Black country words and phrases

[mallosa]

Cheers Carol, just noticed that I'm a 'Brummigum Ommer'

[Dennis]

Interesting stuff here, Mallosa, I've only just noticed this section. There are just so many words and phrases... Even the pronunciation of standard words like "four" is archaic, as of course are some verb forms like "thee bist" etc. I was a bookish youth and hated sport - which will come as no surprise to our Rob - so we managed to persuade our English master in the Sixth Form to do Anglo-Saxon with us instead of games, we studied the chronicles of the Viking invasions, poems, riddles etc. The first thing that hits you is that four is indeed "feower" in Anglo-Saxon which is still pure Black Country. There are words I once took to be modern standard English but which definitely aren't, like "tun-dish", a funnel for filling a barrel (tun = barrel), "glede", a glowing ember or burnt coal ("He's got a voice like a glede under a door"), "nesh" (or "nash" depending on where you live), sensitive to the cold (Anglo-Saxon "hnesce", soft), or "backfriend", a piece of loose skin around the fingernail. My wife is from Yorkshire, some of these non-standard English words are also used up there in the Barnsley area e.g. "trankliments", trappings, accoutrements, accompanying items, others are not. My Dad was from Oldbury which has a different accent from Cradley Heath, he used to enjoy listening to what he took to be the authentic dialect in pubs in Cradley Heath. To an outsider the Cradley vowels sound disinctly "northern".

[Jackienock]

Replying to Suki's poem in November.

How strange, I have only just seen it. My Mother used to recite something very similar and I understood it to be a proposal of marriage.

My version goes

Wot a nice night it is
wot a many stars.
Wot a nice grert yown is
wot a many bars.
Arn aksed yer ferther, dain't yer know
Arn aksed yer Muther, ain't er tode yow.
Well, ees willin an ers willin
So yowl be willin wunt yer?

[Jackienock]

Here's a couple of of strange expressions.

Yowm gettin early of late, before yow was be-ind, now yown first at last.

Wen I looked e was out of sight, an wen I got there eed gone.

[cid]

................ It's been fascinating reading about some of the social aspects of Black Country and connecting some of the stories my grandmother used to tell with people and places. One thing that has stayed firmly in my family is a group of verbal expressions she taught us and that we still use reguarly. For example, Birmingham was always "Brummijum" (I'm not sure how it should be spelled) a pronunciation I recognized when I read about in this site's language forum. My all-time favorite, though, is a word for which I've never found a better substitute and it is one she learned from her grandmother, Mary HACKETT, and passed along to us....

The word is "brevitin' "

(again, I'm not sure how it should be spelled) and it's a verb (always used by my grandmother in the continuous -in(g) form) that means rifling or rummaging in an uninvited manner through stuff that isn't yours--something like "snooping."
Can anyone tell me if this is a common local expression or whether it might have been Mary Hackett's own invention (if it was listed in this board's language forum, I missed it)?.

Thanks for reading,
Shelley Hall

Brevatin is definately a word I recognise. As is 'Wos thee brevatin about in?'

Cid

[simmadonna]

Brevatin is definately a word I recognise. As is 'Wos thee brevatin about in?'

Cid

YES! That sounds about how she used to phrase it. You're making me laugh and cry at the same time. Thanks. Shelley

[simmadonna]

My grandmother had severe asthma all her life and when she'd get short of breath she'd say she had "the tizzick." Because she had to take cortisone to control her asthma she would get swollen legs and ankles and say they were "all swole up." If her arthritis was bothering her she's say she had a touch of the "roomatiz" (rheumatism). I see that "tizzicky" and "swole up" both appear in the dictionary at http://www.sedgleymanor.com/dictionaries/sayings.html I'm not sure where she got "roomatiz."

I've got plenty more Halesowenisms from my grandmother but I'll pace myself.

[Alice]

hi,
Birmingham known as Brummagem (soft g) we still use it, or the shortened version Brum. Never heard Brevitin but use ferritin,as in w'on yo ferritin in theere foor? its nuthin to do wi yo. probably same word but different pronunciation.
I love 'clammed' as in 'I'm clammed ter jeath' and tranklements ' put them tranklements away, before somebody breaks their neck on em'. 'marry the miskin fer the muck and get pizened by the stink on it. (marry the pig for the muck and get poisened by the smell) . and an accusation always aimed at my son by my mother, 'he's got more to say than he's got to ate'
and describing someone with bandylegs 'he/she couldn't stop a pig up an entry'.
i love it, it all makes life that much richer
Alice

