It’s simple, this Friday is Talk Like A Brummie Day — what do you have to do? Talk Like A Brummie. Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch! Easy for some of you, harder for others, but there are pages of words and phrases to use n the TLAB dictionary and accent tips too. If you don’t speak to people much, feel free to “type like a Brummie” and pepper your internet communication with phonetic rendering a bit “loike” this.
Last years inaugural Talk Like a Brummie Day was loads of fun, thousands of people (on top of the million or so that already do) spent one day practising their best Brummie accents and I spent the day rushing between TV and radio interviews. It did seem to raise conciousness of the plight of the Brummie, and there’s a sense (with no corroborating figures) that our accent might be less abused in the media. That said there’s more to do, take adverts; for every cute Brummie Feta cheese that says “what have I towld yew about playin with yer food?” there’s a guy that knows too much about ballet while at a pub quiz machine and gets sucked up a tube. But how good does “plié” sound in a Brummie accent? No wonder the Royal Ballet moved here. A few people have been asking when this year’s TLAB Day was, so I thought I’d mention that Talk Like a Brummie Day is like Comic Relief. Not “associated with Lenny Henry and not funny”, but “every two years”. So join us for all your Talking Like a Brummie requirements on Friday 17 July 2009. The Brummie Dictionary project is still...
Looks like we might need a Talk Like A Brummie Day next year, the Press Association are still lazily reporting surveys for completely unrelated companies, from tiny samples, that do nothing but ridicule people for where they come from: the Birmingham accent was the one parents would least like their child to use.
After a hectic week rushing round promoting TLAB Day (I’ve just this minute got back from doing Radio Five on a show with Danny Kelly*) can we relax here? Course not. One of the legacies of TLABD, we hope will be an online Brummie dictionary – there were hundreds of phrases added to the TLABD site and it would be such a shame to lose all that work. So we’ve set up a wikipedia-style ‘Brummie dictionary’ for all of the good people of the interweb to contribute to. It’s empty at the moment, although we’ll start to shift the submitted stuff across asap, so if you want to get in first and make sure it’s your definition of ‘crash’ (as in the rocks) that makes it – get over there. In true wiki stylee if you search for something and it isn’t there, you’ll be given the chance to add it yourself. There’s a link to the proper wiktionary help pages on the site should you get stuck. *Fascinating (and possibly untrue) fact from that link, Danny was once briefly married to Hazel O’Connor.
Most visitors to B:iNS would probably be speaking like a brummie anyways, but the idea for today is to get all those other people to have a go themselves. If you’re having fun talking like a brummie add a comment to this tread on www.talklikeabrummieday.co.uk. BREAKING NEWS: Due to extreme weather – the event planned for Chamberlain Square in by the Big Screen this afternoon is off, it wouldn’t have been much fun for anyone to be drenched. The organisers tell me that it may happen later in the summer, but nothing is confirmed as yet. It won’t be TLABD then, but it’ll still be good.
This Friday people around the country with be spending the day talking like a Brummie, calling each other “bab” and advising people to go “careful past your granny’s”. The campaign has built up with hundreds of pledges on myspace and facebook and there are people planning to spend the day talking like a Brummie from as far away as Australia, Canada and even Liverpool. One special event that is being held is a celebration of the Brummie accent in Chamberlain Square, from 12pm to 6pm on Friday people will be able to hear a panel of local experts, record their own favourite Brummie phrases and sayings for the BBC Big Screen and will have the chance to win special Birmingham prizes – get down if you can even if it’s “looking a bit dark over Bill’s mother’s”. The lovely lads at Bostin.org.uk – home of the T-Shirts that Adrian Chiles loves – have agreed to send a T-Shirt to one lucky TLABDay-er. All you have to do is sign up and pledge to Talk Like A Brummie on Friday on the site. You can even sign up for their newsletter for the chance to win even more Bostin stuff.
So, what have you got planned for Talk Like A Brummie Day on July the 20th – apart from talking like a Brummie obviously? Are you putting up the posters now, have you changed your screensaver, and put the desktop wallpaper up on your computer – if you’ve got a webpage or blog have you added the countdown? If you’ve got any media contacts give then the www.talklikeabrummieday.co.uk address and tell them to publicise it! More than than these, are you planning a TLABD event? We are, details to follow asap, but you can put on your own recital or concert wherever you have space. Play Biz Bizley loud,but don’t annoy the neighbours. If you are a Brummie singer, band, storyteller or poet and are free on the 20th email us and we could put you in touch with event organisers. We’re hoping that there’ll be a big city centre event, so get your beachwear ready! TLABD in the Evening Mail: click for big Elements of this post first appeared on the TLABD blog which is where you’ll find all the info first.
Have you heard of Talk Like A Pirate Day? We have an idea… how about Talk Like A Brummie Day? Well, if this comes off, this July people around the city and the rest of the country with be asked to spend one day talking like a Brummie, in the hope that it will break down some of the prejudice and stereotyping that surrounds Birmingham’s accent. We’re trying to get Londoners, Scots, Mancs and even Brummies who usually hide their accent to call each other “bab” and hope that it doesn’t get too “dark over Bill’s mother’s”. The Talk Like A Brummie Day website at www.talklikeabrummieday.co.uk includes links to existing dictionaries and collections of Brummie – please add any you know of. There are posters, screensavers and other bits to download. You can also leave your own favourite Brummie phrases or words, building up a dictionary and helping to promote the region’s particular take on the English Language. When TLABD (as we’re already calling it) is over we’ll try to squidge it into a proper downloadable book or something. Special events would be great and we’ve got one or two irons in the fire to be announced near the...
