Australian English
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Contents
1. Australian English Development and
Peculiarities
2. Aboriginal Vocabulary
3. Non-aboriginal Vocabulary
4. Australian Peculiarities
5. American Influence
6. Australian English Worldwide
7. General Australian Pronunciation
8. Australian Vocabulary
9. Australian American British English
Lexical Differences
10. Sample Text in Australian English
Australian
English Development and Peculiarities
The history of Australian English starts with kangaroo (1770) and Captain James
Cook’s glossary of local words used in negotiations with the Endeavour
River tribes. The language was pidgin.
Aboriginal
Vocabulary
The aboriginal
vocabulary, which is one of the trademarks of Australian English, included billabong (a waterhole), jumbuck (a sheep), corroboree (an assembly), boomerang
(a curved throwing stick), and budgerigar
(from budgeree, “good”
and gar, “parrot”).
The number of Aboriginal words in Australian English
is quite small and is confined to the namings of
plants (like bindieye
and calombo),
trees (like boree, banksia,
quandong and mallee), birds (like currawong, galah and kookaburra), animals (like wallaby and wombat) and fish (like barramindi). As in
The Aborigines also adopted words from maritime pidgin English, words like piccaninny and bilong (belong). They used familiar pidgin
English variants like talcum and catchum. The most
famous example is gammon, an
eighteenth-century Cockney word meaning “a lie”.
Non-aboriginal
Vocabulary
In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries,
the Australian population were either convicts, ex-convicts or of convict
descent. The convict argot was called “flash” language, and James
Hardy Vaux published a collection of it in 1812, the New and Comprehensive Vocabulary of the Flash Language. Most of the
words and phrases
The roots of Australian English lie in the South and
East of England,
Australian
Peculiarities
In 1945
Australian English incorporates several uniquely
Australian terms, such as outback to refer to remote regional areas, walkabout
to refer to a long journey of uncertain length and bush to refer to
native forested areas, but also to regional areas as well. Fair dinkum
can mean “are you telling me the
truth?”, “this is the truth!”, or
“this is ridiculous!” depending on context - the disputed
origin dates back to the gold rush in the 1850s, “dinkum” being
derived from the Chinese word for “gold” or “real
gold”: fair dinkum is the
genuine article.
Some elements of Aboriginal languages, as has already
been mentioned, have been incorporated into Australian English, mainly as names
for the indigenous flora and fauna (e.g. dingo, kangaroo), as well as extensive
borrowings for place names. Beyond that, very few terms have been adopted into
the wider language. A notable exception is Cooee (a musical call which
travels long distances in the bush and is used to say “is there anyone
there?”). Although often thought of as an Aboriginal word, didgeridoo/didjeridu
(a well known wooden musical instrument) is actually an onomatopoeic term
coined by an English settler.
Australian English has a unique set of diminutives
formed by adding -o or -ie (-y) to the ends of (often abbreviated)
words. There does not appear to be any particular pattern to which of these
suffixes is used.
Examples with the -o
ending include
abo (aborigine - now considered very offensive),
aggro (aggressive),
ambo (ambulance office),
arvo (afternoon),
avo (avocado),
bizzo (business),
bottleo (bottle shop/liquor store),
compo (compensation),
dero (homeless person – from derelict),
devo (deviant/pervert),
doco (documentary),
evo (evening),
fisho (fishmonger),
fruito (fruiterer),
gyno (gynaecologist),
journo (journalist),
kero (kerosene),
metho (methylated spirits),
milko (milkman),
Nasho (National Service – compulsory military
service),
reffo (refugee),
rego (vehicle registration),
Salvo (member of the Salvation Army),
servo (service station/gas station),
smoko (smoke or coffee/tea break),
thingo (thing, whadjamacallit),
vejjo (vegetarian),
etc.
