"Brummie to English Dictionary needed" Topic

One of the managers at work has a strong Brummie accent, and speaks quite quickly. While I was taking minutes today he started a topic "Buddhist week", an I assumed it was a recognised festival for Buddhist priosners.

As he went on I became confused, as he was talking about fixing cell locks, screwing down the beds, and moving Listeners (prisoners who train as a form of councellor so depressed prisoners can talk to someone). I got this all down, but confused what this had to do with Buddhism I asked him to clarify the topic. What he had actually said was the BUDDY SUITE, for depressed prisoners to be moved to so they don't self harm, and the listener to share.

Ar. Yow roight.

That'ud be bostin.

Don't get your Brummie mixed up with your Black country, it upsets both lots…
Mick

I don't recall having any trouble understanding our friends in Birmingham when we were in the UK. Maybe they were speaking slowly and clearly for the Texan, I don't know.

That was maybe 10 years ago, though. Maybe I'd have more trouble today.

I did OK with everyone but the guy from Norfolk on my trip.

Sorry, I collect dictionairies, but that one is still sadly missing from my collection.

What prison is it out of curiosity?

Just I'm not 'that' far from you possibly, and I don't want to be near a place that allows a Brummie be a manager.. ;-p (kidding)

link
This might help… :-)
Mick

Don't get your Brummie mixed up with your Black country, it upsets both lots…
Mick

Can't see the problem.

;)

Steve P

I must have led a sheltered life. What the heck is a Brummie?

STT

a Brummie is someone who comes from Birmingham.

and possibly a lot of other things as well, depending on your viewpoint

link

I find it really quite remarkable that in as tiny a place as the British Isles, everyone doesn't just have the same accent.

It's even more baffling that an individual city would have it's own accent, and that that accent would be distinct enough to be hard to understand.
-Kle.

Dewnt see woi anyun wud hev a prablem wiv a Norfuk accent.

Ev'n the Yankee bois at the airbases get to werk it oot 'ventuly.

Tayks em a whyl, but they gets there.

:)

"It's even more baffling that an individual city would have it's own accent, and that that accent would be distinct enough to be hard to understand"

I live in London, and its relatively easy to distinguish sometimes between people who live in Nawf Lunnun, and folk who come from Saaaarf Lonnnndun, Innitt??…seperated by about 3 or 4 miles……
have a city somewhere for 2,000 years and strange things happen….

londoner to brummie:- "to get there you take the slough train."

brummie to londoner:- " i don't want the slough train, is there a fast wun?"

ahhh, the oldies…….

regards

jim

I'm from the west side of Birmingham, where the Brummie accent and the Black Country dialect come together. I can certainly tell someone from north or north west Brum from someone from the south or eastern parts.

I once met a woman from Wolverhampton who complained that she could not understand anyone from Penn. It's about ten minutes away by bus.

wuld yow like a kipper tie? Yow want sugar in that.

Kle- doesn't the Bronx have a different accent to Jersey?

Christot- we don't talk to geezers from souf of the river.

When I started in my current job, 3 years ago, a Geordie woman started at the same time. We decided part of her training would be daily instruction in the local dialect. Every second word would be one that the half of the office from Lanarkshire would recognise, but the rest of us who are weegies would go "eh?"

Kle- doesn't the Bronx have a different accent to Jersey?

Sure, faintly. It's also fading out fast, as most people in America are gradually talking more and more like people on TV.

The Bronx and Jersey accents are also not mutually incomprehensible.

There really only seem to be three significantly different accent groups in the US, to me. "Southern", a dwindling number of people in the upper Midwest with the "Fargo" accent, and everybody else.

-Kle.

"Can't see the problem."

Brummies and Yam Yams unite in their amusement at people who come from an area where having eight fingers and two thumbs is considered under-endowed :-)

Here in NSW my mother-in-law's neighbours are originally from Wolverhampton. They've been in Oz for 40 years. They haven't lost their accents *at all*.

I have to concentrate to understand what they are saying, and I'm a Brummie myself.

On our very first day in Australia we encountered someone from Wolverhampton working behind the liquor counter in the Darwin branch of Woolworths. That was a bit weird.

The woman who deals with my insurance policies here in Rockland County, New York, is from Wolverhampton. I'm hoping that the current rivalry between our two teams for promotion to the Premiership will not cause her to up the rates on my car.

MJS – stop worrying about the footie. You're going to loose to Ipswich in the play-off finals with Bruce scoring the winning goal.

When I was 18 I worked lunchtimes in a pub. One of the locals was a Geordie. He would come in and say "Gwerr ragh geraw", and I would serve his usual. Fine, until he brought a geordie mate in…