Australian English

Eftychia Papanikolaou
ENG 201
Dr. Cheryl Traiger
What do they have in common…?
What we are going to see…
 Who speaks australian english
 Some general info about the language
 The Varieties of English used by native-
born Australians
 The origins of australian english
 The Australian english pronunciation
 The Australian english vocabulary
Who speaks Australian English?
 People who live in
Australia.
 21,370,800 population
 There are 267 languages
in Australia (many being
Aboriginal languages.)
 The Australian English
language is the most
common.
Some general info
 Younger than American, less complex history. Standard English
vocabulary in the grater part of australia.
 Australians have their own : styles and characters in using the
language, vocabulary, pronunciation, accent, slang words,
metaphors, and phrases that distinguish its identity from other
English speaking countries.
 Their own special words and phrases are called strine (words and
phrases which have different meanings from other English, words
that the Australians have made up,words borrowed from Aboriginal
dialects or from slang used by early settlers).
 Regional variation is practically absent in Australia. However, in
opposition to the situation in America, Australian English knows are
a great social range of different speeches. Through this influence
you can distinguish Educated Australian from Broad Australian.
Varieties of English used by native-
born Australians
 Standard Australian English (AusE)
 Aboriginal English
 Various ethno-cultural Australian English
dialects
The origin of Australian English
 After the foundation of the Australian penal colony of New South Wales
(NSW) in 1788 British convicts sent there, including Cockneys from London
came mostly from large English cities.
 The first of the Australian goldrushes, in the 1850s, began a much larger
wave of immigration, which would significantly influence the language.
 native-born white Australians of the time spoke with a distinctive accent and
vocabulary, with a strong Cockney influence. The transportation of convicts
to Australia ended in 1868, but immigration of free settlers from Britain,
Ireland and elsewhere continued. Until now, the Australian with British
ancestor are the predominant part of the population.
 Among the changes wrought by the gold rushes was "Americanisation" of
the language – the introduction of words, spellings, terms, and usages from
North American English. The influx of American military personnel in World
War II brought further American influence;
 Australian English is most similar to New Zealand English due to shared
history and geographical proximity.
Australian pronunciation
 Three main varieties according to linguists: Broad, General and
Cultivated. They are part of a continuum, reflecting variations in
accent. They often, but not always, reflect the social class or
educational background of the speaker.
 The majority of Australians speak with the General Australian
accent.
 Cultivated Australian English has many similarities to British
Received Pronunciation, and is often mistaken for it.
 There are no strong variations in accent and pronunciation across
different states and territories, though some differences are
sometimes claimed. There are some well-documented regional
differences. In Tasmania, words such as "dance" and "grant" are
usually heard with the older pronunciation of these words, using /æ/,
whereas in South Australia, /aː/ is more common.
Phonological features
 Australian English is a non-rhotic dialect. Like most dialects of English it is distinguished
primarily by its vowel phonology.
 stop weakening processes are variable, e.g.
• intervocalic flapping, “butter, water”
• final non-release, “hat, had”
• pre-consonantal glottalling, “butler”,“not now”
 pre-nasal and pre-lateral vowel effects
vowels in “man” and “noun” are raised
vowel in “road” -> [􀁮o] prelaterally (“roll”)
 The vowels of Australian English can be divided into two categories: long and short
vowels. The short vowels, consisting only of monophthongs, mostly correspond to the lax
vowels used in analyses of Received Pronunciation. The long vowels, consisting of both
monophthongs and diphthongs, mostly correspond to its tense vowels and centring
diphthongs. Unlike most varieties of English, it has a phonemic length distinction: that is,
certain vowels differ only by 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 /dj/, /sj/ and /tj/
into /dʒ/, /ʃ/ and /tʃ/, producing standard pronunciations such as /tʃʉːn/ for tune.
 variable vocalised /l/ e.g. [mɪwk], for milk, and [ˈmɪdw], for middle.
 linking /r/, intrusive /r/
 Linking R. If a word that ends with /ɹ/ precedes a word that begins
with a vowel, /ɹ/ will be realized at the onset of the next word. Thus,
for example, the R in here would not be pronounced in here they
are (because it is followed by a consonant), but it would be
pronounced in here I am.
 Some (but not all) dialects that possess linking R also possess
intrusive R. In a dialect with intrusive R, an epenthetic [ɹ] is added
after a word that ends in a non-high vowel or glide if the next word
begins with a vowel, regardless of whether the first word historically
ended with /ɹ/ or not. e.g."Last week, I saw(r) a film."
 http://www.fonetiks.org/engsou2au.html
Let’s hear an Australian
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=CoVK5nF0-lA&feature=related
Vocabulary and expressions
 Apples, she'll be : It'll be all right
 Aussie (pron. Ozzie) : Australian, Strine
 Waterhole : billabong
 Well done!: Good on ya!
 Worthless: person dongo
 Absolutely!: Reckon!
 Accident : prang
 Afternoon : arvo
 Aggressive : aggro
 Chocolate : chokkie
 Christmas : Chrissie
 Criminal : bushranger
 Have you eaten yet? : Did you eat yet?
 Hi.: G'day mate.
 Hooligan : larrikin
 Horses : neddies
 How are you?: How are you going?
 Sandwiches : cut lunch
 Sausage : snag
 Too right! - Absolutely! Most definitely!
 Like water off a duck's back - cast aside; (the issue/problem) doesn't bother me

For crying out loud! - Oh, for goodness sake!
grammar
 Australian English it is identical
(grammatically) to British English
Let’s guess…
 Nonsense  Rainbow sneeze
 information  Piffle
 trousers  mozzie
 mosquito  daks, strides
 Enthusiastic  Ratbag
 Someone who does  oil
not behave properly.
 vomit  Keen as mustard
Really…???
 Nonsense  Piffle
 information  oil
 trousers  daks, strides
 mosquito  mozzie
 Enthusiastic  Keen as mustard
 Someone who does  Ratbag
not behave properly.
 vomit  Rainbow sneeze
references
 http://www.englisch-
hilfen.de/en/words/british_australian_english.htm
 http://fonetiks.org/index.html
 http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-
AUSTRALIANLANGUAGE.html
 http://www.careers.monash.edu.au/international/slang-
expressions.html
End of presentation