Australian English

1. Australian English (AusE, AuE, AusEng, en-AU) is the name given to the group of dialects spoken in Australia that form a major variety of the English language. Australian English began to diverge from British English soon after the foundation of the Colony of New South Wales in 1788. The history of Australian English starts with kangaroo (1770) and Captain James Cook’s glossary of local words used in negotiations with the Endeavour River tribes. The language was pidgin. 2. ?????? Varieties of Australian English. Most linguists consider there to be three main varieties of Australian English.

These are ? Broad; ? General; ? Cultivated Australian English. 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, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman. 3. Broad Australian English is the archetypal and most recognizable 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, Pauline Hanson. 3. 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, Robert Hughes, Geoffrey Rush. 4. The aboriginal vocabulary, which is one of the trademarks of Australian English, included billabong (a waterhole), jumbuck (a sheep), corroboree (an assembly), boomerang (a curved throwing stick), and budgerigar (from budgeree, “good” and gar, “parrot”). . ?????? The number of Aboriginal words in Australian English is quite small and is confined to the namings of plants (like bindieye and calombo), trees (like boree, banksia, quandong and mallee), birds (like currawong, galah and kookaburra), animals (like wallaby and wombat) and fish (like barramindi). 6. As in North America, when it comes to place-names the Aboriginal influence was much greater: with a vast continent to name, about a third of all Australian place-names are Aboriginal. The Aborigines also adopted words from maritime pidgin English, words like piccaninny and bilong (belong).

They used familiar pidgin English variants like talcum and catchum. The most famous example is gammon, an eighteenth-century Cockney word meaning “a lie”. 7. Non-aboriginal Vocabulary. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the Australian population were either convicts, ex-convicts or of convict descent. The convict argot was called “flash” language, and James Hardy Vaux published a collection of it in 1812, the New and Comprehensive Vocabulary of the Flash Language. Most of the words and phrases Vaux listed remained confined to convict circles and have not passed in the main stream of Australian English.

There are a few exceptions, of which the best known is swag meaning “a bundle of personal belongings” in standard Australian. Swagman, billy, jumbuck, tucker-bag and coolibah tree are early Australianisms. 8. The roots of Australian English lie in the South and East of England, London, Scotland and Ireland. To take just a few examples, words like corker, dust-up, purler and tootsy all came to Australia from Ireland; billy comes from the Scottish bally, meaning “a milk pail”. A typical Australianism like fossick, meaning “to search unsystematically”, is a Cornish word.

Cobber came from the Suffolk verb to cob, “to take a liking to someone”. Tucker is widely used for “food”. Clobber has Romany roots and is originally recorded in Kent as clubbered up, meaning “dressed up”. 9. Some elements of Aboriginal languages, as has already been mentioned, have been incorporated into Australian English, mainly as names for the indigenous flora and fauna (e. g. dingo, kangaroo), as well as extensive borrowings for place names. Beyond that, very few terms have been adopted into the wider language.

A notable exception is Cooee (a musical call which travels long distances in the bush and is used to say “is there anyone there? ”). Although often thought of as an Aboriginal word, didgeridoo/didjeridu (a well-known wooden musical instrument) is actually an onomatopoeic term coined by an English settler. 10. ?????? Australian English has a unique set of diminutives formed by adding -o or -ie (-y) to the ends of (often abbreviated) words. There does not appear to be any particular pattern to which of these suffixes is used.

Examples with the -o ending include abo (aborigine – very offensive), aggro (aggressive), ambo (ambulance office), arvo (afternoon), avo (avocado), bizzo (business), bottleo (bottle shop/liquor store), compo (compensation), dero (homeless person), devo (deviant/pervert), doco (documentary), evo (evening), fisho (fishmonger), fruito (fruiterer) 11. arbo (garbage collector) vejjo (vegetarian) gyno (gynaecologist), journo (journalist), kero (kerosene), metho (methylated spirits), milko (milkman), Nasho (National Service –military service), reffo (refugee), rego (vehicle registration), Salvo (member of the Salvation Army), servo (service station/gas station), smoko (smoke or coffee/tea break), thingo (thing, whadjamacallit), 2. Examples of the -ie (-y) ending include aggie (student of agricultural science) Aussie (Australian) barbie (barbeque), beautie (beautiful) bikkie (biscuit), bitie (biting insect), blowie (blowfly), bookie (bookmaker), brekkie (breakfast), brickie (bricklayer), Bushie (someone who lives in the bush), chewie (chewing gum), chokkie (chocolate), Chrissie (Christmas), exy (expensive) 13. reenie (environmentalist), kindie (kindergarten), lippy (lipstick), vedgie (vegetable) mozzie (mosquito), oldies (parents), possie (position), postie (postman), prezzie (present), rellie (sometimes relo – relative), sickie (day off sick from work), sunnies (sunglasses), surfy (surfing fanatic), swaggie (swagman), trackies (track suit), truckie (truck driver), 14. Occasionally, a -za diminutive is used, usually for personal names. Barry becomes Bazza, Karen becomes Kazza and Sharon becomes Shazza. There are also a lot of abbreviations in Australian English without any suffixes. Examples of these are the words beaut (great, beautiful), deli (delicatessen), hoon (hooligan), nana (banana), roo (kangaroo), uni (university) ute (utility truck or vehicle) 15. American Influence.

