You’ve got to love our Brummie accent. The gentle rise and fall in our intonation as we speak each sentence, with our last word slowly, but surely facing away.
There have been times when Brumagem tongue has been criticised for being monotone. We don’t often win the most popular accent awards - but it is what it is.
And with the popularity of the likes of TV stars Alison Hammond and Joe Lycett - not to mention Tommy Shelby from the Peaky Blinders - a new dawn could be on the horizon for the appreciation of Brummie speak any day.
In the meantime there are some of our place names that people just don’t know how to pronounce.
In fact some people have problems with pronouncing Birmingham, itself. We don’t say - Burning ham. It’s not Bermin-um either. Bascially you just say Birming-um - the ‘h’ is silent, not the like American city in Alabama. It’s easy when you know how.
Here are 17 other place names in and around the city which are often misprounouced:
1. Alcester Road
There’s a lot of debate about how to prounounce the name of the A435 that runs through Kings Heath. Us local Brummies call it All-ses-ter Road. But if you pop down to Redditch near the Warwickshire town of Alcester - they say All-ster Road. They don’t pronounce the ‘ce’ in the middle - confusingly - so it sounds like Ulster, but with an ‘A’ at the beginning. Birmingham historian Prof Carl Chinn has recently spoken of this conundrum and confirmed that, for Brummies, it’s All-ses-ter Road!
2. Alvechurch
The Worcestershire village on the outskirts of Birmingham is another confusing one, with the ‘e’ in the middle creating issues for some. No need to pronounced that one. Probably best if you just break it up into two sections and say: Alve-church
3. Billesley
The south Birmingham suburb, just four miles out of the city centre, is another one with a problematic ‘e’. Home to some great outdoor spaces with its own common and Swnashurst Park, it can cause problems for some people on initial reading. It’s not Bill-es-ley - you just say: Bills-ly
4. Bordesley Green
Over in east Birmingham we have another district with a silent ‘e’ which often catches people out. It’s just two miles from the city centre where you will find Heartlands Hospital, but it’s not Bord-ez-ly Green. You should say Bords-ly Green.