58-441: (Redirected from The Ladykillers ) The Ladykillers or Ladykillers may refer to: The Ladykillers (1955 film) , a comedy starring Alec Guinness The Ladykillers (2004 film) , a remake featuring Tom Hanks The Ladykillers (play) , a 2011 stage adaptation of the 1955 film Ladykillers (film) , an unrelated 1988 made-for-TV movie National Lampoon's Lady Killers ,
116-598: A Survey of English Dialects fieldworker, concluded that this was not a universal feature of Cockneys but that it was more common to hear this in the London area than elsewhere in Britain. This description may also be a result of mishearing the labiodental R as /w/ , when it is still a distinct phoneme in Cockney. An unstressed final -ow may be pronounced [ ə ] . In broad Cockney, this can be lowered to [ ɐ ] . This
174-480: A multiethnolect particularly common amongst young people from diverse backgrounds. Nevertheless, the glottal stop , double negatives, and the vocalisation of the dark L (and other features of Cockney speech) are among the Cockney influences on Multicultural London English, and some rhyming slang terms are still in common usage. An influential July 2010 report by Paul Kerswill , professor of sociolinguistics at Lancaster University , Multicultural London English:
232-480: A "cokenay" as "a child tenderly brought up" and, by extension, "an effeminate fellow" or "a milksop ". This may have developed from the sources above or separately, alongside such terms as " cock " and " cocker " which both have the sense of "to make a nestle-cock ... or the darling of", "to indulge or pamper". By 1600, this meaning of cockney was being particularly associated with the Bow Bells area. In 1617,
290-437: A 2003 comedy film "Ladykillers" (song) , a song from the album Lovelife by Lush "Lady Killers" (G-Eazy song) , a song from the album Must Be Nice by G-Eazy See also [ edit ] Lady Killer (disambiguation) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Ladykillers . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change
348-653: A new, melting-pot mixture of all those people living here who learned English as a second language ", Kerswill said. A series of new and expanded towns have often had a strong influence on local speech. Many areas beyond the capital have become Cockney-speaking to a greater or lesser degree, including the new towns of Hemel Hempstead , Basildon , and Harlow , and expanded towns such as Grays , Chelmsford and Southend . However, this is, except where least mixed, difficult to discern because of common features: linguistic historian and researcher of early dialects Alexander John Ellis in 1890 stated that Cockney developed owing to
406-652: A recording from a long-time resident of Hackney in the 1950s, and the BBC made another recording in 1999 which showed how the accent had changed. One of the characteristic pronunciations of Cockney is th-fronting . The early development of Cockney vocabulary is obscure, but appears to have been heavily influenced by Essex and related eastern dialects, while borrowings from Yiddish , including kosher (originally Hebrew, via Yiddish, meaning legitimate ) and shtum ( /ʃtʊm/ originally German, via Yiddish, meaning mute ), as well as Romani , for example wonga (meaning money , from
464-479: A variety of spellings, including Cockayne , Cocknay , and Cockney , and became humorously associated with the English capital London . The current meaning of Cockney comes from its use among rural Englishmen (attested in 1520) as a pejorative term for effeminate town-dwellers, from an earlier general sense (encountered in " The Reeve's Tale " of Geoffrey Chaucer 's The Canterbury Tales c. 1386 ) of
522-619: Is a dialect of the English language , mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by Londoners with working-class and lower middle-class roots. The term Cockney is also used as a demonym for a person from the East End , or, traditionally, born within earshot of Bow Bells . Estuary English is an intermediate accent between Cockney and Received Pronunciation , also widely spoken in and around London, as well as in wider South Eastern England. In multicultural areas of London,
580-516: Is a 1955 British black comedy crime film directed by Alexander Mackendrick for Ealing Studios . It stars Alec Guinness , Cecil Parker , Herbert Lom , Peter Sellers , Danny Green , Jack Warner , and Katie Johnson as the old lady, Mrs. Wilberforce. William Rose wrote the screenplay, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and won the BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay . He claimed to have dreamt
638-453: Is a correlation between the two geographic definitions under the typical prevailing wind conditions. The term can apply to East Londoners who do not speak the dialect and those who do. The traditional core districts of the East End include the Middlesex towns of Bethnal Green , Whitechapel , Spitalfields , Stepney , Wapping , Limehouse , Poplar , Haggerston , Aldgate , Shoreditch ,
