Australian English is relatively homogeneous when compared with
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
and
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
English. The major varieties of Australian English are sociocultural rather than regional. They are divided into 3 main categories: general, broad and cultivated.
There are a number of Australian
English-based creole languages
An English-based creole language (often shortened to English creole) is a creole language for which English was the '' lexifier'', meaning that at the time of its formation the vocabulary of English served as the basis for the majority of the cre ...
. Differing significantly from English, these are not considered dialects of English; rather, they are considered separate languages. Notable examples are
Torres Strait Creole
Torres Strait Creole ( tcs, Yumplatok), also known as Torres Strait Pidgin, Brokan/Broken, Cape York Creole, Lockhart Creole, Kriol, Papuan, Broken English, Blaikman, Big Thap, Pizin, and Ailan Tok, is an English-based creole language (a varie ...
, spoken on the
Torres Strait Islands
The Torres Strait Islands are a group of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of , but their total land ...
, Northern Cape York and South-Western Coastal Papua; the
Norfuk language
Norfuk ( pih, Norfuk) (increasingly spelt Norfolk) or Norf'k is the language spoken on Norfolk Island (in the Pacific Ocean) by the local residents. It is a blend of 18th-century English and Tahitian, originally introduced by Pitkern-speaki ...
, spoken by some inhabitants of
Norfolk Island, and
Australian Kriol language
Australian Kriol is an English-based creole language that developed from a pidgin used initially in the region of Sydney and Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia, in the early days of European colonisation. Later, it was spoken by gr ...
, which developed in and around the Sydney region in the days of early settlement, and now exists only in rural areas of the
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...
.
Sociocultural variation
Broad, general and cultivated Australian
Three main varieties of Australian English are spoken according to linguists: ''broad'', ''general'' and ''cultivated''. They are part of a continuum, reflecting variations in accent. They can, but do not always, reflect the social class, education and urban or rural background of the speaker.
Broad Australian English is recognisable and familiar to English speakers around the world. It is prevalent nationwide but is especially common in rural areas. Examples of people with this accent are
Steve Irwin
Stephen Robert Irwin (22 February 19624 September 2006), known as "The Crocodile Hunter", was an Australian zookeeper, conservationist, television personality, wildlife educator, and environmentalist.
Irwin grew up around crocodiles and ot ...
,
Julia Gillard and
Paul Hogan
Paul Hogan (born 8 October 1939) is an Australian actor and comedian. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance as ...
.
In Australia, this dialect is sometimes called ''
Strine Strine, also spelled Stryne , describes a broad accent of Australian English. The term is a syncope, derived from a shortened phonetic rendition of the pronunciation of the word "Australian" in an exaggerated Broad Australian accent, drawing upon ...
'' (or "Strayan" , a shortening of the word ''Australian''), and a speaker of the dialect may be referred to as an
Ocker
The term "ocker" is used both as a noun and adjective for an Australian who speaks and acts in a rough and uncultivated manner, using Strine, a broad Australian accent.
Definition
Richard Neville defined ockerism as being "about conviviality: ...
. Tests indicated that the Broad speakers demonstrated a greater tendency for
syllable assimilation and consonant
elision, were more likely to use weak consonants or restricted intonation (narrow
pitch range), were more likely to speak slowly (
drawl
A drawl is a perceived feature of some varieties of spoken English and generally indicates slower, longer vowel sounds and diphthongs. The drawl is often perceived as a method of speaking more slowly and may be erroneously attributed to laziness ...
), and further, showed a greater tendency to exhibit pervasive nasality. Diphthongs are usually pronounced longer as well. Along the East Coast, there is an approximate correlation between latitude and accent, being the further north one is, the more nasal/broad the accent. Nasality is already evident at the NSW/QLD border.
General Australian English is the most common of Australian accents.
It is especially prominent in urban Australia and is used as a
standard language for Australian films, television programs and advertising. It is used by
Hugh Jackman
Hugh Michael Jackman (born 12 October 1968) is an Australian actor. Beginning in theatre and television, he landed his breakthrough role as James "Logan" Howlett / Wolverine in the 20th Century Fox ''X-Men'' film series (2000–2017), a role ...
,
Ian Thorpe
Ian James Thorpe, (born 13 October 1982) is an Australian retired swimmer who specialised in freestyle, but also competed in backstroke and the individual medley. He has won five Olympic gold medals, the most won by any Australian along wit ...
and
Eric Bana
Eric Banadinović, (born 9 August 1968), known professionally as Eric Bana (), is an Australian actor and comedian. He began his career in the sketch comedy series '' Full Frontal'' before gaining notice in the comedy drama '' The Castle'' (19 ...
