Introducing Family and Friends to Billy Elliot The Musical

[ERinVA]

Yorkie

Seems the biggest stumbling block is still the accent though; a great many of people obviously struggle with the variety of British accents. On that subject could I ask a question? On the original cast recording can none Brits pick out when Liam slips out of his Geordie accent and speaks in his Yorkshire accent or does it all sound the same?

I noticed nobody answered your question, Yorkie, so I guess everybody did not notice the change in accents. You made your point well.

I, for one, did not and still have not noticed when Liam slipped out of his Geordie accent. When does this occur?

Thanks.
maria

Ahh well now, far be it from me to set myself as some sort of expert cunning linguist but I knew somebody would ask that question! So, I've used it as an excuse to play the album one more time and these are the places where I think he talks more like a Tyke than a Geordie:

“Miss, the keys” in Shine

“Grandma, do you really not remember about Granddad?” at the start of Grandma’s song

Most of the dialogue with Mrs W at the start of Solidarity and the “Miss I don’t know what to do’s”.

Also, when he shouts out “Scab, f’ing scab” at about 4:40 of solidarity he isn’t doing it in a Geordie accent.

In the letter most of the dialogue after “it’s from me mam” up to but not including “a long time” which is a good enough take on Geordie for me.

In contrast his dialogue for the 2nd letter is really pretty good accent wise to my ear.

And to make it clear I'm not bashing Liam who I think is brilliant (good British word that) and a fellow Yorkshireman to boot and I love the OCR too. Just interested to see if other people noticed what I perceived to be an accent that was a bit wobbly.

I suspect that the closer your natural accent is to the one you are trying to do, the harder it would be to consistently achieve the different one.

[Yorkie]

I suspect that the closer your natural accent is to the one you are trying to do, the harder it would be to consistently achieve the different one.

Could be, but nobody in the UK would say that a Yorkshire accent is anything like a Geordie accent. I'm curious now, when you hear Liam speak in his normal accent does it sound like Geordie to you?

[Todd]

I'm curious now, when you hear Liam speak in his normal accent does it sound like Geordie to you?

Not sure if you're directing this question at Ellen, or rather to anyone here who cares to respond. As for me, I would say that it doesn't sound quite like Geordie, but it sounds closer to Geordie than - say - a London accent (if that's what a "posh" British accent is called there). I would imagine Americans would tend to say that "it all sounds the same to me" more than people from the U.K. who are able to detect even the slightest difference in regional accents. I'm getting better at it - having visited there a handful of times now - but "I'm not exactly an expert or anything!" In fact, I admit having a hard time telling the difference between an English and an Australian accent most of the time.

Accents have always fascinated me, as I feel like I have a pretty good handle on regional accents here in the U.S. I'd be curious to know if any of our U.K. members who have visited the U.S. on several occasions have gotten to where you can identify certain regional accents. New York, Chicago, Texas, North Carolina, New England and Minnesota, for example, all have distinct sounds to my ears.

Just out of curiosity, what region is a Cockney accent associated with ?

[dancingboy]

I'm curious now, when you hear Liam speak in his normal accent does it sound like Geordie to you?

Not sure if you're directing this question at Ellen, or rather to anyone here who cares to respond. As for me, I would say that it doesn't sound quite like Geordie, but it sounds closer to Geordie than - say - a London accent (if that's what a "posh" British accent is called there). I would imagine Americans would tend to say that "it all sounds the same to me" more than people from the U.K. who are able to detect even the slightest difference in regional accents. I'm getting better at it - having visited there a handful of times now - but "I'm not exactly an expert or anything!" In fact, I admit having a hard time telling the difference between an English and an Australian accent most of the time.

Accents have always fascinated me, as I feel like I have a pretty good handle on regional accents here in the U.S. I'd be curious to know if any of our U.K. members who have visited the U.S. on several occasions have gotten to where you can identify certain regional accents. New York, Chicago, Texas, North Carolina, New England and Minnesota, for example, all have distinct sounds to my ears.

Just out of curiosity, what region is a Cockney accent associated with ?

from dancingboy...... A Cockney accent belongs to London. The original meaning of a Cockney was a person born within the sound of Bow bells,Bow being situated in the east end of London, near the heart of the City.

