A police probe is underway after a letter targeted Birmingham accents deeming them "vomit inducing" was left in Aberystwyth. I'm here today on the streets of Birmingham to get people's thoughts on the incident and how they feel about the perception of the accent.
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00:00 I think Birmingham accent is a kind of negative view. I can see people in Wales might feel
00:06 threatened because people from Birmingham, people from the Midlands have moved on must
00:10 to Wales but it's very nuanced. There's I think quite a lot of diversity within the
00:15 Midlands. If you go kind of 20 miles out to Worcestershire they'll speak very differently.
00:20 If you go to the black country then they're virtually unrecognisable so I think people
00:24 lump people from the Midlands in together. So although it gets a bad rep I think it's
00:30 misunderstood. I think that it's perceived in a negative light. I think that the Birmingham
00:36 accent would be perceived in a negative light to some people and some individuals. As I
00:41 have friends from all over the UK a lot of them have said that people from Birmingham
00:44 sometimes it's even hard to understand. Sometimes the pronunciation or the way they say certain
00:50 words or certain phrases could be misinterpreted. For example I would say laughing, someone
00:55 from Birmingham might say laughing. Just a different pronunciation of words but I just
00:59 think that a lot of the UK has different pronunciation of words and different vocabulary and I think
01:03 that understanding that people are from different areas and people speak differently I think
01:08 that's a great thing and I don't think that people should be demonised in the way that
01:11 they speak. So my views on Birmingham accent is that it's really hard. The words are really
01:17 similar and it can get really messed up in what people are speaking about and the accent
01:23 is quite hard. Like I've been here for the past ten years and everything, even now I'm
01:29 still learning. Even though I've been here for ten years I'm still learning a lot. The
01:35 thing is that if you say something people say oh it's not how it should be said, it's
01:40 said the other way. For example I say water, people say water. And I'm like yeah but it's
01:47 not written like that, it's written differently. Or if not there is a silent, there's a silent
01:55 tea or if not there's a silent something. I think that it can be a bit strong sometimes
02:00 that like we're from like, we're like 40 minutes away from here so we don't notice it as much
02:05 but we get told that we get, like I get told that I've got a Birmingham accent a lot of
02:09 the time and I think you sound potch. Yeah. It's a weird thing, it's like if you're from
02:15 further away you can hear it a lot. Originally I'm from London so when I actually first moved
02:21 here I could tell quite a lot but then I started working here and living here so it's kind
02:25 of worn off on me as well. I don't think it's bad as people put it to be, it's just different
02:30 like every other accent, just some people don't like it. Bit like Liverpool accent,
02:34 nobody really likes that one, well some people don't like it. For me it's not that bad.
02:38 Police have launched a hate crime probe after the Brummies were targeted with the note at
02:44 their property in the Welsh seaside town. The note implored them and others to leave
02:49 the area, stating that they are lowlife. Officers have said they wish to speak with the individual
02:55 who left the note and requested information from members of the public which could help
03:00 them during their investigation.
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