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#1732855767389696-667: Is also transcribed as a semivowel [w] by some linguists, e.g., Coggle and Rosewarne. However, according to Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996) , the vocalized dark l is sometimes an unoccluded lateral approximant, which differs from the RP [ɫ] only by the lack of the alveolar contact. Relatedly, there are many possible vowel neutralisations and absorptions in the context of a following dark L ( [ɫ] ) or its vocalized version; these include: Cockney has been occasionally described as replacing /ɹ/ with /w/ . For example, thwee (or fwee ) instead of three , fwasty instead of frosty . Peter Wright,
754-484: Is approached by a sly and sinister character, "Professor" Marcus, who wants to rent rooms in her house. Mrs Wilberforce is not aware that Marcus has assembled a gang of hardened criminals for a sophisticated security van robbery at the nearby railway station , who plan to use Mrs. Wilberforce's house as a base of operations. The gang includes the jittery and gentlemanly con-man Major Courtney, the Cockney spiv Harry Robinson,
812-524: Is common to most traditional, Southern English dialects except for those in the West Country . Regarding grammar, Cockney uses me instead of my , for example, "At's me book you got 'ere" [ˈæʔs mɪ ˈbʊk jə ˈɡɔʔ eː] . (where 'ere' means 'there'). It cannot be used when "my" is emphasized; e.g., "At's my book you got 'ere" [æʔs ˈmɑj ˈbʊk jə ˈɡɔʔ eː] . It also uses the term ain't , as well as double negatives , for example, "I didn't see nuffink". By
870-472: Is commonly found, and typical Scottish features such as the postvocalic /r/ are reduced. Research suggests the use of English speech characteristics is likely to be a result of the influence of London and South East England accents featuring heavily on television, such as the popular BBC One soap opera EastEnders . However, such claims have been criticized. Certain features of Cockney – Th -fronting , L -vocalisation , T -glottalisation , and
928-413: Is killed by One-Round, and One-Round is killed by Louis after he leaves his gun's safety hatch on and fails to shoot Louis and Marcus. Marcus kills Louis by luring him down a ladder by the bridge overlooking the railway and dislodging it, causing Louis to fall into a passing railway wagon. Before falling into the carriage, Louis fires a last shot at Marcus which nearly hits him. Within moments, Marcus himself
986-420: Is struck on the head by a changing railway signal , and his body drops into another wagon. All the other bodies have been dumped into railway wagons passing behind the house and are now far away. Mrs. Wilberforce is now left alone with the plunder. She goes to the police, but they do not believe her story. They humour her, telling her to keep "the money". She is puzzled but finally relents and returns home. Along
1044-511: Is the self-publicising critic and man of the theatre Kenneth Tynan , who had written a monograph on Guinness and been an assistant on the disastrous 1951 Festival of Britain production of Hamlet starring Guinness." Robinson was the first major film role for Peter Sellers; he would later appear with Lom in five of The Pink Panther films. Sellers and Guinness would appear together again in Murder By Death (1976). The Ladykillers
1102-433: Is traditionally described as having the unaspirated variants. Also, in broad Cockney at least, the degree of aspiration is typically greater than in RP, and may often also involve some degree of affrication [pᶲʰ, tˢʰ, kˣʰ] . Affricatives may be encountered in initial, intervocalic, and final position. This feature results in Cockney being often mentioned in textbooks about Semitic languages while explaining how to pronounce
1160-861: Is used in words such as bath, path, demand . This originated in London in the 16th–17th centuries and is also part of Received Pronunciation (RP). The accent features T-glottalisation , with use of the glottal stop as an allophone of /t/ in various positions, including after a stressed syllable. Glottal stops also occur, albeit less frequently for /k/ and /p/ , and occasionally for mid-word consonants. For example, Richard Whiteing spelled "Hyde Park" as Hy' Par' . Like and light can be homophones. "Clapham" can be said as Cla'am (i.e., [ˈkl̥æʔm̩] ). /t/ may also be flapped intervocalically, e.g. utter [ˈaɾə] . London /p, t, k/ are often aspirated in intervocalic and final environments, e.g., upper [ˈapʰə] , utter [ˈatʰə] , rocker [ˈɹɔkʰə] , up [ˈaʔpʰ] , out [ˈæːʔtʰ] , rock [ˈɹɔʔkʰ] , where RP
1218-757: The Times Educational Supplement in October 1984. Rosewarne argued that it may eventually replace Received Pronunciation in the south-east. The phonetician John C. Wells collected media references to Estuary English on a website . Writing in April 2013, Wells argued that research by Joanna Przedlacka "demolished the claim that EE was a single entity sweeping the southeast. Rather, we have various sound changes emanating from working-class London speech, each spreading independently". The Pearly Kings and Queens are famous as an East End institution, but that perception
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#17328557673891276-410: The 13th greatest British film of all time . In 2017 a poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers and critics for Time Out magazine saw it ranked the 29th best British film ever. In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted The Ladykillers the 36th greatest comedy film of all time, and The Guardian labelled it the 5th greatest comedy of all time in 2010. Cockney Cockney
