Black Country Dialect (1970s) | a traditional joke and a poem

The Black Country is an area of the English West Midlands. It is known for its role in the industrial revolution, and supposedly got its name after Queen Victoria commented on the black soot that filled the air as she passed through on a train.
This video shows a fairly conservative Black Country dialect. The Black Country Dialect was largely rhotic at the beginning of the twentieth century, but this speaker uses a non-rhotic variety.
The speaker is the entertainer and poet Harry Harrison (1922-2007).
At 0:40, he says "How do, our kid?". The dialect phrase "How do?" (found parts of the Midlands and the North of England), became "howdy" in the United States.
0:00 Traditional Enoch and Eli joke en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aynuk_a...
Wim¹ in Gornal, Wim dahn eer in Gornal Football Club, Albert Sargent² all the footballers. Gonna tell you a quick Enoch and Eli joke. Pin your lugholes back³.
Enoch is in the boozer one Sunday dinnertime with Eli. He's there. Enoch says "I do feel bad". An Eli says "ya look it" and drops Jed⁴ to prove it see. Anyroad⁵ they buried him. Three months after, Elis going down the street, he sees this co-op 'oss⁶. He's there delivering coal. He guzz⁷ by this 'oss, th' 'oss says "how do, our kid?"
Eli looked at him, he says "you sound just like our Enoch". He says "well I've been Enoch" he says "you ay come back as 'oss"?" He says "arr"⁷. He says "hown⁸ you like it?" He says "ay⁹ so bad" he says "the gaffer ay so bad" he says. "He ay too bad".
Then the 'oss started to wink his eye ya know. He says "ay up¹⁰ mate" he says "coming down th' entry¹¹." He says "walk down the street hundred yards or so, I'll talk to you in a minute" he says "if he sees me talking to yow" he says "he'll have me shouting bloody coal in the morning!"¹²
¹ Wim/Weem - BC folk tend to say "am" instead of "are" , so this is basically an even shortened version of "we am in Gornal"
²Albert Sargent was a well known local author with the Black Country Bugle and Black Country Society magazine. Active in organising the old carnivals at Gornal Football club.
³shut up and listen
⁴Jed = dead
⁵ Anyroad = anyway
⁶co-op used to have horse drawn carts delivering bags of coal down the streets
⁷arr = yes
⁸Hown - how do
⁹ay = ain't
¹⁰ay up- usually stated to mean "have a look at this/here we go
¹¹entry - alleyway (see number 10 - ay up, the gaffer is coming down the entry)
¹²the horse's job is to pull the coal cart, the gaffer's job is to shout coal to let people in the houses know the coal cart is here. If the gaffer finds out the horse can talk, he'll save himself the hassle of shouting coal himself and make the horse do it!
1:20 Original poem
Off Dudley Castle's a bostin' view
And yow can see where we live for a mile or two
And the Black Country, it's like everywhere else, it's a changing scene
And all of the modern stuff, I bay ["not"] keen, mind you.
The new Tipton Gas Works, they fascinate me
Like the big lit-up flats, them a sight to see
But it th' old-fashioned places what I like the best
For me, that's where there's interest.
The Black Country, it's world famous for jobs what it's done
Th' iron and the steelworks gone everywhere under the sun
But in the factories and the foundries and the shaps (shops) and all sorts don't fret
The folks am some of the best as you've met
And we've got we own sense of humour
So don't let 'em think we dow (don't) loff (laugh), 'cause it's only a rumour
But midst th' hammering and the banging, th' heat and the sweat
They work hard and they play hard, don't you forget
It's where I live, it's the place of my birth
As for me, God bless you ladies and gentlemen, yow've been the salt of th' earth.

[@thedialectarchive5379]

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[@oof-madone]

Hope you don't mind, I've put a full explanation of the joke in the comments along with the slang. Great video, reminds me of how my old nan and her brother used to talk!

[@karengittins6648]

This is absolutely wonderful. So reminiscent... I'm from Yorkshire, but my Mum came originally from Brierley Hill. From being tiny my younger sister and myself were sent to stay with our Granny, and Great-grandparents down in The West Midlands (or Staffordshire as it was in the mid 60's) for the long school holidays, so we had great periods at a stretch, hearing the black country accent, which is a strong accent by any standard, and has very particular vocabulary and usages. Much later both of us went on to study languages at university, and I'm convinced that it stemmed from us having to decipher our Grandparents dialect with no-one to translate for us...! It was like a voyage into the foreign and it tuned our ear to different sounds and ways of using words. Marvellous... I miss my Black country people so much now, (Mum's lost her accent as she's been in Yorkshire for 60+ years- we've sadly naturalised her 😔) but I love it when I land on anyone from the Midlands. It takes me straight back. 💖🙏

[@JillnArt]

Brings back memories of me & my husband when we worked the clubs. Did some shows with Harry & he gave us some lovely write ups in the BlackCountry Bugle.

[@antdod1]

That's when the black country was still a fantastic place

[@bhangrafan4480]

Interesting! I've been looking for any information about the famous "Enoch & Eli" jokes for ages, and this is the first thing that has come up. When I lived in the West Midlands I often heard references to them, but I have never actually heard one before! This must be a pretty rare clip.

