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Australian English

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Languages

   Australian English (AuE) is the form of the English language used in
   Australia.

History

   Australian English began to diverge from British English soon after the
   foundation of the Colony of New South Wales in 1788. The settlement was
   intended mainly as a penal colony. The British convicts sent to
   Australia were mostly people from large English cities, such as
   Cockneys from London. In addition to these many of the original
   immigrants were free settlers, military personnel and administrators
   and their families. In 1827, Peter Cunningham, in his book Two Years in
   New South Wales, reported that native-born white Australians spoke with
   a distinctive accent and vocabulary, albeit with a strong Cockney
   influence. (The transportation of convicts to Australian colonies
   continued until 1868, but immigration of free settlers from Britain
   continued unabated.) A much larger wave of immigration, as a result of
   the first Australian gold rushes, in the 1850s, also had a significant
   influence on Australian English, including large numbers of people who
   spoke English as a second language.

   The " Americanisation" of Australian English — signified by the
   borrowing of words, spellings, terms, and usages from North American
   English — began during the goldrushes, and was accelerated by a massive
   influx of United States military personnel during World War II. The
   large-scale importation of television programs and other mass media
   content from the US, from the 1950s onwards, including more recently US
   computer software, especially Microsoft's spellchecker, has also had a
   significant effect. As a result Australians use many British and
   American words interchangeably, such as pants/trousers or
   lift/elevator, while shunning other words such as "wildfire" as too
   American when a more Australian term "bushfire" is preferred.

   Due to their shared history and geographical proximity, Australian
   English is most similar to New Zealand English. However, the difference
   between the two spoken versions is obvious to people from either
   country, if not to a casual observer from a third country. The
   vocabulary used also exhibits some striking differences.

Irish influences

   There is some influence from Hiberno-English, but perhaps not as much
   as might be expected given that many Australians are of Irish descent.
   One such influence is the pronunciation of the name of the letter "H"
   as "haitch" /hæɪtʃ/, which can sometimes be heard amongst speakers of
   "Broad Australian English", rather than the unaspirated "aitch" /æɪtʃ/
   more likely to be heard in South Australia and common in New Zealand,
   most of Britain and North America. This is thought to be the influence
   of Irish Catholic priests and nuns.

   Other Irish influences include the non-standard plural of "you" as
   "youse" /jʉːz/, sometimes used informally in Australia, and the
   expression "good on you" or "good onya". Of these the former is common
   throughout North America and the latter is encountered in New Zealand
   English and British English. Another Irish influence is use of the word
   'me' replacing 'my', such as in the phrase Where's me hat? This usage
   is generally restricted to informal situations. Another influence is
   the use of the term "after" as it is used in hiberno English.

Phonology

   Australian English is a non-rhotic dialect. The Australian accent is
   most similar to that of New Zealand and is also similar to accents from
   the South-East of Britain, particularly those of Cockney and Received
   Pronunciation. As with most dialects of English, it is distinguished
   primarily by its vowel phonology.

   Australian English vowels are divided into two categories: long, which
   includes long monophthongs and diphthongs, and short, all of which are
   monophthongs. The short vowels mostly correspond to the lax vowels used
   in analyses of Received Pronunciation with the long vowels
   corresponding to its tense vowels as well as its centralising
   diphthongs. Unlike most varieties of English, it has a phonemic length
   distinction: a number of vowels differ only by the length.

   Australian English consonants are similar to those of other non-rhotic
   varieties of English. In comparison to other varieties, it has a
   flapped variant of /t/ and /d/ in similar environments as in American
   English. Many speakers have also coalesced /tj/ and /dj/ into /tʃ/ and
   /dʒ/, with pronunciations such as /tʃʉːn/ being standard.

Vocabulary

   Australian English incorporates many terms that Australians consider to
   be unique to their country. One of the best-known of these is outback
   which means a remote, sparsely-populated area. The similar bush can
   mean either native forests, or country areas in general. However, both
   terms are historically widely used in many English-speaking countries.
   Many such words, phrases or usages originated with the British convicts
   transported to Australia. Many words used frequently by country
   Australians are, or were, also used in all or part of England, with
   variations in meaning. For example: a creek in Australia, as in North
   America, is any stream or small river, whereas in England it is a small
   watercourse flowing into the sea; paddock is the Australian word for a
   field, while in England it is a small enclosure for livestock and;
   wooded areas in Australia are known as bush or scrub, as in North
   America, while in England, they are commonly used only in proper names
   (such as Shepherd's Bush and Wormwood Scrubs). Australian English and
   several British English dialects (eg. Cockney; Geordie) also both use
   the word mate to mean a close friend of the same gender and
   increasingly with platonic friend of the opposite sex (rather than the
   conventional meaning of "a spouse"), although this usage has also
   become common in some other varieties of English.

