English dialect
The
Black Country dialect
is spoken by many people in the
Black Country
, a region covering most of the four
Metropolitan Boroughs
of
Dudley
,
Sandwell
,
Walsall
and
Wolverhampton
.
[1]
The traditional dialect preserves many archaic traits of
Early Modern English
and even
Middle English
[2]
and may be unintelligible for outsiders. This dialect is distinct from and maintains more traditional characteristics than
the dialect
of
Birmingham
, which has been more influenced by standard English due to having been urban for a longer time. It has also influenced the accents of the towns and villages in the counties to the north, south and west of the region.
Phonology
[
edit
]
In general, the Black Country dialect has resisted many of the changes from
Middle English
that are seen in other dialects of
British English
, resembling particularly
Northern English
and
West Country English
.
- There is no
trap-bath split
, so there is no /?ː/ in words like
bath
,
grass
, etc., so to rhyme with
math(s)
,
gas
, etc.
- Like most British accents (except
Received Pronunciation
), there are
glottal stops
.
- /æ/ is uniformly pronounced as [a].
- There is no
foot-strut split
, so that
cut
rhymes with
put
, and both use either /?/ or /?/.
[3]
- There is no
NG-coalescence
, so
singer
rhymes with
finger
, with both commonly pronounced with [ŋg~ŋk]. Indeed, the accent can be analysed as lacking the phoneme /ŋ/ with that sound instead being regarded as an allophone of /n/.
- The Black Country accent is
non-rhotic
, and
draw
and
drawer
are nearly
homophones
.
[4]
- Final unstressed vowels are further reduced, such as /w?nd?/ for
window
and /f?/ for
far
.
[5]
- Final fricative consonants can be voiced and so /s/ is pronounced as [z] and /f/ as [v], for example,
bus
is pronounced
buzz
.
- The
LOT
vowel is typically realised as being [?] , but is also commonly realised as an unrounded [a].
[6]
- Many <-ook> words, such as 'book', may keep the historic pronunciation of [uː].
[7]
[8]
- The
FACE
vowel is realised as [æ?].
The general
intonation
exhibits notable similarities to that of the
West Country dialects
, characterised by a distinctive undulating contour. However, this contrasts with the Brummie dialect, where intonation is generally monotonous, often descending in tone towards the end of sentences.
Grammar
[
edit
]
Pronouns
thee
,
thy
and
thou
are still in use, as is the case in parts of
Derbyshire
,
Yorkshire
and
Lancashire
. "'Ow B'ist," meaning "How are you?" is a greeting contracted from "How be-est thou?" with the typical answer being "'Bay too bah," ("I be not too bad"), meaning "I am not too bad." "I haven't seen her" becomes "I ay sid 'er." Black Country dialect often uses "ar" where other parts of England use "yes" (this is common as far away as Yorkshire). Similarly, the local version of "you" is pronounced
, rhyming with "so."
Among older speakers,
ye
is used for
you
, as it is in most northern parts of England and Scotland. It is also common for older speakers to say "Her" instead of "She" ("'Er day did 'ah?", meaning "She didn't did she?"). The local pronunciation "goo" (elsewhere "go") or "gewin'" is similar to that elsewhere in the Midlands. It is quite common for broad Black Country speakers to say "agooin'" where others say "going". This is found in the greeting "Ow b'ist gooin?" (“How are you, How’s it going?”), to which a typical response would be "Bostin ah kid" ("Very well our kid"). Although the term yam yam may come from ya'm (you am),
[9]
ya/ye is an archaic form of you and in many areas ye (pronounced like yea or ya) is used: "Owamya aer kid? ? Ar ah'm owkay ta."
Vocabulary
[
edit
]
- "Orroight" = "Alright"
- Used as a questioning greeting, short for "Am yow orroight?"
- "Yow" = "You"
- "Yam" = "You are"
- From "Yow am" or "Yowm".
- This is the origin of "Yam Yams", a term designated by "Brummies" for the people from Wolverhampton who use this expression.