1334-500: The BBC (except in entertainment programs such as The Sooty Show ) was the RP of Standard English, whereas nowadays many different accents, including Cockney or accents heavily influenced by it, can be heard on the BBC. In a survey of 2,000 people conducted by Coolbrands in the autumn of 2008, Cockney was voted equal fourth coolest accent in Britain with 7% of the votes, while The Queen's English
1392-588: The Great Fire of London and rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren . Although the bells were destroyed again in 1941 in the Blitz , they had fallen silent on 13 June 1940 as part of the British anti-invasion preparations of World War II . Before they were replaced in 1961, there was a period when, by the "within earshot" definition, no "Bow Bell" Cockneys could be born. The use of such a literal definition produces other problems since
1450-530: The Isle of Dogs , Hackney , Hoxton , Bow and Mile End . The informal definition of the East End has gradually expanded to include such towns in south-west Essex as Forest Gate , East Ham , Leyton , Plaistow , Stratford , Walthamstow and West Ham , as these have formed part of London's growing conurbation . The church of St Mary-le-Bow is one of the oldest, largest, and historically most important churches in
1508-610: The London County Council , stating that "the Cockney mode of speech, with its unpleasant twang, is a modern corruption without legitimate credentials, and is unworthy of being the speech of any person in the capital city of the Empire ". Others defended the language variety: "The London dialect is really, especially on the South side of the Thames, a perfectly legitimate and responsible child of
1566-659: The glottal stop . Cockney also demonstrates: The diphthong offsets are only fully close in /ɪj/ and /ʉw/ : [əi̯, əʉ̯] . In all other cases, they are more similar to [ɪ̯, ʊ̯] or [e̯, o̯] . According to Beaken, /æj/ and /ɑj/ typically glide towards [ e ] : [æe̯, ɑe̯] , /oj/ towards [ ɪ ] : [oɪ̯] , /əw/ and the wide allophone of /æː/ towards [ ʊ ] : [ɐʊ̯, æʊ̯] , whereas /ɔw/ and /ɒw/ both towards [ o ] : [ɔo̯, ɒo̯] . According to Mott, [e̯, o̯] do not occur at all as glides: [æɪ̯, ɑɪ̯, oɪ̯, ɐʊ̯, æʊ̯, ɒʊ̯] (he does not show /ɪj, ʉw, ɔw/ on his charts). Furthermore, Wells remarks on
1624-579: The 1980s and 1990s, most of the features mentioned above had partly spread into more general south-eastern speech, giving the accent called Estuary English ; an Estuary speaker will use some but not all of the Cockney sounds. The Cockney accent has long been regarded as an indicator of low status. For example, in 1909 the Conference on the Teaching of English in London Elementary Schools issued by
1682-408: The 19th century. As the city grew, the definitions shifted to alternatives based on dialect or more specific areas; the East End and the area within earshot of Bow Bells. The East End of London and the vicinity of Bow bells are often used interchangeably, representing the identity of the East End. The region within the audible range of the bells varies depending on the direction of the wind, but there
1740-606: The City of London. The definition based on being born within earshot of the bells, cast at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry , reflects the early definition of the term as relating to all of London. The audible range of the Bells is dependent on geography and wind conditions. The east is mostly low lying, a factor which combines with the strength and regularity of the prevailing wind, blowing from west-south-west for nearly three-quarters of
1798-452: The Cockney dialect is, to an extent, being replaced by Multicultural London English —a new form of speech with significant Cockney influence. The earliest recorded use of the term is 1362 in passus VI of William Langland 's Piers Plowman , where it is used to mean "a small, misshapen egg ", from Middle English coken + ey ("a cock 's egg"). Concurrently, the mythical land of luxury Cockaigne ( attested from 1305) appeared under
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1856-498: The Cockney dialect spread along the main railway routes to towns in the surrounding counties as early as 1923, spreading further after World War II when many refugees left London owing to the bombing, and continuing to speak Cockney in their new homes. A more distant example where the accent stands out is Thetford in Norfolk, which tripled in size from 1957 in a deliberate attempt to attract Londoners by providing social housing funded by
1914-612: The London County Council. As with many accents of the United Kingdom, Cockney is non-rhotic . A final -er is pronounced [ ə ] or lowered [ ɐ ] in broad Cockney. As with all or nearly all non-rhotic accents, the paired lexical sets COMM A and LETT ER , PALM/BATH and START , THOUGHT and NORTH/FORCE , are merged. Thus, the last syllable of words such as cheetah can be pronounced [ ɐ ] as well in broad Cockney. A broad /ɑː/