.
Cultivated Australian English has in the past been perceived as indicating high social class or education. Additionally, a study in 1989 reported that Cultivated Australian English speakers were being rated higher than Broad Australian English speakers in intelligence, competence, reliability, honesty, and status.
In comparison, Broad Australian English speakers are rated higher in terms of humorousness and talkativity, similar to what was found in a study in 1975 comparing regional British accents to RP (Received Pronunciation).
Cultivated Australian English also has some similarities to
Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation (RP) is the accent traditionally regarded as the standard and most prestigious form of spoken British English. For over a century, there has been argument over such questions as the definition of RP, whether it is geog ...
and the
Transatlantic accent
The Mid-Atlantic accent, or Transatlantic accent, is a consciously learned accent of English, fashionably used by the late 19th-century and early 20th-century American upper class and entertainment industry, which blended together features rega ...
as well. In recent generations, it has fallen sharply in usage.
However, the cultivated usages of in "face" and "price" have been integrated into the speech of some of the speakers of General Australian. for is also within the General Australian range, as the ongliding of is variable. Speakers with a Cultivated Australian accent include
Cate Blanchett,
Geoffrey Rush
Geoffrey Roy Rush (born 6 July 1951) is an Australian actor. He is known for his eccentric leading man roles on stage and screen. He is among 24 people who have won the Triple Crown of Acting, having received an Academy Award, a Primetime Em ...
and
Malcolm Fraser
John Malcolm Fraser (; 21 May 1930 – 20 March 2015) was an Australian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Australia from 1975 to 1983, holding office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia.
Fraser was raised on hi ...
.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander English
Australian Aboriginal English refers to a dialect of Australian English used by a large proportion of Indigenous Australians. It is made up of a range of forms which developed differently in different parts of Australia, and are said to vary along a continuum, from forms close to Standard Australian English to more non-standard forms. There are distinctive features of accent, grammar, words and meanings, as well as language use. The dialect is not to be confused with
Australian Kriol language
Australian Kriol is an English-based creole language that developed from a pidgin used initially in the region of Sydney and Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia, in the early days of European colonisation. Later, it was spoken by gr ...
, which is not mutually intelligible with Australian English but in fact a separate language spoken by over 30,000 people. On the
Torres Strait Islands
The Torres Strait Islands are a group of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of , but their total land ...
, a distinctive dialect known as
Torres Strait English
Torres Strait English (called by its speakers T.I. English) is a dialect of the English language spoken by the people of various backgrounds (indigenous Torres Strait, Malay, Filipino, European, Japanese, etc.) born and raised on Thursday Islan ...
, the furthest extent of which is
Torres Strait Creole
Torres Strait Creole ( tcs, Yumplatok), also known as Torres Strait Pidgin, Brokan/Broken, Cape York Creole, Lockhart Creole, Kriol, Papuan, Broken English, Blaikman, Big Thap, Pizin, and Ailan Tok, is an English-based creole language (a varie ...
, is spoken.
Ethnocultural varieties
The ethnocultural dialects are diverse accents in Australian English that are spoken by the
minority groups, which are of non-English speaking background. A massive immigration from Asia has made a large increase in diversity and the will for people to show their cultural identity within the Australian context. These ethnocultural varieties contain features of General Australian English as adopted by the children of immigrants blended with some non-English language features, such as the
Afro-Asiatic and
Asian languages
A wide variety of languages are spoken throughout Asia, comprising different language families and some unrelated isolates. The major language families include Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Caucasian, Dravidian, Indo-European, Afroasiatic, Tur ...
.
In the 1960s, major cities such as Sydney and Melbourne received large numbers of immigrants from Southern Europe and the Middle East (Italians, Greeks, Lebanese, Maltese, Croats, Jews etc.); the second generation of these immigrants can also have a distinct accent, in a similar fashion to the east coast of the United States with descendants of European migrants having the "Jersey accent".
Arab-Australians and especially Lebanese-Australians have their own dialect, particularly in the Sydney area (in the 2006 census, 72.8% of Lebanese-Australians lived in Sydney). Words such as "shoo" (what's up) and "yallah" (let's go/goodbye). "
Habib
Habib ( ar, حبيب, ''ḥabīb''; ), sometimes written as Habeeb, is an Arabic masculine given name, occasional surname, and honorific, with the meaning "beloved" or "my love", or "darling". It also forms the famous Arabic word ‘''Habibi’'' ...
