The Great North/South Divide

My Glaswegian pal has his accent still after an almost total adult life in London. He wants to call himself a Londoner, his London born wife of 45 yrs plus is having nothing of it!

sodapop. Well, those involved were all Yorkshire people, but that was in Hull. DS and family are in York and I do not think there is a single resident in York who isn't known to one or other of them.

Don't we have call centres in Birmingham? Really? I'm sure people would understand a Brummie from a call centre easier than some of the calls I get from call centres round the world when I simply cannot understand a word they say. I have never tried to change my accent. I am what I am as they say.

katyk any unfamiliarca ccent or dialect takes time to get used to! I used to find a Brummie accent hard but have got to know some Brummie folk recently and now we can understand each other easily!'

Yes I do get it. We are on the edge of the Black Country and when we first moved to this part of Brum, I couldn't understand some people. As regards Peaky Blinders (which I enjoy) I just assumed that the accents were so bad because so few actors can do Brummie. My sister won't watch it because of those 'idiotic accents' (her words)

I would sooner listen to someone doing bad Brummie or bad anything, than someone doing a Yorkshire accent when they can’t summon up a glottal stop to save their life! It sounds absurd.

I’ve been living in north west Scotland for the last 15 years but soon moving to Newcastle ~ so by comparison I am moving “down south”. However, I was born and raised in Birmingham and am proud to consider myself a Brummie.

I love accents, what makes me shout at my radio is lack of enunciation from newsreaders or experts paid to give their opinions.

I had a German colleague who had previously lived and worked in Birmingham and she loved the accent and the people. After working inside the M25, which she hated, she moved back to Munich.