1972-449: The Romani "wanga" meaning coal), and cushty (Kushty) (from the Romani kushtipen , meaning good) reflect the influence of those groups on the development of the speech. John Camden Hotten, in his Slang Dictionary of 1859, refers to "their use of a peculiar slang language" when describing the costermongers of London's East End. A dialectological study of Leytonstone in 1964 found that
2030-466: The area around the church is no longer residential, and the noise pollution means few are born within earshot. Regional definitions are sometimes blurred. Ahead of the 2024-25 season, West Ham United released an away shirt which it called the ‘Cockney Kit’. The promotional material celebrated a Cockney identity for East London based on a territory rather than dialect. The kit featured the Bow Bells on
2088-489: The area's dialect was very similar to that recorded in Bethnal Green by Eva Sivertsen , but there were still some features that distinguished Leytonstone speech from Cockney. Linguistic research conducted in the early 2010s suggests that today, some aspects of the Cockney accent are declining in usage within multicultural areas, where some traditional features of Cockney have been displaced by Multicultural London English ,
2146-422: The central offglides [ə̯] and [ʉ̯] are transcribed as non-syllabic vowels due to the lack of appropriate glide symbols. Diphthong alterations in Cockney are: Other vowel differences include The dialect uses the vocalisation of dark L , hence [ˈmɪwwɔw] for Millwall . The actual realization of a vocalized /l/ is influenced by surrounding vowels, and it may be realized as [u] , [ʊ] , [o] or [ɤ] . It
2204-401: The criminals decide they must kill her. No one wants to do it, so they draw lots using matchsticks. The Major loses but tries to make a run for it with the cash. While Mrs. Wilberforce dozes, the criminals double-cross each other and end up killing one another in rapid succession. The Major falls off the roof of the house after being chased by Louis, Harry attempts to escape with the money but
2262-475: The emergence, acquisition, and diffusion of a new variety , predicted that the Cockney accent would disappear from London's streets within 30 years. The study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council , said that the accent, which has been around for more than 500 years, is being replaced in London by a new hybrid language. "Cockney in the East End is now transforming itself into Multicultural London English,
2320-561: The entire film and merely had to remember the details when he awoke. Mrs Wilberforce is a sweet and eccentric old widow who lives alone in a gradually subsiding house, built over the entrance to a railway tunnel in Kings Cross, London . With nothing to occupy her time and an active imagination, she is a frequent visitor to the local police station where she reports fanciful suspicions regarding neighbourhood activities. The officers there humour her but give her reports no credence whatsoever. She
2378-519: The film made a comfortable profit. The film received critical acclaim from critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes , the film holds a rare approval rating of 100% based on 31 reviews, with an average score of 8.7/10. The website's consensus reads, " The Ladykillers is a macabre slow-burn with quirky performances of even quirkier characters." On Metacritic , the film received a score of 91 based on 7 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". The British Film Institute ranked The Ladykillers
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2436-618: The fronting of the GOAT and GOOSE vowels – have spread across the south-east of England and, to a lesser extent, to other areas of Britain. However, Clive Upton has noted that these features have occurred independently in some other dialects, such as TH-fronting in Yorkshire and L-vocalisation in parts of Scotland. The term Estuary English has been used to describe London pronunciations slightly closer to RP than Cockney. The variety first came to public prominence in an article by David Rosewarne in
2494-402: The gang's true colours and informs Marcus that she is going to the police. Stalling, the gangsters try to convince Mrs. Wilberforce that she will be considered an accomplice for holding the cash. Marcus asserts that the heist was a victimless crime as insurance will cover all the losses and the police will probably not even accept the money back. Mrs Wilberforce wavers but eventually rallies, and
2552-433: The heist, and trick Mrs. Wilberforce into retrieving the disguised money from the railway station herself. As the gang departs her house with the loot, One-Round accidentally gets his cello case full of banknotes trapped in the front door. As he pulls the case free, banknotes spill forth while Mrs. Wilberforce looks on. After she learns from a visiting friend that a robbery has taken place nearby, Mrs. Wilberforce finally sees
2610-605: The influence of Essex dialect on London speech. Writing in 1981, the dialectologist Peter Wright identified the building of the Becontree estate in Dagenham as influential in the spread of the Cockney dialect. This vast estate was built by the Corporation of London to house poor East Enders in a previously rural area of Essex. The residents typically kept their Cockney dialect rather than adopt an Essex dialect. Wright also reports that
