Brommie

I remember the first time I heard a brommie (Birmingham) accent - it was on the radio (BBC 18 or some such creatively-named station, in true British form), and I was sure it was a joke. I couldn't believe that anyone would actually talk quite like that, and I found it absolutely fascinating. The program ended far too quickly, and I was disappointed to get back to a regular old BBC voice.

Well, the novelty has worn off.

There is a TV channel here called EuroNews. Clearly, they talk quite a bit about Europe, which is fine with me - somebody probably should. But the guy who does a lot of the voice-overs for them has, I believe, a brommie accent. And so there is one word for which he has a rather distinct pronunciation.

Unfortunately, it's "Europe".

When he says it, it comes out as "YOUR-op". This wouldn't be a big deal if it was "chesnuts" or "didactic" or some other word which didn't come up quite as frequently, but since YOUR-op can fall several times within the same sentence, I do find myself wondering exactly how he got the job. Knows the owner, maybe?

In other news, I've been sick, but there are more pictures on the way...