[ERinVA]

As I understand it, London has several accents, including Cockney. There are several accents that I find fairly easy to identify, and others not so much. I can tell you whether an English person has a northern accent, but I can't necessarily pinpoint the exact area for you, just as I expect you would be able to tell me I am from the South in the US, but you wouldn't necessarily be able to pinpoint the state, or the region of the state.

I can recognize an accent from around Manchester, and I can usually identify a Yorkshire accent. However, some people's accents will be very strong, and others not so much. I sat in a train car a couple of visits ago and listened to a man talking on his phone (very hard not to). I could say without a doubt that he was a Geordie. His accent was very strong, even down to the use of "yiz" and other similar Geordie-isms.

As for Liam's real accent, yes, I can hear differences in his accent from that used in the show, but not in short phrases like those on the OCR.

PS When I had the chance once to have a bit of an extended conversation with Liam, he asked me if I was from Texas.

[Yorkie]

Yes my question was open to all and sorry if it seemed tinged with a hint that somebody from North America should be able to tell all UK regional accents - I wasn't suggesting that just asking an honest question.

I can pinpoint some US accents (New York is easy, we hear that so often) and similar to Ellen with British accents I could tell a generic Southern accent from a Yankee one but unlikely that I could tell you which State it was from. Texas and Minnesota are pretty distintive too as is California.

If I'm honest I often struggle to distinguish a generic US accent from a Canadian one (and sometimes with New Zealand and Aussie if I'm off guard). So we all sound the bloody same to you guys? Typical.

I was once asked in New York if I was an Aussie. Never been so insulted in my life. Think it was in Macy's iirc..........So anybody relistend to the OCR and noticed a difference now I've mentioned it?

[accessmenj]

I have not yet listened to Liam, but I did relisten to recordings of the crowd talking in several spots in Billy Elliot The Musical, and I still miss much of the shouted talk. You're right, Yorkie, accents are a major problem, especially with crowd noise and background music.

[Todd]

I have not yet listened to Liam, but I did relisten to recordings of the crowd talking in several spots in Billy Elliot The Musical, and I still miss much of the shouted talk. You're right, Yorkie, accents are a major problem, especially with crowd noise and background music.

I remember soon after the OCR came out, there was some Forum discussion about what Jackie (Tim Healy on the recording) was saying to Billy in "Solidarity" when he was asking him where he had been going and Billy said, "Boxing, where you think?" At this point, Tony is yelling, "Dad ! Dad !" and Jackie has to cut his conversation short with Billy, so he yells something that sounds like, "I'll see you later you-uhn !" I remember at the time, it was right around when the Olivier Awards were taking place and someone joked that maybe Jackie was saying, "I'll see you later Ewan !" . . . in reference to Ewan McGregor finishing behind the 3 Billys in the Best Actor category.

[Yorkie]

I have not yet listened to Liam, but I did relisten to recordings of the crowd talking in several spots in Billy Elliot The Musical, and I still miss much of the shouted talk. You're right, Yorkie, accents are a major problem, especially with crowd noise and background music.

I remember soon after the OCR came out, there was some Forum discussion about what Jackie (Tim Healy on the recording) was saying to Billy in "Solidarity" when he was asking him where he had been going and Billy said, "Boxing, where you think?" At this point, Tony is yelling, "Dad ! Dad !" and Jackie has to cut his conversation short with Billy, so he yells something that sounds like, "I'll see you later you-uhn !" I remember at the time, it was right around when the Olivier Awards were taking place and someone joked that maybe Jackie was saying, "I'll see you later Ewan !" . . . in reference to Ewan McGregor finishing behind the 3 Billys in the Best Actor category.

Poor Ewan I take it they settled on the very obvious "young 'un" (young one) in the end?

[StevenKing]

I never associated "Posh" accent with London exactly, always assumed it was general upper class accent and maybe centered around London but not regional in general. I knew Cockney was UK version of inner-city accent of London. Geordie before Villy I would have recognized as northern in general and I'd also recognize Welsh I think but others such as Manchester I only know now because of Billy members(Rhys mostly).still would not recognize Yorkshire or Cornish etc etc. Even here accents like Southern have different flavors, closest we have to geordie id say is Cajun...full force I'd not recognize a word lol.