Voices

Alyn, Sharon, Iain and Steve

Kings Norton

Alyn Aitken, Sharon Gilmour, Iain Nash and Steve Harris all work in car sales. They got together in a local pub with a BBC interviewer to talk about their voices.

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At the end of a long day, the dealership staff often head to the pub for a well-deserved pint. We recorded them talking about how they use language at work and the 'motor trade' phrases they use.

As the only woman on the sales team, Sharon is often treated as 'one of the lads' and the men don't tone down their banter for her at all. She wouldn't mind, except that her partner tells her off for swearing too much at home! Much of what the men came out with was too blue to publish on the BBC's website...

Find out more about the group below. Click the links to listen to them talking and hear the whole group in discussion in the 'best bits'.

Contributors
Alyn Aitken
Sharon Gilmour
Steve Harris
Iain Nash

Best bits
Motor trade jargon
'Sausage and mash'
'Full of arms and legs'

Name: Alyn Aitken
Age: 27
Occupation: Car sales
Lives in: Worcester
Lived here: Less than four years
Born: Irvine
Describes own accent as: "Scottish"
Languages: English (mother tongue)

Listen to Alyn
People always think he's Welsh! The others say that Alyn talks quickly but he says he's allowed to - he's Scottish!
Listen to the clip	Read the transcript

Name: Sharon Gilmour
Age: 29
Occupation: Car sales
Lives in: Rednal, Birmingham
Lived here: Less than four years
Born: Irvine
Describes own accent as: "Normal"
Languages: English (mother tongue)

Listen to Sharon
The men at work don't tone down their language when Sharon's around at all. She says she finds herself talking like a bloke even when she's at home!
Listen to the clip	Read the transcript

Name: Steve Harris
Age: 34
Occupation: Car sales manager
Lives in: Halesowen
Lived here: All his life
Born: Birmingham
Describes own accent as: "Black Country"
Languages: English (mother tongue), some French

Listen to Steve
The "wag woman" used to come looking for children who weren't at school when Steve was a boy.
Listen to the clip	Read the transcript
Steve says people in the motor trade stick together and he has friends working for many different companies all over the UK. He thinks they pick up language from each other.
Listen to the clip
Can English-only speakers be bilingual? Steve says he will "tone up or tone down" depending on who he's talking to.
Listen to the clip

Name: Iain Nash
Age: 27
Occupation: Car sales
Lives in: Edgbaston
Lived here: Less than a year
Born: Hitchin, Hertfordshire
Describes own accent as: "Well spoken"
Languages: English (mother tongue), good French, a little German, Korean and Japanese

Listen to Iain
Iain's mother considered sending him to elocution lessons. He explains it's because he had a very strong Milton Keynes accent.
Listen to the clip	Read the transcript
Iain says people think he sounds posh - especially when he's had a few beers!
Listen to the clip

Best bit: Motor trade jargon
The group discuss words they use at work. Examples of words to describe cars are: "cut and shut", "ringed", "chopper" or "swapper" and "mint". The salesmen have lots of words about customers and deals. They talk about a few (clean) examples.
Listen to the clip

Best bit: 'Sausage and mash'
Steve says he uses the phrase "sausage and mash" at work - it's rhyming slang for 'cash'. The group laugh as the BBC interviewer says she doesn't believe he really asks about customers' "sausages". Is Steve the world's first Black Country rhyming slanger caught on tape?
Listen to the clip

Best bit: 'Full of arms and legs'
Steve says a Black Country phrase for 'pregnant' is "full of arms and legs". The group agree it's unusual but Iain says that he's heard Steve use the phrase.
Listen to the clip

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