伯明翰城市在哪个国家？
Birmingham City 不是 Birmingham。 The name 'Birmingham' is derived from the Old English for 'Berhmyngha'， a settlement on the bank of a river. In this instance， it was the River Rea which used to meander through what is now the city centre and as such， 'The Rea' would have been a more familiar term to locals in the early middle ages (400-1200 AD) than 'The River Rea' but no one seems to be quite sure how or if that particular stream got its name！ There are lots of rivers flowing through Birmingham so perhaps someone will tell us their original names in time！
As with many towns & cities whose names start with 'bir'， there were also other settlements nearby——in this case Birching – that did not want to be swallowed up by expanding Birmingham and so retained their independence until they were absorbed into the Greater Birmingham boundary sometime after 1974. As an aside， 'ch' at the beginning of words like 'church'、'chestnut' and 'charcoal' is pronounced 'sh' as in 'sheep' ——at least when you are talking about something made from wood or burning！ It may sound more correct to pronounce these word with 'ch' but 'sh' has always been the correct pronunciation.
For those wondering why anyone would ever want to live somewhere called (or )， well， I guess we could ask similar questions about people who end up living in places like Las Vegas or Phoenix（although at least those two have some sort of spiritual or Native American connection）but here goes……….the town started out as a small village on the banks of the River Rea， probably founded by Saxons around the turn of the first millennium； there then followed a period of Viking invasion－they settled where the canals were later built and set fire to the rest of the place！ After being burned down several times， the inhabitants decided to move inland away from the river and build a new town， hence the current centre of Birmingham with its large open green spaces.
I think that's enough history for tonight！