" has a use similar to mate (meaning friend), but can also be a pejorative word for males who assert themselves aggressively - a type of person obsessed with grabbing girls' attention, "hotted-up" (meaning modified or
hot-rodded) cars and loud music.
wallahis also used, meaning "I swear to God" or "Really!"
Chinese-Australian English has the all-purpose exclamation "aiyah!"/"aiyoh!" (what a shame! - from
Mandarin
Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to:
Language
* Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country
** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China
** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
/
Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...
) and sometimes will end sentences with "lah" (from
Singlish
Singlish (a portmanteau of ''Singapore'' and ''English'') is an English-based creole language spoken in Singapore. Singlish arose out of a situation of prolonged language contact between speakers of many different languages in Singapore, inc ...
).
Regional variation
Although relatively homogeneous, some regional variations in Australian English are notable. The dialects of English spoken in the eastern states, where the majority of the population lives, differ somewhat to those spoken in
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
,
Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
and
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
. Another notable dialect is
Torres Strait English
Torres Strait English (called by its speakers T.I. English) is a dialect of the English language spoken by the people of various backgrounds (indigenous Torres Strait, Malay, Filipino, European, Japanese, etc.) born and raised on Thursday Islan ...
, spoken by the inhabitants of the Torres Strait Islands. Torres Strait English, as distinct from Torres Strait Creole, developed separately to, but has been significantly influenced by, General Australian English.
The regional varieties of English can be distinguished in terms of vocabulary and phonology. With each local dialect taking words from various sources such as British, Irish and American English as well as local
Aboriginal languages Aboriginal language may refer to:
* Indigenous language
* Australian Aboriginal languages
* Taiwanese aboriginal languages
* Indigenous languages of the Americas
* Aboriginal Malay languages
The Malayic languages are a branch of the Malayo-P ...
, it is in vocabulary where regional varieties are most distinct from each other. Regional phonological features may be inherited due to differing settlement patterns or may have developed locally.
Vocabulary
There are differences in the
names of beer glasses from one area to another. In the 2000s, however, the range of glass sizes in actual use has been greatly reduced. In
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
,
swimwear is known as ''swimmers'' or ''cossie'' and, in Queensland, it is ''togs''. In border areas such as the
Tweed Heads
Tweed Heads is a town in New South Wales. It is located on the Tweed River in north-eastern New South Wales, Australia, in Tweed Shire, next to the border with Queensland and adjacent to its "twin town" of Coolangatta, which is a suburb of the ...
-
Gold Coast
Gold Coast may refer to:
Places Africa
* Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana:
** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642)
** Dutch G ...
area this can vary. In most other areas, the term ''bathers'' dominates. What is referred to by schoolchildren as a bag in most parts of Australia is known as a "port" by some Queenslanders. Further, the processed meat known as "devon" on the East Coast is known as "polony" on the West Coast, while in Central Australia (South Australia and the Northern Territory), the term "fritz" is used.
Many regional variations are due to Australians' passion for sport and the differences in non-linguistic traditions from one state to another: the word ''football'' refers to the most popular code of football in different States or regions, or even ethnic groups within them.
Victorians
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian ...
start a game of
Australian rules football with a ''ball up'', Western Australians with a ''bounce down'';
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
people and
Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, establishe ...
ers start a game of
rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...
football or
rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...
football with a ''kick off'', as do soccer players across Australia.
From 2004, the national governing body for Association football, (the
Football Federation Australia
Football Australia is the governing body of soccer, futsal, and beach soccer within Australia, headquartered in Sydney. Although the first governing body of the sport was founded in 1911, Football Australia in its current form was only establ ...
), has promoted the use of "football" in place of "soccer". Several media outlets have adopted this use, while others have stuck with "soccer". However, use of
the word "football" to mean either
Australian football or
rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...
, depending on the major code of the state, remains the standard usage in Australia. In all places, the specific name or nickname of the code ("soccer", "league", "union" or "Aussie rules") can often be heard used for disambiguation.
The slang word ''footy'' has been traditionally associated with either Australian rules football (Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, Northern Territory) or rugby league football (New South Wales, Queensland). Prominent examples in popular culture are ''
The Footy Show''s; also FootyTAB, a betting wing of the NSW
TAB.
