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Gary O'Dea
Born: 5 January 1962
Lives: Tipton, West Midlands
Time lived in area: All my life
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Gary explains what's great about the Black Country and why its language is nothing to apologise for.
Language of interview: English
Duration: 1:07 (mins/secs)
The participants were asked to describe how they spoke in their own words.
How do you describe your accent: "A strong local dialect."
Have there been other influences on the way you speak: Not Given
Do you have skills in languages other than English?: No
Other languages: None
GARY: This area, it was the engineerin' sort o', it it was the engine o' the world basically; it was the de- design centre o' the world at one time. Now y- you mi-, you know, 'ow could ya say that a bloke 'oo was, er, workin' in in in sort o' design in in a, you know, a pattern-meker, or summat like that in a foundry th- that'd got a th-, er, a strong dialect accent, 'oo 'oo was buildin' things that were bein' shipped all round the world, you know, from bridges t- t- to God knows what. These blokes war thick. At all. They was anythin' but. I- it was just somethin' that, p'raps it was a bit of the class thing, th- th- th- th- an' it was always a workin' area, but there was no- an' an' wh- what's gotta be......what arm got a concern abaht is the fact that it's abaht time s- people recognise the fact that it's a dialect that's that's spoken. It's not an infliction. We- we're not like inflicted with summat that's, you know, we- we gotta apologise for. The area i- it was, you know, for engineerin', was a creative centre o' the world for a time.
Jonnie Robinson, Curator, English accents and dialects, British Library Sound Archive, writes
People's attitudes towards individual dialects or accents are purely subjective. Unfortunately, some dialects of English have historically been viewed more positively than others and individuals often suffer as a result of irrational prejudice against the way they speak. It's important to stress that, from a purely linguistic point of view, no particular dialect is better at communicating meaning than another. The fact that prestigious or highly regarded forms exist is more a reflection of value judgements based on social, rather than linguistic, criteria. In an increasingly homogeneous society, the vocabulary, structure and sounds that define the speech of a particular region, should be and indeed are for many speakers, a source of great pride and an important expression of cultural identity, as Gary passionately confirms.
An extremely subtle difference between various dialects across the UK is the way in which the negative particle, not, is attached to words in speech. Listen to the way Gary says these blokes weren't thick. He completely omits the final consonants and uses a vowel that makes the word sound like an RP speaker - someone with a regionally non-specific accent - saying the word war. This feature is typical of broad dialect speech in this part of the Midlands - the Black Country - and is equally apparent on other negative constructions such as can't - which might be pronounced like an RP speaker saying the word core, didn't which might sound like RP day and don't which could sound like RP dough.
Gary also uses another non-standard grammatical construction associated with dialect speech in the Black Country. Listen to the statement we'm not, like, inflicted with somewhat, where the verb to be is unmarked for person. Most dialects of English would require this statement to be rendered we're not, like, inflicted with something, but some speakers in the Black Country use constructions such as you'm, we'm and they'm - a phenomenon that, combined with the stereotypical local pronunciation of the phrase you am explains the nickname for people from the area: yam-yam's.
There are also a number of features of Gary's accent that are typical of Black Country speech. Listen to the way he pronounces the vowel sounds in words in the following five sets: design, time, dialect, I, recognise and apologise; say, basically and creative; know, bloke and spoken; how, foundry, round and about and this, shipped, bridges, thick, something, anything, infliction and inflicted. Perhaps even more intriguing is his pronunciation of the vowel in the word strong. Some speakers in the Black Country don't differentiate between the words strong and strung, nor between words such as long and lung or wrong and rung. The combination of all these features makes the speech here one of the more distinctive of all British English dialects.
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