Examples of the -ie (-y) ending include
aggie (student of agricultural science),
Aussie (Australian),
beautie (beautiful, stereotypically pronounced and even
written bewdy),
bikkie (biscuit),
bitie (biting insect),
blowie (blowfly),
bookie (bookmaker),
brekkie (breakfast),
brickie (bricklayer),
Brizzie (
Bushie (someone who lives in the bush),
chewie (chewing gum),
chokkie (chocolate),
cozzie (swimming costume – mostly used in
Chrissie (Christmas),
exy (expensive),
greenie (environmentalist),
kindie (kindergarten),
lippy (lipstick),
mozzie (mosquito),
oldies (parents),
possie (position),
postie (postman),
prezzie (present),
rellie (sometimes relo – relative),
sickie (day off sick from work),
sunnies (sunglasses),
surfy (surfing fanatic),
swaggie (swagman),
trackies (track suit),
truckie (truck driver),
vedgie (vegetable)
etc.
Occasionally, a -za
diminutive is used, usually for personal names. Barry becomes Bazza, Karen becomes Kazza
and
There are also a lot of abbreviations in Australian
English without any suffixes. Examples of these are the words
beaut (great, beautiful),
BYO (Bring Your Own restaurant, party, barbecue
etc),
deli (delicatessen),
hoon (hooligan),
nana (banana),
roo (kangaroo),
uni (university),
ute (utility truck or vehicle)
etc.
We cannot but mention unique and, indeed, colourful
Australian metaphors and similes, as
as bald as a bandicoot,
as cunning as a dunny rat,
as lonely as a country dunny,
flat out like a lizard drinking,
grinning like a shot fox,
look like a consumptive kangaroo,
let alone Australian expressions, as
a feed, a frostie and a feature,
bring a plate,
in full feather,
rough end of a pineapple,
to plant the foot,
to big-note oneself,
to give it a burl,
not to know Christmas from
not to have a brass razoo,
dingo’s breakfast,
to have kangaroos in the top
paddock,
to have tickets on oneself
etc.
American
Influence
In the middle of the century, the hectic years of the
gold rush in
Australian
English Worldwide
In the 1980s Australian English has hit the
international headlines. Films like Gallipoli
and My Brilliant Career have won
critical acclaim and found large audiences in the
General
Australian Pronunciation
Australians have a distinct accent, which varies
between social classes and is sometimes claimed to vary from state to state, although
this is disputed. Accents tend to be strongest in the more remote areas. (Note
that while there are many similarities between Australian accents and
In
1. Cultivated.
An accent, used by about 10 per cent of the population, on
which Received Pronunciation continues to exert a considerable influence.
In some speakers the accent is very close to educated southern British, with
just a hint of its Australian origin in certain vowels and in the intonation.
In its most RP-like form, speakers of other varieties tend to think of it as
affected.
2. Broad. At
the opposite extreme, this accent, used by about 30 per cent of the population,
is the one most clearly identified with the notion of an Australian twang. It is heard in many countries in the voices of the
characters portrayed by such actors as Paul Hogan and Barry Humphries.
3. General.
In between there is a mainstream group of accents used by most of the
population.
The Australian vowel system is quite different from
other varieties. Other standard varieties have tense vowels, lax vowels, and
diphthongs. Australian English on the other hand has turned most of the tense
vowels into diphthongs, and turned some of what are diphthongs in Received
Pronunciation into long vowels, thus replacing the tense-lax distinction (one
of quality) with a long-short distinction (one of quantity). The table below
shows these.
Received
Pronunciation |
General
Australian |
Example |
/i:/ |
/əɪ/ |
see /səɪ/ |
/ɑ:/ |
/a:/ |
heart /ha:t/ |
/u:/ |
/əʊ/ |
school /skəʊl/ |
/æ/ |
/e/ |
bad /bed/ |
/ʌ/ |
/a/ |
cut /kat/ |
/eɪ/ |
/æɪ/ |
say /sæɪ/ |
/aɪ/ |
/ɑɪ/ |
high /hɑɪ/ |
/aʊ/ |
/æʊ/ |
now /næʊ/ |
/əʊ/ |
/ʌʊ/ |
no /nʌʊ/ |
/ɪə/ |
/i:/ |
near /ni:/ |
/eə/ |
/e:/ |
hair /he:/ |
Australian accent is non-rhotic: star /stɑ:/.
1. The long ee sound (as in see)
is heard as the diphthong er-ee (the first element of which is the schwa, or
neutral sound as it is sometimes called), so that see turns into seree, or, for foreigners, even sehee (sayee).
2. The long oo sound is heard as o,
so that soup turns into soap.
