Billy Elliot the Forum

Haway the lads n lasses! This heor discussion is supposed te be aboot t' true Geordie accent! Away wi the prattle aboot t' Iron Lady an get ye back on te t' subject!

kport wrote: It may interest readers of this Forum to learn that the real-life Easington is purported to be the least multicultural town in England (99.2% are white). The 2001 census also revealed that it has the lowest percentage of Jedi knights!

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/census/ce ... /jedi.html

May The Farce Be With Them

I was on a train once from York to London, and there were people aboard from points farther north, some of whom were no doubt true Geordies, and they were conversing among themselves loudly enough that it was impossible not to listen. I think a pint or two in advance of boarding may have been involved. Anyway, as a result of my experience with the show, I was able to understand quite a bit of what they were saying. One usage that particularly struck me was the use of "yiz." I have also heard it from people talking on their mobile phones while on the train. But what is really interesting is that recently I was talking to a neighbor who grew up in New Jersey, and guess what came out of her mouth several times during the conversation? "Yiz"! Her husband uses it too.

Todd wrote:It will be interesting to see if Tade Biesinger picks up a British accent while he's doing the show in London, as Adam Vesperman and Tanner Pflueger did. Interesting that it was just these two who did (correct me if I'm wrong), as I don't remember hearing any accent change from Hogan Fulton, Corey Snide, Trent Kowalik or Colin Bates in any of their post-London Billy interviews.

How about a Billy that comes TO the USA and totally loses his accent...ie Gusippie.I'm still amazed in interviews where there's not a hint of it, you do NOT see that in adults.

Good point.

I believe this has to do with neural plasticity which tends to be greater in children.
http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/conten ... 5.abstract

In other words, if you come into contact with a different language or accent as a youngster, you will be much more likely to speak the new language fluently, and/or your accent will be more likely to change to match the accent you are around. Right?

Supposedly it is much harder for adults to learn a new language, and if/when they do, their accents will never sound correct to native speakers.