters, Wollaston-born soap actress Jan Pearson, West Bromwich-born comedian
Frank Skinner, are sometimes mistaken for Brummie-speakers by people outside
the West Midlands county. Additionally, population mobility has
meant that to a degree, the Brummie accent extends into some parts of the
Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, although much of the accent within the
borough might be considered to be closer to contemporary RP. For example,
Solihull-born presenter Richard Hammond does not speak with a strong Brummie
accent, but you can still easily tell he's from the West Midlands.
The Brummie accent and the Coventry accent are also quite distinct in their
differences, despite only 17 miles separating the cities. To the untrained
ear, however, all of these accents may sound very similar, just as British
English speakers can find it hard to distinguish between different North
American accents, or Australian and New Zealand accents.
As with all English regional accents, the Brummie accent also grades into RP
English. The accent of presenter Cat Deeley is listed by her voiceover
agency, Curtis Brown, as "RP/Birmingham".
Examples of celebrity speakers include TV presenter Adrian Chiles, comedian
Jasper Carrott, Goodies actor and TV presenter Bill Oddie, hip-hop and garage
musician Mike Skinner, rock musicians Ozzy Osbourne, Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne, Rob
Halford, Barney Greenway, Dave Pegg, broadcaster Les Ross, politician Clare
Short, SAS soldier and author John "Brummie" Stokes, and many actresses and
actors including Martha Howe-Douglas, Donnaleigh Bailey, Nicolas Woodman,
Sarah Smart, John Oliver and Ryan Cartwright.
Pronunciation The strength of a person's accent varies
greatly all across Birmingham. Like most cities, the accent changes relative to
the area of the city. A common misconception is that everyone in
Birmingham speaks the same accent. It could be argued Brummie is an accent
rather than a dialect as in Black Country which is a dialect with unique
words and phrases, as in owamya? For How are you? Which many comment is not used
in Brummie speech. Similarly Brummies pronounce 'I' as 'oy' whereas Black
Country uses the dialect 'Ah' as in 'Ah bin' meaning I have been.
There are also differences between Brummie and Black Country accents not
readily apparent to people from outside the West Midlands. A Black Country
accent and a Birmingham accent can be hard to distinguish if neither accent is
that broad. The phonetician John Wells has admitted that he cannot tell any
difference between the accents. Urszula Clark has proposed the FACE vowel as a
difference, with Birmingham speakers' using and Black Country speakers' using
. She also mentions that Black Country speakers are more likely to use where
most other accents use . This is also present in some North American dialects
for words like "eww", "grew", "new" "due", etc., contrasting with . Other
North American dialects may use for this purpose, or even make no
distinction at all. Below are some common features of a
recognisable Brummie accent. The letters enclosed in square brackets – [] – use
the International Phonetic Alphabet. The corresponding example texts enclosed in
double quotes are spelt so that a reader using received pronunciation can
approximate the sounds. The vowel of mouth can be [æʊ] or [æə]
The vowel of goat can be close to [ɑʊ] Final unstressed , as in happy, may be
realized as [əi], though this varies considerably between speakers
The letters ng often represent where RP has just . See Ng-coalescence
Both the vowels of strut and foot are pronounced [ʊ], as in northern England.
See foot–strut split The majority of Brummies use the
Northern [a] in words like bath, cast and chance, although the Southern [ɑː]
is more common amongst older speakers. The vowels in "price" and "choice" may
be almost merged as [ɒɪ] so that the two words would almost rhyme. However, the
two are still distinct, unlike the Black Country dialect.
In more old-fashioned Brummie accents, the FORCE set of words takes [ʌʊə] and
the PURE set takes [uːə], so both sets were in two syllables. In such an
old-fashioned accent, the words paw, pour and poor would all be said
differently: [pɔː], [pʌʊə], [puːə]. In more modern accents, all three are said
as [pɔː] Final unstressed may be realised as [a]
In a few cases, voicing of final Some tapping of prevocalic
Recordings of Brummie speakers with phonetic features described in SAMPA
format can be found at the Collect Britain dialects site.
Rhymes and vocabulary in the works of William Shakespeare suggest that he used
a local dialect. Stereotypes
A study was conducted in 2008 where people were asked to grade the
intelligence of a person based on their accent and the Brummie accent was ranked
as the least intelligent accent. It even scored lower than being silent, an
example of the stereotype attached to the Brummie accent.
