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Australian Accent: Difference between revisions
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There are multiple Australian accents, but thought of as a single accent by the world at large. Here we go, cobber:
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== Common Quirks of Australian English ==
Although Australians have invented a ''lot'' of original words and idioms, and adopted (read: stolen) a rich set of indigenous placenames and a sprinkling of other indigenous terms, there's a rising tendency to pick up American terms but keep British spelling and grammar structure. For instance, we spell 'flavour' with a 'u' and 'tenderise' with an 's', but we call vegetables of the species ''Cucurbita pepo'' "zucchinis" rather than "courgettes".
* A minor correction to the above. Australia did not acquire words such as "zucchini" (or "snow-pea" or "eggplant") from the USA, these words were imported from England, as they were in common usage in England at the time both of the colonies were founded. British English subsequently switched to using the French words ("courgette", "mange-tout", "aubergine") at some point after 1850. Changes to British English over time also explain why both Australians and Americans treat collective nouns as singular, eg. "the government IS taking action" vs the English "the government ARE taking action", and why each country uses words such as "reckon" and "gotten" which went on to fall out of usage in Britain.
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*** Although 'bro' doesn't necessarily have racial connotations at all. Also, if someone calls you 'bra', they aren't declaiming you as a form of ladies' undergarment. That's just how 'bro' comes out in their accent. Still an evolving term, the variation 'braz' has gained widespread usage in north-eastern NSW.
*** Rather than being from anywhere in particular, a lot of the urban slang is quite eclectic, keeping some working-class British roots, and including various other influences, such as what the less politically correct will refer to as 'Lebo slang' (i.e. Lebanese-Australian slang). While sadly absent in much Australian fiction, this accent is ubiquitous in all its lyrical glory in the works of Paul Fenech, i.e. ''[[Pizza]]'' and ''[[Housos]]''.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpBYnL5fAXE For some speakers], the pitch goes up on the end of every ''sentence''? Often combined with turning every sentence into a question?
** [[Metal Gear|Turning every sentence]] [[Parrot Exposition|into a question?!]]
*** [[Valley Girl|Like, turn every sentence into a question]]?
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** Soccer is NEVER called football.
*** Clearly you don't watch [[SBS]], who, ironically, are responsible for ''popularising'' football/soccer in Australia.
*** Soccer is actually called football by lots of people. Although, it is more commonly used among ethnic groups with whom soccer has generally been more
* The use of "Abo" to mean someone who is aboriginal is becoming common among youths populations. Like many other pieces of slang, this is either offensive or benign depending on context.
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* Again, we are incredibly lazy in the way we speak. Repeat after me:
** Canberra is pronounced Can-Bra, not Can-be-ra. The really lazy ones will just sort of spit out a "Cambra" and then look horrified at the person enunciating each syllable.
** And places like Tuggeranong = Tuggra-nong, not Tugger-a-nong. Often nicknamed as 'Tuggers', though.
** Melbourne is pronounced Mel-bun, not Mel-BORN. And Brisbane is "Bris-bun" not "Bris-BAYN".
*** However, in Queensland, you get "Mel-BIN" and "Bris-BIN". Both are derived from the Southern Queensland unique pronunciation, which according to some Mexicans (aka people South of the Queensland/New South Wales border) makes us sound inbred. In effect, Queenslanders are to Australians what Californians are to Americans (i.e. the butt of jokes to the tone of "laid back" or "drug addicted").
*** The reason why Melbourne is pronounced "Mel-bun" is because Australian accents are non-rhotic, so the R is skipped over. (Think the [[Hollywood New England|New England]]/[[Boston (useful notes)|Boston]] accent.<ref>Perhaps not coincidentally, [[Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping|poorly-attempted New England accents]] are often said to sound more like Australian than anything actually spoken in New England -- and sometimes, even more Australian than bad attempts at ''Australian'' accents.</ref>) If a foreigner with a rhotic accent (e.g. Midwestern American) were to say Melbourne, then "Mel-burn" would be acceptable from them. But "Mel-born" is still wrong. In fact, a person from Melbourne is a "Melburnian".
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** The "C" word is the new "F" word in some areas. Calling some guy a C means he's just not really an agreeable person. Although that's fairly lower class.
** In some circles we've made the C word a term of endearment itself, or at least relatively benign — hence TISM's song "I May Be A Cunt, But At Least I'm Not A Fucking Cunt."
** See also: Bugger. It's milder than the "F" word but can have the same grammatical function. It's also a full stop and a sentence in and of itself (usually when discussing something bad that's happened, the long the conversation goes, the more likely the word "bugger" will be used by someone, often as a condolence).
** "Bloody" can be used for emphasis.
== Regional Quirks ==
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** Seems like it might be common around the blue mountains, judging from my conversations with people from that area.
* Another Brisbane thing is to phrase everything as a rhetorical question ending in "hey". "It's pretty hot out here hey?" Or so I've heard...
** It is also common, in Queensland at least, to ''begin'' a question with "hey". As in, "Hey, watcha doin' this arvo?" ("Hey, what are you doing this afternoon?"). This will be used even when you're in mid-conversation with the person you're asking, and have no need to attract their attention. It's also largely replaced "g'day" as the standard greeting.
** It's becoming more popular in Victoria, except people use "Yeah?" instead of "Hey?" So, for example, someone might say "It's pretty hot out here, yeah?"
*** Saying "Yeah" or "Yes" to start a conversation with someone, like American/Canadian customer service people do is still usually considered rude however.
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[[Category:Accent Tropes]]
[[Category:Australian Accent]]
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
[[Category:English language]]
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