[Maths girl]

hi,
Birmingham known as Brummagem (soft g) we still use it, or the shortened version Brum. Never heard Brevitin but use ferritin,as in w'on yo ferritin in theere foor? its nuthin to do wi yo. probably same word but different pronunciation.
I love 'clammed' as in 'I'm clammed ter jeath' and tranklements ' put them tranklements away, before somebody breaks their neck on em'. 'marry the miskin fer the muck and get pizened by the stink on it. (marry the pig for the muck and get poisened by the smell) . and an accusation always aimed at my son by my mother, 'he's got more to say than he's got to ate'
and describing someone with bandylegs 'he/she couldn't stop a pig up an entry'.
i love it, it all makes life that much richer
Alice

The mention of Trancklements reminded me of the trouble it caused a few months ago when I used it here in Leicester-- I was jumped on by all in the room for making up a new word -- I ended up on the internet proving that it did exist and I had probably got it from my mother/ grandparents in my youth and it had stayed there until it was just the right word for the moment so out it came -- talking about going back to your roots!

[Alice]

I must admit i haven't heard it used for along time, but it always fits the situation perfectly.
Alice

[simmadonna]

hi,
Brummagem (soft g) we still use it, or the shortened version Brum.

"Brum"! Even better.

Never heard Brevitin but use ferritin,as in w'on yo ferritin in theere foor?

We use "ferretin" all the time in my family. I guess I must have absorbed that one without even knowing it.

I love 'clammed' as in 'I'm clammed ter jeath'

I don't get it. What is "clammed"?

and tranklements ' put them tranklements away, before somebody breaks their neck on em'.

I don't remember ever hearing "tranklements" but I'll sure be using it in the future every chance I get. What a perfect word. It incorporations both "trip" and "ankle," which would be the key elements in stumbling and falling over a mess someone has left.

'marry the miskin fer the muck and get pizened by the stink on it. (marry the pig for the muck and get poisened by the smell) . and an accusation always aimed at my son by my mother, 'he's got more to say than he's got to ate'
and describing someone with bandylegs 'he/she couldn't stop a pig up an entry'.

I'm howling.
Speaking of "stink," have you ever heard the expression "blow the stink off" (of someone or something)? My grandfather used to say he was going to take my grandmother out in the car to "blow the stink off her," meaning, I guess, to give her a change of scenery since she didn't drive herself. Then again, it hardly matters what he meant--it's just such a great expression. He was born in the US but his family, too, came from Black country, so I'm wondering if the expression didn't come from there, too.

The mention of Trancklements reminded me of the trouble it caused a few months ago when I used it here in Leicester-- I was jumped on by all in the room for making up a new word -- I ended up on the internet proving that it did exist and I had probably got it from my mother/ grandparents in my youth and it had stayed there until it was just the right word for the moment so out it came -- talking about going back to your roots!

Whenever I say "brevatin' or ferretin," people look at me like I've gone around the bend, so I know what you mean about getting the third degree for "tranklements."

[simmadonna]

Has anyone heard the noun "pleasantine" for a bouquet of flowers? Could that be a Black country expression?

[Maths girl]

and tranklements ' put them tranklements away, before somebody breaks their neck on em'.

I don't remember ever hearing "tranklements" but I'll sure be using it in the future every chance I get. What a perfect word. It incorporations both "trip" and "ankle," which would be the key elements in stumbling and falling over a mess someone has left.

I hadn't thought of it that way -- the way my mother uses it is to describe an odd collection of bits and pieces which are not where they should be -- whether on the floor or more likely in her case on the dressing table!

[Maths girl]

I love 'clammed' as in 'I'm clammed ter jeath'

I don't get it. What is "clammed"?

[quote]


Just spoken to my mother and she said you could use clammed as "choked" --- as in when you are very emotional we nowadays say "we are all choked up" -- the phrase was "I'm clammed to death!"

[Alice]

Hi,
we use clammed as in hungry, some say clemmed, the origin of the word I can't tell you. tranklements can mean anything , it is just a collective word meaning stuff, too numerous to mention as individual items.
thephrase marry the miskin fer the muck, usually refers to marrying for money.
here's another couple, she gid im a right cockhaiver, or cogwinder, as in thump and all wrapped up like a fowpenny ock.
we don't use these phrases any more, if we are not careful we will lose them for good. My dad used to have alittlephrase which used thee c'ost and thee c'ust it was a tongue twister but I cant remember it now, thinking of that to cuss someone is to swear at them, presumably contraction of cursed.
Alice