The Aussie accent (fondly referred to by Aussies as ” ‘Strine” –from the “LLLL – less”, “RRRRR-less,” fast way they pronounce the last half of “Australian” is a combination of Irish, Italian, Greek, Scottish, English mish-mash.
Like the English pronunciation, often the emphasis/stress of a word is on the first syllable. Of course this isn’t a definite truth given the variety of language backgrounds from which ‘Strine derives. For example, here is a sample dialogue between an English-speaking Canadian (we’ll call him ‘Wayne’) and an Australian (“Jacinta“).
Wayne returned to his seat in the movie theater beside his date.
Wayne: “Hey, I’m back. How are you doing?”
Jacinta: “Yeh. Yeh. How’re you going?”
As Wayne was sitting now and not going anywhere else, he kindly ignored the nonsensical remark and continued a “between-the-previews” conversation at his next opportunity.
Wayne: “Would you like some popcorn?Jacinta: “What?”He motioned with the buttery box.Jacinta: “OH! POP-corn.”Wayne muttered to himself, “That’s what I said.” He sighed and thought, “we just don’t communicate well.”
Wayne’s not going crazy…
In Wayne’s pronunciation, the two words are almost equally balanced. If anything, North American’s would say pop-CORN. It’s the opposite over here, mostly. But apparently this is a very British thing to do.
Those coming from Adelaide will sound even more English (and thus be made fun of–Aussies are quite ‘pokey-jokey’ *my term).
On the whole, if you are coming from North America, you can bet it will take you three months before you can stop annoyingly asking “WHAT???” at the end of each sentence. The hardest part is that it will happen constantly in your classroom. Younger years will find it a hoot. This can really throw off a lesson.
My tip is
to just be patient and find many ways as possible to get Aussies to repeat themselves. “What?” “Pardon”, “Pardon me” is always a good one to throw in there except they might think you are a ‘tosser’. “Could you say that again, more slowly”, “Could you say that one more time?”, “Say that one more time”….seriously, it’s boring. Give yourself three months. And give yourself two years before their “no” stops sounding like “NARL”. Oh god, is my accent changing???
Tags: Australian accents, English in Australia, speaking Australian, strine
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I was in oz in the early 80′s and heard the TWANNNGGGGG!! The real true Australian accent. I was in oz in 2005 and most if not all the people lost the twang and the fair dinkums and the too right and the g’day mate. It’s very much mordern Sydney or Add accent through out the east coast of australia. That’s too bad. a great thing has been lost.
Mike,
that is so interesting: I have only been here since 2006, so havent’ noticed a “change”. Mind you, those slang phrases you mentioned are still very much being used in Melbourne (where I am based).
I’ve only toured Sydney, but it makes sense to me that as the global business hub that their accents would be more wishy-washy. I think they are much more international on a daily basis-with an influx of workers coming to and from Aus–than any other city.
I also think Sydney-siders have a differnet accent to Melbournians, which is different to Adelaidians, and different again to Queenslanders…although I said this to a 60 year old Sydney man and he was surprised, this is the opinion of most Melbournians I think! Did I say something wrong, I wonder? He seemed slightly offended!
Thanks for your comment,
Alysha