or "Kidda" = A young relative, sibling, or friend "Arr" = "Yes" "Nah" = "No" "Saft" = "Stupid" "Summat" = "Something" "Mekkin" = "Making" "Med" = "Made" "Sayin" = "Saying" "Wench" = "Girlfriend" or "Girl" "Missis" = "Wife" The neighbouring city of Birmingham may be called "Brum-a-jum" (Birmingham's colloquial name is Brummagem, a corruption of its older name of Bromwicham and hence West Bromwich) or Birminam (missing the "g" and "h" out and saying it the way it is spelt). Natives of Birmingham (Brummies) meanwhile often refer to their Black Country neighbours as "Yam Yams", a reference to the use of "yow am" instead of "you are". However its unlikely yam yam comes from yow'm, as the sound is totally different; it's more likely from ye (archaic form of you), as in yer'm, which when said quickly sounds like yam, as in "yam gooin daft" "you're going silly", or "don't be so stupid" in translation. How many still say this ye'm form is unknown. "Ye" for you sounds different from "ya" (which is spoken with a schwa vowel), which also means you. "Yo" can also be used in the same sentence as "ye/ya" e.g. "Yo ay gooin agen am ya?" Some areas also use "yo'me" and "yow'm", depending on location and local dialect, and phrases as with Birmingham can differ from area to area, so there is dialect variation across the Black Country without differing in the basic Black Country words. Quick speech and blended words as in "shutyarow up" (shut your row up, meaning be quiet) can seem hard to understand and can even sound like "shutchowrow up". The blendings are to be thought of as products of Black Country pronunciation, not separate dialectal words. The general intonation can sound even more similar to that of the West Country dialects, which also has an up and down sound, but different from Brummie which tends to be one tone and going down at the end. Authentic recordings The Survey of English Dialects recorded several traditional dialects from in and around the Black Country, which can be heard on the British Library Sound Archive website. G. Brooke (b.1888), market gardener from Himley, Staffordshire in the Black Country. Snead, Ted (b.1881), retired farm labourer from Hilton, Shropshire, a few miles west of the Black Country. William Wagstaffe (b.1876), retired labourer and smallholder from Romsley, Worcestershire, a few miles south of the Black