   The origins of other terms are not as clear, or are disputed. Dinkum
   (or "fair dinkum") means "true", or when used in speech: "is that
   true?", "this is the truth!", and other meanings, depending on context
   and inflection. It is often claimed that dinkum dates back to the
   Australian goldrushes of the 1850s, and that it is derived from the
   Cantonese (or Hokkien) ding kam, meaning "top gold". However, scholars
   give greater credence to the notion that it originated with a
   now-extinct dialect word from the East Midlands in England, where
   dinkum (or dincum) meant "hard work" or "fair work", which was also the
   original meaning in Australian English. The derivation dinky-di means a
   'true' or devoted Australian. The words dinkum or dinky-di and phrases
   like true blue are widely purported to be typical Australian sayings,
   but the majority of Australians, these days, don't say these at all,
   except when parodying the stereotypically "Australian" way of speaking.

   Similarly, g'day, a stereotypical Australian greeting, is no longer
   synonymous with "good day" in other varieties of English (it can be
   used at night time) and is never used as an expression for "farewell",
   as "good day" is in other countries.

   Some elements of Aboriginal languages have been incorporated into
   Australian English, mainly as names for places, flora and fauna (for
   example dingo, kangaroo). Beyond that, few terms have been adopted into
   the wider language, except for some localised terms, or slang. Some
   examples are cooee and Hard yakka. The former is a high-pitched call
   (pronounced /kʉː.iː/) which travels long distances and is used to
   attract attention. Cooee has also become a notional distance: if he's
   within cooee, we'll spot him. Hard yakka means hard work and is derived
   from yakka, from the Yagara/ Jagara language once spoken in the
   Brisbane region. Also from the Brisbane region comes the word bung
   meaning broken. A failed piece of equipment might be described as
   having bunged up or referred to as "on the bung" or "gone bung". Bung
   is also used to describe an individual who is pretending to be hurt;
   such individual is said to be "bunging it on".

   Though often thought of as an Aboriginal word, didgeridoo (a well known
   wooden musical instrument) is probably an onomatopaoeic word of Western
   invention. It has also been suggested that it may have an Irish
   derivation.

Spelling

   Australian spelling is generally very similar to British spelling, with
   a few exceptions (for example, program is more common than programme).
   Publishers, schools, universities and governments typically use the
   Macquarie Dictionary as a standard spelling reference. Both -ise and
   -ize are accepted, as in British English, but -ise is the preferred
   form in Australian English by a ratio of about 3:1 according to the
   Macquarie's Australian Corpus of English.

   There is a widely held belief in Australia that "American spellings"
   are a modern intrusion, but the debate over spelling is much older and
   has little to do with the influence of North American English. For
   example, a pamphlet entitled The So-Called "American Spelling.",
   published in Sydney some time before 1900, argued that "there is no
   valid etymological reason for the preservation of the u in such words
   as honour, labor, etc." The pamphlet noted, correctly, that "the
   tendency of people in Australasia is to excise the u, and one of the
   Sydney morning papers habitually does this, while the other generally
   follows the older form".

   Many Australian newspapers once excised the "u", for words like
   "colour" but do not anymore, and the Australian Labor Party retains the
   "-or" ending it officially adopted in 1912. Because of a backlash to
   the perceived " Americanisation" of Australian English, there is now a
   trend to reinsert the "u" in words such as harbour. The town of Victor
   Harbour now has the Victor Harbour Railway Station and the
   municipality's official website speculates that excising the 'u' from
   the town's name was originally a 'spelling error'. This continues to
   cause confusion in how the town is named in official and unofficial
   documents

   The official (although not commonly used) spelling of gaol/jail is gaol
   although most Australians would write jail naturally.

   In academia, as long as the spelling is consistent, the usage of
   various English variants is generally accepted.

Varieties of Australian English

   Most linguists consider there to be three main varieties of Australian
   English. These are Broad, General and Cultivated Australian English.
   These three main varieties are actually part of a continuum and are
   based on variations in accent. They often, but not always, reflect the
   social class and/or educational background of the speaker.