According to Birmingham English: A Sociolinguistic Study, among UK
listeners "Birmingham English in previous academic studies and opinion
polls consistently fares as the most disfavoured variety of British English,
yet with no satisfying account of the dislike". He alleges that, overseas
visitors in contrast find it "lilting and melodious", and from this claims
that such dislike is driven by various linguistic myths and social factors
peculiar to the UK. However, the Brummie accent is the only 'northern' accent to
receive such attention. For instance, despite the city's
cultural and innovative history, its industrial background has led to a
muscular and unintelligent stereotype: a "Brummagem screwdriver" or "Brummie
screwdriver" is UK slang for a hammer. Steve Thorne also cites the mass media
and entertainment industry where actors, usually non-Birmingham, have used
inaccurate accents and/or portrayed negative roles.
Advertisements are another medium where many perceive stereotypes. Journalist
Lydia Stockdale, writing in the Birmingham Post, commented on
advertisers' association of Birmingham accents with pigs: the pig in the ad for
Colman's Potato Bakes, Nick Park's Hells Angel Pigs for British Gas and ITV's
"Dave the window-cleaner pig" all had Brummie accents. In 2003, a Halifax bank
advertisement featuring Howard Brown, a Birmingham- born and based employee, was
replaced by an animated version with an exaggerated comical accent overdubbed by
a Cockney actor. Dialect
According to the PhD thesis of Steve Thorne at the University of Birmingham
Department of English, Birmingham English is "a dialectal hybrid of
northern, southern, Midlands, Warwickshire, Staffordshire and
Worcestershire speech", also with elements from the languages and dialects
of its Asian and Afro-Caribbean communities.
Traditional expressions include: 0121 do one
an expression meaning "go away" incorporating the telephone area code
for Birmingham Babby
variation of "baby" Bawlin, bawl
to weep, as in "She started to bawl'" Bottler
a popular and enjoyable song Cob
a bread roll Fock
a milder and more nuanced version of the swear word
Gambol a West Midlands term for a forward roll
Go and play up your own end said to children from a different street
making a nuisance. It has been used as the title of the autobiographical book
and musical play about the Birmingham childhood of radio presenter and
entertainer Malcolm Stent Our wench
affectionate term, meaning 'sister' or sometimes used by a husband referring to
his wife; derived from the older 16th and 17th meaning of "woman"
The outdoor exclusive West Midlands term for off
license Pop
another word for a carbonated drink, e.g. "Do you want a glass of pop?".
Snap food, a meal, allegedly derived from the
act of eating itself. May also refer to the tin containing lunch, a "snap tin",
as taken down the pit by miners Scrage
a scratched cut, where skin is sliced off. For example, "I fell over and badly
scraged my knee" Suff
another word for drain, as in "put it down the suff"
Throw a wobbly to become sulky or have a tantrum
Trap to leave suddenly, or flee
Up the cut up the canal
Yampy (often "dead yampy") mad, daft, barmy.
Many Black Country folk believe "yampy" is a Black Country word, originating
from the Dudley-Tipton area, which has been appropriated and claimed as their
own by both Birmingham and Coventry dialects, although yampy is found in
areas of the black country both outside Birmingham and Tipton/Dudley so might
have been a general south Staffordshire and north Worcestershire areas.
See also Black Country
Potteries dialect References
External links How to Speak Brummie
Ask Oxford Brum Talk Like A Brummie Day On 17 July 2009
Talk Like A Brummie A wiki-based Birmingham dialect dictionary
Brummies Talking Discussions and games ebrummie.co.uk Dr Steve Thorne's website
devoted to the study of Brummie, including a dictionary, MP3 speech
samples, discussion of his research on stereotypes, etc.
Birmingham English sample using a test paragraph including most English sounds:
George Mason University Speech Accent Archive. Compare a Dudley sample
Sounds Familiar? Listen to examples of regional accents and dialects from
across the UK on the British Library's 'Sounds Familiar' website
Why Brummies Why not Birmies? Etymological article by Dr Carl Chinn
Brummie and Black Country sayings Brummie is beautiful BBC News, 28 August
2003 Brummie is Beautiful! University of
Birmingham press release about Dr Steve Thorne's PhD thesis, Birmingham English:
A Sociolinguistic Study Paul Henry on Benny's accent Noele
Gordon and Crossroads Appreciation Society interview
English Accents and Dialects, British Library : Sue Long, Aubrey Walton, Harry
Phillips and Billy Lucas. English Accents and Dialects,
Warwickshire speakers - William Sewell of Hockley Heath, Mr Calcutt of Aston
Cantlow, Mr Duckett of Lighthorne, and Harry Cook of Shipston-on-Stour - show
progressive accent change moving south-east from Birmingham across
isogloss Whoohoo Brummie translator