[@jamesmaybrick2001]

LOL. The new Tipton Gas Works he mentioned didnt last long, it was knocked down in the 90's and a housing estate built. I live in one those houses. My house is where a cooling tower once was. Small world.

[@oof-madone]

My nan spoke exactly like this fella, so I can understand what he's saying. I also researched the co-op thing, so here's the explanation and meanings of some of the phrases 😀 Wim¹ in Gornal, Wim dahn eer in Gornal Football Club, Albert Sargent² all the footballers. Gonna tell you a quick Enoch and Eli joke. Pin your lugholes back³. Enoch is in the boozer one Sunday dinnertime with Eli. He's there, Enoch says "I do feel bad". An Eli says "ya look it" and drops Jed⁴ to prove it see. Anyroad⁵ they buried him. Three months after, Elis going down the street, he sees this co-op 'oss⁶. He's there delivering coal. He guzz⁷ by this 'oss, 'oss says "how you doing our kid?" Eli looked at him, he says "you sound just like our Enoch". He says "well I've been Enoch" he says "you ay come back as 'oss"?" He says "arr"⁷. He says "hown⁸ you like it?" He says "ay⁹ so bad" he says "the gaffer ay so bad" he says. "He ay too bad". Then the 'oss started to wink his eye ya know. He says "ay up¹⁰ mate" he says "coming down the entry¹¹." He says "walk down the street hundred yards or so, I'll talk to you in a minute" he says "if he sees me talking to yow" he says "e'll have me shouting bloody coal in the morning!"¹² ¹ Wim/Weem - BC folk tend to say "am" instead of "are" , so this is basically an even shortened version of "we am in Gornal" ²Albert Sargent was a well known local author with the Black Country Bugle and Black Country Society magazine. Active in organising the old carnivals at Gornal Football club. ³shut up and listen ⁴Jed = dead ⁵ Anyroad = anyway ⁶co-op used to have horse drawn carts delivering bags of coal down the streets ⁷arr = yes ⁸Hown - how do ⁹ay = ain't ¹⁰ay up- usually stated to mean "have a look at this/here we go ¹¹entry - alleyway (see number 10 - ay up, the gaffer is coming down the entry) ¹²the horses job is to pull the coal cart, the gaffers job is to shout coal to let people in the houses know the coal cart is here. If the gaffer finds out the horse can talk, he'll save himself the hassle of shouting coal himself and make the horse do it!

[@thedialectarchive5379]

Thank you! I'll have a proper read through this later and incorporate it into the video description if you don't mind! Do you have any idea what the first part of the final line of the poem is? Also is the "so don't let them think we dole off" bit correct (end of verse 3)?

[@oof-madone]

@@thedialectarchive5379 @The Dialect Archive Of course, feel free to incorporate, glad I could translate! What he says in the 3rd verse is "dow (pronounced dough) let them think we dow loff" (don't let them think we don't laugh) strangely enough other words that rhyme with laugh (bath, math) are still pronounced as they should be, I'm not sure why we say loff! I'm pretty certain the last line at the start he simply says "as for me god bless ya" One more thing aswell, when he mentions the foundries and factories he says "shaps" not "chaps". Shaps is a very black country way of saying shops. Great videos by the way, look forward to seeing more!

[@padraigmckenna]

Ar bay aired anyone spake like him for donkey’s me mon still mecks me loff when I ears it

[@choicesman2000]

I caught a wale sorry I mean a wheel

[@albiondp4488]

1st ? = "he drops his head" 2nd ? = "any road" 3rd ? = not actually sure lol 4th ? = either "shouting" or "shout him" 5th ? = bay (BCD word for i'm not) "i bay a-gewen" - i'm not going 6th ? = possible "as thee may" - not sure One note: the passage {Eli looked at him, he says "You sound just like our Enoch". He says "Well I been Enoch, you see I come back as 'oss". He says "Oh".} - here "oh" is actually "ar" - which just means yes - it's frequently used in the sense of a head-nodding acknowledgement to what someone has just said. or simply used instead of answering yes to a question. Contributions from a native speaker in their 20s from cradley :) His spake is very broad lol

[@thedialectarchive5379]

Thank you so much! I'll update the video description. However, I'm still not sure about a couple of these. 0:24 What does "any road they buried him" mean to you? It seems more likely he says something like "anyhow, they buried him", but I don't think that's it either. Could it be "in a row"? Do you know what he's saying right at the beginning, when he says something like "Wim(?) in Gornal, wim(?) down there's Gornal Football Club ?????? all the footballers"?

[@albiondp4488]

@@thedialectarchive5379 I can confirm it’s “any road they buried him” - older speakers still use any road to mean anyhow in the same sense. As for the start, I must confess I’m not sure what he’s even saying about the football club 😂

[@thedialectarchive5379]

@@albiondp4488 Great! Thanks!

[@MidlandsClassicMotors]

​@thedialectarchive5379 hi I can understand broad black country dialect perfectly. Wim or weem is we are. Am is used instead of are so wim is we am meaning we are.

[@jacksonpauljackson2557]

He drops his yed