For many Australians, the verb ''barrack'' (or the accompanying noun form ''barracker''), is used to denote following a team or club. Barrack has its origins in British English, although in the UK it now usually means to jeer or denigrate an opposing team or players. The expression "root (or rooting) for a team", as used in the United States, is not generally used in Australia (''root'' is slang for
sexual intercourse in Australia).
There are many regional variations for describing social classes or
subcultures. A ''
bogan
Bogan ( ) is Australian slang for a person whose speech, clothing, attitude and behaviour are considered unrefined or unsophisticated. Depending on the context, the term can be pejorative or self-deprecating. The prevalence of the term bogan ...
'' is also referred to as a ''bevan'' in Queensland. These variations, however, have almost completely been replaced by the term ''bogan''.
Australian English has adopted and adapted words from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages, often for
place names
Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
(eg:
Canberra,
Wollongong
Wollongong ( ), colloquially referred to as The Gong, is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near wa ...
,
Geelong) or the names of animals (eg:
kangaroo
Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern ...
,
kookaburra
Kookaburras are terrestrial tree kingfishers of the genus ''Dacelo'' native to Australia and New Guinea, which grow to between in length and weigh around . The name is a loanword from Wiradjuri ''guuguubarra'', onomatopoeic of its call. The ...
,
barramundi
The barramundi (''Lates calcarifer'') or Asian sea bass, is a species of catadromous fish in the family Latidae of the order Perciformes. The species is widely distributed in the Indo-West Pacific, spanning the waters of the Middle East, Sout ...
) and plants (eg:
waratah
Waratah (''Telopea'') is an Australian-endemic genus of five species of large shrubs or small trees, native to the southeastern parts of Australia (New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania). The best-known species in this genus is ''Telopea speci ...
,
kurrajong). A notable borrowing is "hard yakka" meaning hard work (from
Yagara "yaga" meaning work).
Phonology
;Variation between and
There exists significant regional variation in terms of the extent to which the
trap–bath split
The – split is a vowel split that occurs mainly in Southern English in England (including Received Pronunciation), Australian English, New Zealand English, Indian English, South African English and to a lesser extent in some Welsh Engli ...
has taken hold particularly before (especially the suffix ''-mand''), , , and . In words like ''chance'', ''plant'', ''branch'', ''sample'' and ''demand'', the majority of Australians use (as in ''bad''). Some, however, use (as in ''cart'') in these words, particularly in South Australia, which had a different settlement chronology and type from other parts of the country.. In parts of Victoria and South Australia, ''castle'' rhymes with ''hassle'' rather than ''parcel''. Also, some may use in ''grasp'', ''gasp'', ''plaque'' and ''rasp''. The table below, based on , shows the percentage of speakers from different capital cities who pronounce words with as opposed to .
;Centring diphthongs
In
Western Australian English, the centring diphthong vowels in ''near'' and ''square'' are typically realised as full diphthongs, or and or respectively, whereas in the eastern states they may also be realised as monophthongs (without jaw movement), and respectively.
;L–vocalisation
When occurs at the ends of words before pauses and before consonants it sometimes sounds like a vowel sound rather than a consonant. This is because is made with two different
articulations. One of the articulations is like a vowel articulation and the other is more like a typical consonant articulation. When occurs at the ends of words before pauses and before other consonants, the consonantal articulation can be obscured by the vowel articulation. This makes the sound like .
The tendency for some sounds to
become vowels is more common in
South Australian English than that of other states. ''Milk'', for example, in South Australia has a vocalised , leading to the pronunciation , whereas in other states the is pronounced as a consonant.
;Salary–celery merger
In Victoria, many speakers pronounce and in a way that is distinct from speakers in other states. Many younger speakers from Victoria pronounce the first vowel in
"celery" and "salary" the same, so that both words sound like "salary". These speakers will also tend to say "halicopter" instead of "helicopter", and pronounce their capital city (
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
) as . For some older Victorian speakers, the words "celery" and "salary" also sound the same but instead both sound like "celery". These speakers will also pronounce words such as "alps" as "elps".
;Variation in
The vowel in words like "pool", "school" and "fool" varies regionally.
See also
*
Australian English
*
Australian English vocabulary
*
Australian English phonology
*
Regional accents of English speakers
Spoken English shows great variation across regions where it is the predominant language. For example, the United Kingdom has the largest variation of accents of any country in the world, and therefore no single "British accent" exists. This ar ...
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{English dialects by continent
Australian English
Language varieties and styles