Black Country dialect

It has also influenced the accents of the towns and villages in the counties to the north, south and west of the region.

The general intonation exhibits notable similarities to that of the West Country dialects, characterised by a distinctive undulating contour.

However, this contrasts with the Brummie dialect, where intonation is generally monotonous, often descending in tone towards the end of sentences.

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.

A road sign containing local dialect was placed at the A461/A459/A4037 junction in 1997 before the construction of a traffic island on the site.

The sign read, If yowm saft enuff ter cum dahn 'ere agooin wum, yowr tay ull be spile't!