3. The long ah
sound (as in heart) tends to be fronter, sounding similar to what begins the diphthong i (as in lie), but longer.
4. The short u
sound (as in love) tends to be fronter too, sounding as if it begins the diphthong i (as in lie).
5. The diphthong ay
(as in play) tends to be wider, as if
its first element is the sound a (as
in bad), or sometimes it can sound as
the sound i
(as in lie), so that may turns into my.
6. The diphthong air
(as in care) becomes monophthong eh (as in pen), but long.
7. The first element of the diphthong i (as in lie) is
pronounced as a short ah sound (as in
heart).
8. The first element of the diphthong ow (as in now) is produced at the front of the
mouth and it is raised, so that it sounds as a (as in bad).
9. The diphthong ere
(as in here) sounds as pure ee (as in see), so that here turns into he.
10. When there is a choice between the er (teacher)
and the short ee
(ladies)
in an unstressed syllable, the er sound replaces the
short ee in
most cases but in the -
11. Vowels next to a nasal consonant tend to retain
the nasality more than in RP: such words as down
and now are often strongly nasalised
in the broad accent, and are the chief reason for the designation of this
accent as a twang.
The phonetic basis for the three accent types emerges
from a consideration of these qualities. The broad accent makes much use of
tongue movements which are more open or further forward than the RP norms. The
cultivated accent is, literally, further back.
Australian
Vocabulary
These are the best-known Australianisms
in the English-speaking world.
Australian
English |
World
Standard English |
amber |
beer |
arvo |
afternoon |
barbie |
barbecue |
barrack |
cheer |
beaut |
great |
bloke |
man |
chook |
chicken |
clobber |
clothes |
crook |
ill |
daks |
trousers (BrE), pants (AmE) |
dinkum |
genuine, true |
evo |
evening |
G'day |
hello |
lolly |
sweet (BrE), candy (AmE) |
nana |
banana |
oil |
information |
Oz |
|
Pom(my) |
English |
sheila |
woman |
snag |
sausage |
Australian
American British English Lexical Differences
Australian
English |
American
English |
British
English |
bathers |
bathing-suit |
swimming-costume |
bloke |
guy |
chap |
cozzie |
bathing-suit |
swimming-costume |
crook |
sick |
ill |
daks (dacks) |
pants |
trousers |
duchess |
buffet |
sideboard |
durry |
cigaret(te) |
fag |
fairy floss |
cotton candy |
candyfloss |
fisho |
fish seller |
fishmonger |
footpath |
sidewalk |
pavement |
garbo |
garbage man |
dustman |
garbologist |
garbage man |
dustman |
grog |
liquor |
spirits |
ice block |
Popsicle |
ice lolly |
icy pole |
Popsicle |
ice lolly |
jocks |
underpants |
pants |
lolly |
candy |
sweet |
mate |
buddy (bud) |
fellow (feller, fella) |
port |
baggage |
luggage |
postie |
mailman |
postman |
Proprietary (Pty) |
Incorporated (Inc.) |
Limited
(Ltd) |
semitrailer |
tractor-trailer |
articulated lorry |
servo |
gas station |
petrol station |
station |
ranch |
farm |
strides |
pants |
trousers |
swimmers |
bathing-suit |
swimming-costume |
togs |
bathing-suit |
swimming-costume |
truckie, trucky |
truck driver |
lorry driver |
tuckshop |
cafeteria |
canteen |
underdaks |
underpants |
pants |
unit |
apartment |
flat |
ute |
utility truck |
utility vehicle |
wag |
play hookey |
play truant |
Sample
Text in Australian English
I got up and put on my black daks. They are
the most exy piece of my
clobber as they’re my Dad’s last Chrissie prezzie.
My Dad’s a bonzer bloke and I like him most of
all my rellies. That’s cos
I’ve got no Mum and my brother’s a bloody bludger
and an ignorant ocker. We’ve never been matey with each other and I often get aggro
with him.
I had a nana and a
I had a chook, some vedgies and amber for tea
and then Shazza lobbed in. She looked beaut and in full feather, so she earbashed
all night long. In the end I had to walk her to her unit, cos
my car had gone cactus. When I was back I felt a bit crook, so I hit the sack
right away.
Australian English
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