Australian English

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 (NSW) 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 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.) 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. Since that time, Australian English has borrowed increasingly from external, non-British sources.

The so-called "Americanisation" of Australian English — signified by the borrowing of words, 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, has also had a significant effect. As a result, Australians use many British and American words interchangably, such as pants/trousers or lift/elevator.

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.

Spelling

The exposure to the different spellings of British and American English leads to a certain amount of spelling variation such as organise/organize. British spelling is generally preferred, although some words are usually written in the American form, such as program and jail rather than programme and gaol (although commonly one could be 'jailed' in a 'gaol'). 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 honor, 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". Some Melbourne newspapers once excised the "u", but do not anymore, and the Australian Labor Party retains the "-or" ending it officially adopted in 1912.

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" , which can sometimes be heard amongst speakers of "Broad Australian English", rather than the unaspirated "aitch" found in New Zealand, as well as most of Britain and North America. This is thought to be the influence of Irish Catholic priests and nuns. Others include the non-standard plural of "you" as "youse" , which is commonly used by those who are considered uneducated and often used deliberately because it is a 'common' way to speak, and the expression "good on you" or "good onya", although the former is common throughout North America and the latter is also encountered in New Zealand English and British English. Another usage indicative of an Irish influence is use of the word 'me' replacing 'my'. Example: Where's me hat?

Samples of Australian English

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation provides many streams of their radio programs.

Non-Australians can also gain an impression of Australian English from well-known actors and other native speakers. The normal speaking voices of Cate Blanchett, Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman and Heath Ledger are examples of General Australian accents, unless they are acting in roles as non-Australians. Several Australian actors provided voices for Finding Nemo: Nigel the pelican, the three sharks, and the dentist have Broad Australian accents. Television star Steve "Crocodile Hunter" Irwin also has such an accent and as a result his voice is often parodied inside Australia as well as out. John O'Grady's novel They're a Weird Mob has many good examples of pseudo-phonetically written Australian speech during the 1950s, such as "owyergoinmateorright?" ("how're you going mate, alright?") and Thomas Keneally's novels, particularly The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, of putatively 19th century Australianisms such as "yair" for "yes" and "nothink" for "nothing."

Vocabulary

The origins of Australian words

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.

Similarly, g'day, a stereotypical Australian greeting, is no longer synonymous with "good day" in other varieties of English 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 ) 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.^*

Varieties of Australian English

Main article:Varieties of Australian English & Regional variation in 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.

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.

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.

It is sometimes claimed that regional variations in pronunciation and accent exist, but if present at all they are very small compared to those of British and American English – sufficiently so that linguists are divided on the question. Overall, however, pronunciation is determined less by region than by social, cultural and educational influences, as well as a generic urban-rural divide.

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.

It must be noted that due to increased travel between the countries and the popularity of Australian TV programmes (such as Neighbours and Home & Away) in the UK and Ireland there has been a recent increase in Australian English usage. One example is the word 'uni' which is extremely common amongst young adults in the UK and Ireland to refer to university. Despite its widespread use today the word was rarely used before the late 1980s. As a result other vocabulary which is now widely understood (and slowly becoming more popular in usage) include 'beaut' for beautiful and 'arvo' for afternoon.

Phonology

Australian English is a non-rhotic variety. It is unique in its remarkable homogeneity over a vast area. Unlike most varieties of English, it has a phonemic length distinction. It has a reasonably standard consonant inventory.

Use of words by Australians

Perception has it that a common trait is the frequent use of long-winded similes, such as "built like a brick shit-house" or "flat out like a lizard drinking".

Many Australians believe themselves to be direct in manner, and this is typified by statements such as "why call a spade a spade, when you can call it a bloody shovel". Such sentiments can lead to misunderstandings and offence being caused to people from cultures where an emphasis is placed on avoiding conflict, such as people from East Asia.

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. He drew ire from then Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohammed for calling him a "recalcitrant" . This tradition was continued by former Labor MP Mark Latham who, in 2002, unapologetically described a visit by Prime Minister John Howard to George W. Bush as "an arse-licking effort". On another occasion he referred to the Prime Minister and Cabinet as a "conga-line of suckholes".

Humour

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 and similar tall tales. (See also Drop Bear.)

Diminutives

Australian English makes far more frequent use of diminutives than other varieties of English. They can be formed in a number of ways, such as by adding -o or -ie to the ends of abbreviated words. They can be used to indicate familiarity, although in many speech communities the diminutive form is more common than the original word or phrase.

Examples with the -o ending include arvo (afternoon), docco (documentary), servo (service station, known in other countries as a "petrol station" or "gas station"), bottle-o (bottle-shop or liquor store), rego (still pronounced with a ) (annual motor vehicle registration), traino (train station), compo (compensation), lebo (Lebanese), lezzo (lesbian) or ambo (ambulance officer). The same applies to names: Jono (John), Freo (Fremantle), and The Salvos (The Salvation Army).

Examples of the -ie ending include barbie (barbecue), bikkie (biscuit), bikie (member of a motorcycle club), brekkie (breakfast), blowie (blowfly or occasionally meaning oral sex), brickie (brick layer), mozzie (mosquito), and pollie (politician). The city of Brisbane is often called Brissie (pronounced with a ). Chippie (carpenter) and sparkie (electrician) also conform to this pattern.

Occasionally, a -za diminutive is used, usually for personal names where the first of multiple syllables ends in an "r": Kazza (Karen), Jezza (Jeremy). Also common is the -z diminutive form (also found in British English) whereby Barry becomes Baz, and so forth. Although this is increasingly uncommon.

Other diminutive forms include:

last one or two syllables, prefaced with a definite article: for example, The Gabba for the Brisbane Cricket Ground at Woolloongabba; The Gong for Wollongong.
first syllable plus "-s": turps turpentine (usually referring to drinking alcohol, e.g. "a night on the turps") or Ian Turpie; Gabs, pet form of Gabrielle.

Rarely-used phrases

Because of common stereotypes, over-use and Hollywood's caricaturised overexaggerations, of some phrases attributed to Australians, some of these have dropped out of common conversation (at least in most urban areas). Words being used less often are strewth and crikey, and archetypal phrases like Flat out like a lizard drinking are rarely heard without a sense of irony.

Other terms were never used in the first place. The much-quoted line "Throw another shrimp on the barbie" was a phrase that has never been used by Australians, but was a concoction of the Australian Tourist Commission for a US advertisement for tourism to Australia. "Shrimp" is an American English term — they are called prawns in Australia.

References

Mitchell, Alexander G., 1995, The Story of Australian English, Sydney: Dictionary Research Centre.
Peters, Pam. (1986) "Spelling principles", In: Peters, Pam, ed., Style in Australia: Current Practices in Spelling, Punctuation, Hyphenation, Capitlisation, etc.,
The So Called "American Spelling." Its Consistency Examined. pre-1900 pamphlet, Sydney, E. J. Forbes. Quoted by Annie Potts in this article