As I've mentioned before my illustrious institution's student paper is locked in a cupboard, bound and gagged in case some rogue student journalist thinks that massive job cuts, ill thought-out curriculum changes, bigger classes and alienated teachers might, possibly, be news.
Luckily, some thoughtful Walsallian (is that the word) has collated the stories in one place, on theyamyam.com, a site for all things Walsall. (For non-Black Country readers, the local dialect and people are called yam yams, referring to certain grammatical and pronunciation variants).
To clarify the Vole's nebulous description of the origin of yamyam hear is a more detailed one:
ReplyDeleteIn Black Country dialect "you are" becomes "yow am" which in quick speech becomes "y'am".
So a yamyam would say "yam doing this, yam doing that"
Sorry to feel the need to clarify that but if it had been a Welsh or Irish accent he would have written 500 words describing its origins and beauty in heartfelt purple prose and I felt that the Black Country accent deserved, at the least, an explanation.
That's fine Ben - I know the basics but didn't dare go into detail in case I arsed it up. I love dialect.
ReplyDeleteI know a little bit:
Ow am yow? - how are you?
Tara a bit - good bye.
Yow'm bostin' - I'm very well thank you.
- and "ahday know" which means that my step grandson has no idea who left the fridge door open for 16 hours.
ReplyDelete