Essential English phrases

Birmingham's own name for itself, from the speed at which it grew out of nothing after 1871 once iron ore, coal and limestone were all found within a few miles of each other. The neon 'Magic City' sign at the old terminal station is the civic emblem.

Kelly Ingram Park, the 16th Street Baptist Church where four girls were killed by a bomb on 15 September 1963, the Civil Rights Institute and the A.G. Gaston Motel — all within two blocks and now a national monument. It is not a tourist item here; locals expect you to have been, and they expect you to use the right words about it.

The 17-metre cast iron statue of the Roman god of the forge standing on top of Red Mountain, made for the 1904 World's Fair and the largest cast iron statue in the world. He faces away from the Over the Mountain suburbs, which those suburbs have been complaining about for a century.

Alabama and Auburn. This is not small talk, it is an identity question, and the Iron Bowl in late November stops the state. Answering 'I don't follow football' is permitted exactly once.

The suburbs south of Red Mountain — Mountain Brook, Homewood, Vestavia Hills and Hoover. It is not a direction, it is a social and school-district category, and it is the single most-used phrase in any Birmingham housing conversation.

The Deep South's tornado corridor, distinct from the plains version: the storms come at night, in winter as well as spring, and are hidden by rain and trees. That combination is why Alabama's tornado death toll is what it is, and why local television meteorologists are household names here.

The local shorthand for a severe weather forecast. Birmingham's television meteorologists have genuine authority during a warning and people organise their evening around them. Taking the bracers off is the running joke and the actual signal.

The industrial region of furnaces, mines and mill towns around the city — Bessemer, Fairfield, Ensley, Sloss. The furnaces are museums now and the mill towns are still there, which is a lot of the city's economic geography in one phrase.

Birmingham's 1% levy on wages earned inside the city limits, withheld by the employer and owed whether or not you live here. Someone living in Mountain Brook and working downtown pays it; someone living in Birmingham and working in Hoover generally does not.

The iron-ore ridge running south-west to north-east that both created the city and divides it. The Red Mountain Expressway cuts through it, the exposed seam at Red Mountain Park is the ore they mined, and Vulcan stands on top. It is also why two addresses eight kilometres apart can be a fifteen-minute drive or a forty-minute one.

Iced tea brewed sweet, not sweetened at the table. Ordering 'tea' in Alabama gets you this. Asking for unsweet is entirely acceptable and will be met with mild pity.

The Southern lunch format — one meat and three vegetables from a steam table, at a cafeteria-style counter. Niki's West by the old farmers market is the institution, and the vegetables are not a health decision.