   Broad Australian English is the archetypal and most recognisable
   variety. It is familiar to English speakers around the world because of
   its use in identifying Australian characters in non-Australian films
   and television programs. Examples include television personalities
   Steve Irwin and Dame Edna Everage.

   General Australian English is the stereotypical variety of Australian
   English. It is the variety of English used by the majority of
   Australians and it dominates the accents found in contemporary
   Australian-made films and television programs. Examples include actors
   Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman. Cultivated Australian English has many
   similarities to British Received Pronunciation, and is often mistaken
   for it. Cultivated Australian English is now spoken by less than 10% of
   the population. Examples include actors Judy Davis and Geoffrey Rush.

   It is sometimes claimed that there are regional variations in
   pronunciation and accent. If present at all, however, they are very
   small compared to those of British and American English – so much so
   that linguists are divided on the question. Overall, pronunciation is
   determined less by region than by social, cultural and educational
   influences, as well as by a general difference between urban and rural
   voices that can be heard throughout Australia.

   One example of a minor difference in pronunciation exists in the
   pronunciation of words such as: castle, dance, chance, advance, etc. In
   Queensland and Victoria, the Irish pronunciation of these words,
   choosing the æ-vowel, is preferred, whereas in New South Wales, the
   a:-vowel, found in English English, is preferred. The NSW pronunciation
   of these words is somewhat more predominant in such examples as in
   singing the national anthem, Advance Australia Fair, where [əd'va:ns]
   remains the preferred pronunciation of "advance" where it might
   otherwise be pronounced [əd'væ:ns] in Queensland and Victoria.

   There is, however, some variation in Australian English vocabulary
   between different regions. Of particular interest in this respect are
   sporting terms and terms for food, clothing and beer glasses.

Use of words by Australians

   Many Australians believe themselves to be direct in manner and/or
   admire frank and open communication. Such sentiments can lead to
   misunderstandings and offence being caused to people from other
   cultures.

   For instance, spoken Australian English is generally more tolerant of
   offensive and/or abusive language than other variants. A famous
   exponent was the former Prime Minister Paul Keating, who referred in
   Parliament to various political opponents as a "mangy maggot", a
   "stupid foul-mouthed grub", and so on.

   An important aspect of Australian English usage, inherited in large
   part from Britain and Ireland, is the use of deadpan humour, in which a
   person will make extravagant, outrageous and/or ridiculous statements
   in a neutral tone, and without explicitly indicating they are joking.
   Tourists seen to be gullible and/or lacking a sense of humour may be
   subjected to tales of kangaroos hopping across the Sydney Harbour
   Bridge, " drop bears" and similar tall tales.

   Australian English makes frequent use of diminutives. They can be
   formed in a number of ways and can be used to indicate familiarity.
   Some examples include arvo (afternoon), servo ( service station),
   bottle-o ( bottle-shop), barbie (barbecue), cozzie (swimming costume),
   footy (Australian rules football or rugby) and mozzie (mosquito).
   Occasionally, a -za diminutive is used, usually for personal names
   where the first of multiple syllables ends in an "r" for example Bazza
   (Barry) and Shazza (Sharon).

   Many phrases once common to Australian English have become the subject
   of common stereotypes, over-use and Hollywood's caricaturised
   overexaggerations, even though they have largely disappeared from
   everyday use. Words being used less often include cobber, strewth, you
   beaut and crikey, and archetypal phrases like Flat out like a lizard
   drinking are rarely heard without a sense of irony.

   The phrase Put a shrimp on the barbie is a misquotation of a phrase
   that became famous after being used by Paul Hogan in tourism
   advertisements that aired in America. Most Australians use the term
   prawn rather than shrimp, and do not commonly barbeque them. Many
   people trying to impersonate or mock an Australian will use this line,
   though Australians themselves would never have used this line.

   Australia's unofficial national anthem Waltzing Matilda written by bush
   poet Banjo Patterson, contains many obsolete Australian words and
   phrases that appeal to a rural ideal and are understood by Australians
   even though they are not in common usage outside this song. One example
   is the title, which means travelling (particularly with a type of bed
   roll called a swag). Thus the refrain "You'll come a waltzing matilda
   with me" means you will come travelling with me. Part of the appeal of
   the song as distinctively Australian is its incomprehension to
   non-native Australian English speakers.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_English"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
