HAPPY Black Country Day for yesterday, folks.

I’m sorry Worcester doesn’t have a Worcester Day but us lot from "Dudlay" have a lot to celebrate, especially that what meks us proud to be yam yams.

The Black Country dialect is one which is actually the closest you can get to authentic Middle English, but from the borders of the county, like Old Hill, Walsall, and Tettenhall, working inwards, it gets stronger. Dudley’s version sounds a lot different to that of Cannock, Wolverhampton and Stourbridge with each having their own colloquialisms. Some of the examples of spoken vernacular include “Ow bin ya?” for “How are you?”, “babby” for “baby” and “fittle” for “food”.

Much like Catherine Philips’ 10 Things That Let You Know You’re From Worcester, I’m gooen to give yow the 10 Fings That Let Yow Know Yow Am In Or From The Black Country and my daily struggles as a yam yam.

1) Being called a “wench” is not offensive. It’s being called “flower” or “love” or “duck”, one of many words for “lady”.

2) You go elsewhere in the country to a restaurant/pub and people have no idea what you’re asking for. “Pop” means a fizzy drink and I use this daily, but say that in The Old Rectifying House and they will look at you with a blank expression, much like any other bar around this city.

3) You love a “cob”, not a “roll” or a “bap”. It’s a cob. These “bread rolls” were called this because of the way they resembled the cobbles on the street.

4) Sometimes you go “up the cut” for a walk. There’s plenty of cuts to walk along in Worcester. I am of course talking about “canals”.

5) I’ve had to start “going round the wrekin” to get to work from my home in Dudley recently because of the roadworks along the M5. This is costing me a lot more in petrol because it is “the long way round”.

6) I used to do a lot of “gambols” in PE at school. Not something I used regularly but when I went to the circus on the weekend, I saw a kid do a gambol (a “forward roll”) in the show and stated that to the person next to me who had no idea what I was talking about.

7) When I am writing traffic stories, I have to resist the urge to write “island” as this is the term us yam yams use for a “roundabout”.

8) I’ll have a “dollop”, please. Something I use when out eating usually when asking for a large quantity of sauce on my plate.

9) On my lunch break I usually go for a “mooch” (“idle about in a bored fashion”) around the shops in the city centre.

10) I am “chuffed” (“pleased”) to bits to have been able to educate you on speaking Black Country.

And much like this “bostin” (“good”) list, I hope you had a “bostin” Black Country Day. Same again next year, our kid?