Student learns how to 'spake proper'

A Danish student has become so fascinated with the Black Country accent he is dedicating his degree to the region's dialect.

Soren Andersen, a student at Copenhagen Business School, is learning terms such as "bostin" and "wummit" to teach his fellow students how to "spake proper".

The 34-year-old, who also speaks German and Spanish, is intrigued by the accent and the differences between the way residents of the Black Country and Birmingham speak.

He is recording residents from around the region for his masters degree in English and will then play the tapes to people across the country to ask for their opinions on the accent.

Black Country 'spake'

Get that beer down yer wazzin: Hurry up and finish your beer.

This is bostin fittle ower kid: The food here is excellent

Bist thee cumin or bist thee bae?: Are you coming along or not?

Soren, who is staying with friends in Stourbridge, said he first came to the town in 1996 on other travels and worked in the exports department at medical equipment company Sunrise Medical.

When he went back to Denmark in 1999 he decided to carry on with his English studies and decided the best place to study language and phonetics would be back in the Black Country.

"I find the accent so interesting, that I thought why not write 100 pages on it for my thesis.

"I will not go into much of the history of the accent, but more on how it is perceived by people."

Soren got a bit of extra help from Alan Smith, one half of the Black Country comic duo Aynuk and Ayli.