Characteristic Speaking English
 of North England
in the Movie “Billy Elliot”
Mikise Noda

The Purpose of this Presentation
The goal of this presentation is to present the characteristics of speaking dialects in  northern
England while using the expressions in the movie “ Billy Elliot”, where almost all lines are spoken
with northern English.

Basic information of “Billy Elliot”
Release date : 2000
Production company : BBC Films
Directed by : Stephen Daldry
Produced by : Greg Brenman
Starring : Julie Walters, Gary Lewis, Jamie Bell
Plot : A boy from Northern England, Durham hopes to become Ballet dancer, while his father bitterly
opposes against his dream.

Three types of speaking dialects in Northern English
1 vowel
The some kinds of vowels are pronounced in a different way
2 consonant
Consonants at the end of the word are often dropped or slightly pronounced.
3 vocabulary
There are some specific words in this region.
I will show you the examples with the scene where that words are pronounced actually in
conversations. Please click the links and skip to the designated time.

Concrete example of northern England dialect
Vowel
/ʌ /  → /ʊ, ə/ :  up, money, Monday
“up” (0:48~)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0p2X2rQ6Ag&list=PLZbXA4lyCtqrU4WWamVsJIzvaRGesWaPz&index=2
 “money” (1;17~)  “Monday” (2:03~)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDISBx2Ry7s&list=PLZbXA4lyCtqrU4WWamVsJIzvaRGesWaPz&index=5
/eɪ/ → monophthong /e:/ :  change, late
“change” (0:58~)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0tTT_87Hh8&list=PLZbXA4lyCtqrU4WWamVsJIzvaRGesWaPz&index=10
“late” (0:23~)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyLJCNyRov0&list=PLZbXA4lyCtqrU4WWamVsJIzvaRGesWaPz&index=1

 /əʊ/ → monophthong /ɔː / :  so, no, told
“no” (0:17~)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyLJCNyRov0&list=PLZbXA4lyCtqrU4WWamVsJIzvaRGesWaPz&index=1
 /ɪə/ → disyllabic /i: ə/ :  here, beer
“here” (1:42~)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0p2X2rQ6Ag&list=PLZbXA4lyCtqrU4WWamVsJIzvaRGesWaPz&index=3&t=0s
Vowel

Consonants
velar /ŋ/ → /n/  :  boxing, wrestling, frigging
glottalization of /t/ → nothing  :  what, got, city  → the “t” is completely dropped and not
pronounced
“boxing” “wrestling” “frigging” (1:11~) these words will appear in a row
“what” (1:45~)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmgV3OFn0aE&list=PLZbXA4lyCtqrU4WWamVsJIzvaRGesWaPz&index=4
/r/: → flap/tap  :  prepare, air, care
“prepare” (1:15~)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69RNNexsig&list=PLZbXA4lyCtqrU4WWamVsJIzvaRGesWaPz&index=3

Vocabulary
“Lad (lǽd)” = boy  “Lass (lǽs)” = girl  → this expression is used also in Scotland dialect
“Lads” (1:10~)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmgV3OFn0aE&list=PLZbXA4lyCtqrU4WWamVsJIzvaRGesWaPz&index=4
“Aye (ái) “ = yes
“Aye” (1:05~)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmgV3OFn0aE&list=PLZbXA4lyCtqrU4WWamVsJIzvaRGesWaPz&index=4
Other examples of specific vocabularies in Northern English(without movies and sounds)

“naught (nɔːt)” → nothing
“bairn (bέərn)” → child, baby
“Ta-ra”  →　Bye-bye

A dialect is one of a culture and deeply related with a custom in a specific region and could give
familiarity in some situation. On the other hand, speaking dialects not standard English also
contains persisting or stubbornness in their own culture, and in this movie it expresses the
closedness and conservativeness in a countryside. Billy, little boy of main character was born as a
member of this closed community and also speaks with this dialect, while hopes to become a male
ballet dancer, which wasn’t common at that period. The use of the dialect expresses the closedness
which he suffer from and try to get out of.
At last…
What’s the effect of using Northern English in this movie?