2668-485: The laxness of the unrounded offset of /əw/ , which is a kind of a centralized [ ɤ ] : [ɐɤ̯] . In the rest of the article, this is treated as a simple allophonic rule and only ⟨ j ⟩ and ⟨ w ⟩ are used for the diphthong offsets. In narrow phonetic transcription, their rounded and unrounded counterparts are written with ⟨ ɥ ⟩ and ⟨ ɰ ⟩ (phonetically [ʏ̯ ~ ø̯] and [ɯ̜̽ ~ ɤ̯] in fully narrow transcription). Only
2726-398: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ladykillers&oldid=1230500285 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages The Ladykillers (1955 film) The Ladykillers
2784-484: The metal pin and tore the back of Alec's jacket. He had been standing an inch or two in front of the chalk mark — a mistake that saved his life." - Piers Paul Read William Rose left the production midway, following arguments with director Alexander Mackendrick and associate producer Seth Holt, leaving them to complete the script from his notes. According to the National Film Finance Corporation ,
2842-414: The modern era, noise pollution means that the bells can only be heard as far as Shoreditch . According to legend, Dick Whittington heard the bells 4.5 miles away at Highgate Hill, in what is now north London . The studies mean that it is credible that Whittington might have heard them on one of the infrequent days that the wind blows from the south. The church of St Mary-le-Bow was destroyed in 1666 by
2900-575: The old Kentish tongue [...] the dialect of London North of the Thames has been shown to be one of the many varieties of the Midland or Mercian dialect, flavoured by the East Anglian variety of the same speech". Since then, the Cockney accent has been more accepted as an alternative form of the English language rather than a lesser one, though the low status mark remains. In the 1950s, the only accent to be heard on
2958-432: The punch-drunk ex-boxer 'One-Round' Lawson and the cruel and vicious continental gangster Louis Harvey. As a cover, Marcus convinces the naive Mrs. Wilberforce that the group is an amateur string quintet using the rooms for rehearsal space. To maintain the deception, the gang members carry musical instruments and play recordings of Boccherini and Haydn during their planning sessions. The criminals successfully carry out
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#17328557673893016-462: The reverse as a symbol of the area, and the promotional video included the church of St Mary-le-Bow and parts of East London within earshot of the bells – such as Brick Lane , Upper Clapton and Stratford – as well as a scene in Romford , in suburban East London. Cockney speakers have distinctive accents and dialects and occasionally use rhyming slang . The Survey of English Dialects took
3074-413: The spread of Cockney English since the 1960s. Cockney is more and more influential and some claim that in the future many features of the accent may become standard. Studies have indicated that working-class adolescents in areas such as Glasgow have begun to use certain aspects of Cockney and other Anglicisms in their speech. infiltrating the traditional Glasgow patter . For example, TH -fronting
3132-455: The travel writer Fynes Moryson stated in his Itinerary that "Londoners, and all within the sound of Bow Bells, are in reproach called Cockneys." The same year, John Minsheu included the term in this newly restricted sense in his dictionary Ductor in Linguas . Initially, when London consisted of little more than the walled City , the term applied to all Londoners, and this lingered into
3190-416: The way, she leaves a banknote of large denomination with a perplexed starving artist . Alec Guinness is thought to have based his performance of Professor Marcus on the actor Alastair Sim , for whom the part was originally intended; although critic Philip French wrote in 2015 that "there’s another possible source for the appearance of Marcus, with his prominent teeth and pale, cadaverous features, and that
3248-409: The year, to carry the sound further to the east, and more often. A 2012 study showed that in the 19th century, and under typical conditions, the sound of the bells would carry as far as Clapton , Bow and Stratford in the east but only as far as Southwark to the south and Holborn in the west . An earlier study suggested the sound would have carried even further. The 2012 study showed that in
3306-436: Was considered the coolest, with 20% of the votes. Brummie was voted least popular, receiving just 2%. The Cockney accent often featured in films produced by Ealing Studios and was frequently portrayed as the typical British accent of the lower classes in movies by Walt Disney , though this was only so in London. Studies have indicated that the heavy use of South East England accents on television and radio may have caused
3364-505: Was the last Technicolor three-strip movie filmed in the UK . "When Alec, as the Professor, is killed by a railway signal falling onto his head, the production crew made sure that this would not in fact happen by placing a metal pin half an inch above the level of Alec's head. Lines were drawn in chalk to mark where he should stand for the shot. When it came to the take, however, the signal sheared
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