In the middle of the century, the hectic years of the gold rush in Australia drew prospectors from California to the hills of New South Wales, bringing with them a slew of Americanisms to add to the Australian lexicon. The invasion of American vogue words marked the beginning of tension in Australia between the use of British English and American English. 16. ?????? Should an Australian say biscuit or cookie, nappy or diaper, lorry or truck? The answer seems to be that Australian English, like its British ancestor (and like Canadian English), borrows freely according to preference, but on the other hand the British influence is much greater in Australia than in Canada. So Australians get water from a tap not a faucet, but tend to ride in elevators as well as lifts. 17. Their cars run on petrol not gas, but they drive on freeways not motorways.

American influence is evident in such words as caucus (in politics), sedan (BrE saloon), station wagon (BrE estate car), truck (BrE lorry), high school (BrE secondary school). On the other hand British English influence is evident in class (AmE grade), cinema (AmE movies), boot (AmE trunk). With foodstuffs Australian English tends to be more closely related again to the British vocabulary, e. g. biscuit for the American cookie. 18. However, in a few cases such as zucchini, snow pea and eggplant Australian English uses the same terms as the Americans, whereas the British use the equivalent French terms courgette, mange-tout and do not care whether eggplant or aubergine is used.

This is possibly due to a fashion that emerged in mid-nineteenth century Britain of adopting French nouns for foodstuffs, and hence the usage changed in Britain while the original terms were preserved in the (ex-)colonies. (For some uncertain reason, Australia uses the botanical name capsicum for what both the British and the Americans would call (red or green) pepper. ) Finally, the oddest of all borrowings from America is kangaroo court. 19. Australian English Worldwide. In the 1980s Australian English has hit the international headlines. Films like Gallipoli and My Brilliant Career have won critical acclaim and found large audiences in the United Kingdom and the United States. The “New Australians” (Turks, Yugoslavs, Sri Lankans and Italians) influenced on the language (pizza, kebab).

There is not and cannot be any doubt that there is a great respect for Australian English in the English-speaking world. 20. ?????? [pic] 21. Australian Vocabulary These are the best-known Australianisms in the English-speaking world. [pic] 22. [pic] 23. ?????? Australia, Great Britain, and America all speak the same language, but you simply have to visit each country to realize that, while they all speak English, it is far from a universal language. The English spoken in Great Britain, America, and Australia has many similarities, but a surprising number of differences as well. The main reason for this is the vast distance between each country.

Here are some of the common differences you will find between these three versions of English. Pronunciation between the three types of English is very dissimilar. • In American English the “r” at the end of the word almost always affects its pronunciation, whereas in Australian and British English the “r” is often silent. 24. Also, the emphasis placed on the syllables of the word varies from British, Australian, and American English. In Britain, the world adult has the emphasis on the first syllable, whereas in America it is placed on the second half of the word. Australian English is unique in the fact that many words have sounds that are eliminated. • Instead of saying good day, the Australian speaker says g’day.

The main pronunciation difference between the three, however, is the pronunciation of the vowel sounds. 25. Differences in Spelling Not only do the three types of English sound different, but they are also spelled differently. In some ways, the spelling reflects the difference in pronunciation. o For instance, Americans use the world airplane to refer to a flying mode of transportation. o In Great Britain, the word is aeroplane, and it is pronounced with an audible “o” sound. o Another common difference in spelling is aluminium, which is the UK spelling, and aluminum, the US spelling. Again, the difference shows the difference in pronunciation of the two words.

In this instance the Australian spelling is the same as the UK spelling. 26. Another common spelling difference between UK English and American English is the use of -our verses -or at the end of the word. ? For instance, in the UK, colour, flavour, honour, and similar words all end in -our, whereas in America they are spelled with the -or ending (color, flavor, honor). In Australia, the -our spelling is almost universal. 27. Similarly, the endings -re and -re are different between the different English dialects. In America you will go to the theater or fitness center, whereas in Britain you will visit the theatre or fitness centre. Again, Australian English follows the British pattern. 28.

There are other common spelling differences as well. For instance, in American English, words that sound as though they end with an -ize will always end in an -ize. However, in UK English, they typically end in ise (i. e. realize, realise). Also, British English often doubles consonants when adding a suffix when American English does not, such as in the world traveller. 29. Interestingly, the three languages also have distinct vocabularies. For instance, the “hood” of a car is called the “bonnet” in Australia and Britain. Australia has several terms that are not used in either of the other countries, such as “bloke” (man) and “arvo” (afternoon).

Also, Australians use some phrases that are combinations of British and American terms, such as “rubbish truck. ” Rubbish is commonly used in the UK, and truck is commonly used in America. 30. ?????? Grammar As with American English, but unlike British English, collective nouns are almost always singular in construction, i. e. the government was unable to decide as opposed to the government were unable to decide. Shan’t and the use of should as in I should be happy if… , common in British English, are almost never encountered in Australian English. 31. While prepositions before days may be omitted in American English, i. e. She resigned Thursday, they must be retained in Australian English: She resigned on Thursday. Ranges of dates use to, i. e.

Monday to Friday, as with British English, rather than Monday through Friday in American English. 32. River follows the name of the river in question as in North America, i. e. Brisbane River, rather than the British convention of coming before the name, e. g. River Thames. When saying or writing out numbers, and is inserted before the tens and units, i. e. one hundred and sixty-two, as with British practice. However Australians, like Americans, are more likely to pronounce numbers such as 1200 as twelve hundred, rather than one thousand two hundred. As with American English, on the weekend and studied medicine are used rather than the British at the weekend and read medicine. [pic] [pic]