This is the United Kingdom and the circled part is the West Midlands. The largest city in the
West Midlands is Birmingham, here. If you're from Birmingham you are a Brummie and you speak
Brummie the towns in an area north of Birmingham are collectively known as The Black Country.
Why the Black Country? Because of its industrial towns and more specifically
it's coal which is black. Famous people from Birmingham include Ozzy Osbourne,
those Peaky Blinders and 80s pop sensation Duran Duran. Birmingham and the Black Country
have accents which sound very similar to outsiders but those from the region say they are different.
I guess it's a bit like the way people confuse the Australian and the New Zealand accents.
If you're in the Black Country a common greeting is “awamya” After watching this video you too
will be fluent in Brummie so stay tuned. Owamya. Today on LetThemTalkTV we're going to look at the
Brummie accent spoken in Birmingham the UK's second biggest city with a metropolitan area
of 3.6 million people - what on earth was that you sound like a cockney trying to do a brummie
accent - Jon get back behind the camera what do you know? - Well actually I grew up around there
and in fact I went to school in Solihull which is in Birmingham - oh yeah OK but you've been
in London for a long time can you still do a Brummie accent? Well I've probably lost it a
bit but I think I can do it yeah - go on then - All right what alright everybody my name's Jon and
i'm a Brummie - OK fair enough you can stay for the video. Now I do know that the Brummie accent
from Birmingham is very similar but a little bit different to the Black Country accent
which is from the West Midlands with towns like Wolverhampton and Dudley but I think in this
video because they're pretty close we'll call it all Brummie if that's OK with you? - yeah
OK let's do that - now let me ask you a question. Are there any words that you use in Birmingham
and The West Midlands that we don't use in the rest of the UK? - yeah so bostin,
so bostin would mean great OK also we have another expression which is ‘around the wreckin’
which means to go around the long route when you could just go straight there - OK - and
then the other one would be uh bab and bab is like a an affectionate term so alright mate,
alright bab - you use it for like someone of the same sex or the opposite sex? - or to anybody some
people would use it with the same sex but probably you'd uh use it between between women or often
or to women in general. Let's have a look at the phonetics between standard British English which
we call RP and the Brummie accent. Let's first look at the /eɪ/ sound in words such as face which
in brummie you'll pronounce /aɪ/. in RP you'll say say and place and case but in Brummie Jon
show us how it's done. “I'll put your face out of place just in case.” The /ʌ/ sound in RP
in words such as love and cuts and nuts and oven in Brummie it's an /ʊ/ sound show us Jon
“I cut up the nuts that you left in the oven and I love them” the /ɑː/ sound in RP in
laugh and bath and ask and dance and other words with the same /ɑː/ vowel is pronounced /a/ in
Brummie Jon show us how “when I asked her to dance she laughed and left fast.” The /əʊ/ sound in RP
such as in throat and note and coat is a kind of longer wider sound in Brummie like an /ʌʊ/ Jon
“I know I took a note put it in my coat and took a boat” The /æ/ sound in RP in words such as cap tap
map rap in Brummie it's an /a/ sound for example Jon “The acrobat wrapped his cap on his lap.”
In RP when you have words ending in an unstressed vowel often they have a schwa /ə/ sound that's the
very short /ə/ sound for example wherever however forever whereas in Brummie you might hear it as an
/a/ sound. “I'll do it wherever, however, forever.” When you have an n and a g together
in RP it's kind of one sounds sort of like a /ŋ/ as in singing ringing in Brummie the g
is more pronounced so sometimes you'll hear Brummie saying singing the word not very good
I know but the word singer and finger don't rhyme in RP but they might in Brummie Jon
Singer, finger. OK Jon What I've got for you now are some typical phrases
and expressions that you'll hear every day on the streets of Birmingham and in the Black Country
and i'm going to read them out in an RP accent a standard British accent and what you have
to do is to read it in your Brummie accent is that OK? here you are OK are you ready?
I feel really flushed we went for a balti in Sparkhill it was bloody spicy
I feel really flushed we went for a balti in Sparkhill it was bloody spicy -
i'm feeling a bit peckish so i'm going to solihull for a bacon cob and a cup of
tea - I feel a little bit peckish so I'll go to Solihull for a bacon cob and a cup of tea -
stop going round the wrekin and take us to the bull ring - stop going around the wreckin and
take us to the bull ring - I went to Dudley zoo and got mistaken for an orangutan they only let
me out when I flashed them my Aston Villa season ticket - so I went to dudley zoo I got mistaken
for an orangutan then they only let me out when I flashed them my Aston Villa season ticket -
a Cadbury's cream egg and a bottle of pop beats your fancy french pastries and champagne any day -
a Cadbury's cream egg and a bottle of pop beats your fancy french pastries and champagne
any day - on sunday I took my mom and our kid
for a spin around spaghetti junction in our Austin Montego it was bostin -
on sunday I took my mom and our kid for a spin around spaghetti
junction in our Austin Montego it were bostin I saw Simon Le Bon eating a groaty pudding
on Broad Street - I saw Simon Le Bon eating a groaty pudding on Broad Street -
if you think those Peaky Blinder boys are tough you ought to meet my nan in wolverhampton if you
think those Peaky Blinder boys are tough you ought to meet me nan in wolverhampton
death this like you must be out of your tree mate you must be barmy what what's this all about?