- "Am" = "Are"
- "Ar" = "Yes"
- "Arm" = "I'm"
- "Bin" = "Been", "Are" or "Am"
- "Bay" = "Not"
- "Dow" = "Doesn't"
- "Day" = "Didn't"
- "Her/'Er" = "She"
- "Cowin" = "Extremely"
- "Gewin/Gooin" = "Going"
- "Thay" = "They"
- "Oss" = "Horse"
- "Tekkin" = "Taking"
- "Cut" = "Canal"
- "Ay/Ayn" = "Ain't"
- "Ova" = "Over"
- "Cud" = "Could"
- "Cor/Car" = "Cannot"
- "Wammal" or "Scrammel" = "Dog"
- "Warra" = "What a"
- "Worrow" = "Hello"
- "Wossant" or "War/Wor" = "Wasn't"
- "Blartin" = "Crying"
- "Babbie/Babby" = "Baby"
- "Me/Mar" = "My"
- "Kaylied" = "Drunk"
- "Arl" = "I'll"
- "Doe" = "Don't"
- "Tat" = "Junk"
- "Tattin" = "Collecting scrap metal"
- "Tatter" = "Scrap collector"
- "Werk" = "Work"
- "Loff/Laff" = "Laugh"
- "Yed" = "Head"
- "Jed" = "Dead"
- "Tar" = "Thanks
- "Ah'm" = "I'm"
- "Aer Kid" or "Kidda" = A young relative, sibling, or friend
- "Arr" = "Yes"
- "Nah" = "No"
- "Saft" = "Stupid"
- "Summat" = "Something"
- "Mekkin" = "Making"
- "Med" = "Made"
- "Sayin" = "Saying"
- "Wench" = "Girlfriend" or "Girl"
- "Missis" = "Wife"
- "Bostin" = "Brilliant, wonderful"
The neighbouring city of
Birmingham
may be called "Brum-a-jum" (Birmingham's colloquial name is
Brummagem
, a corruption of its older name of Bromwicham
[10]
[
citation needed
]
and hence West Bromwich) or Birminam (missing the "g" and "h" out and saying it the way it is spelt). Natives of Birmingham (Brummies) meanwhile often refer to their Black Country neighbours as "Yam Yams", a reference to the use of "yow am" instead of "you are". However its unlikely yam yam comes from yow'm, as the sound is totally different; it's more likely from
ye
(archaic form of
you
), as in yer'm, which when said quickly sounds like
yam
, as in "yam gooin daft" "you're going silly", or "don't be so stupid" in translation. How many still say this ye'm form is unknown. "Ye" for
you
sounds different from "ya" (which is spoken with a
schwa
vowel), which also means
you
. "Yo" can also be used in the same sentence as "ye/ya" e.g. "Yo ay gooin agen am ya?" Some areas also use "yo'me" and "yow'm", depending on location and local dialect, and phrases as with Birmingham can differ from area to area, so there is dialect variation across the Black Country without differing in the basic Black Country words. Quick speech and blended words as in "shutyarow up" (shut your row up, meaning be quiet) can seem hard to understand and can even sound like "shutchowrow up". The blendings are to be thought of as products of Black Country pronunciation, not separate dialectal words.
In popular culture
[
edit
]
A road sign containing local dialect was placed at the
A461
/
A459
/
A4037
junction in 1997 before the construction of a traffic island on the site. The sign read,
If yowm saft enuff ter cum dahn 'ere agooin wum, yowr tay ull be spile't!!
, which means,
[11]
"If you're soft (stupid) enough to come down here on your way home, your
tea
will be spoilt".
[13]
In 2008, an internet video
The Black Country Alphabet
, described the whole alphabet in Black Country dialect, boosting the dialect's perception.
[14]
Authentic recordings
[
edit
]
The
Survey of English Dialects
recorded several traditional dialects from in and around the Black Country, which can be heard on the
British Library Sound Archive
website.
- G. Brooke (b.1888), market gardener from
Himley
,
Staffordshire
in the Black Country.
[15]
- Snead, Ted (b.1881), retired farm labourer from
Hilton
,
Shropshire
, a few miles west of the Black Country.
[16]
- William Wagstaffe (b.1876), retired labourer and smallholder from
Romsley
,
Worcestershire
, a few miles south of the Black Country.
[17]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
"What and where is the Black Country?"
. BBC
. Retrieved
28 May
2014
.
- ^
Staff and Agencies
Wolverhampton researches Black Country dialect
Guardian Unlimited
, 27 January 2003
- ^
Trudgill, P; Chambers, J (1998).
Dialectology
. p. 110.
doi
:
10.1017/CBO9780511805103
.
ISBN
9780521593786
.
- ^
Our changing pronunciation
- ^
"Black Country Dialect"
. Retrieved
28 January
2015
.
- ^
Manley (1971). p. 31.
- ^
Clark, Urszula (2008).
Mrs
. p. 145.
- ^
Hughes, Arthur; Trudgill, Peter (1996). p. 55.
- ^
Michael Pearce, “The Ethnonym
Geordie
in North East England” Names, Vol. 63 No. 2, June 2015, 75-85
- ^
The Church Warden's Book of St John's Parish Church, Halesowen, includes an early reference to an amount paid "to the organ builder of Bromwicham".
- ^
Dee-Organ (27 January 2003).
"The Black Country"
. Submitresponse.co.uk. Archived from
the original
on 24 September 2006.
- ^
"A collection of weird news stories from around the world"
. Meldrum.co.uk
. Retrieved
2 June
2009
.
- ^
"Black Country ? Entertainment ? Watch: The Black Country Alphabet Song"
. BBC. 15 December 2008
. Retrieved
7 July
2011
.
- ^
"Himley, Staffordshire - Survey of English Dialects - Accents and dialects | British Library - Sounds"
.
sounds.bl.uk
. Retrieved
24 May
2021
.
- ^
"Hilton, Shropshire - Survey of English Dialects - Accents and dialects | British Library - Sounds"
.
sounds.bl.uk
. Retrieved
24 May
2021
.
- ^
"Romsley, Worcestershire - Survey of English Dialects - Accents and dialects | British Library - Sounds"
.
sounds.bl.uk
. Retrieved
24 May
2021
.
External links
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Clark, Urszula (2013),
West Midlands English: Birmingham and the Black Country
, Edinburgh University Press,
ISBN
978-0748685806
- Mathisen, Anne Grethe (1999), Foulkes, Paul; Docherty, Gerard (eds.),
"Sandwell, West Midlands: ambiguous perspectives on gender patterns and models of change"
,
Urban Voices: Accent Studies in the British Isles
, London: Arnold,
ISBN
0340706082
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