While some Australian speakers would pronounce “no” as a diphthong, starting on “oh” as in dog and ending on “oo” as in put, others begin with an unstressed “a” (the sound at the end of the word “sofa”), then move to the “oh” and then “oo”.
Yeah, nah – 'yes, no' - became popular in Australia in the 90s and has continued to grow in use, both in Australia and overseas.
Yeah nah yeah = yes.
Australian English is a non-rhotic variety of English, which means we don't pronounce 'r' after vowels: water, butter, mother, father, theatre etc. all end on vowels in our English (as they do for Kiwis and a number of English people).
In England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Australia, India, Canada (usually), and New Zealand, Z is pronounced as zed. It's derived from the Greek letter zeta.
A common word that Aussies use to express surprise, exclamation or disappointment. Similar to saying, “oh my god!”, for example. The more you use it, the more familiar you'll become with it. Some common ones you'll hear could be, “strewth!
Traditional IPA: ˌəʊˈkeɪ 2 syllables: "OH" + "KAY"
Galah. (Noun) A stupid or idiotic person; often accompanied by the adjective 'flaming'. Inspired by our very own native bird, known for flying into windows. “Nah mate, Johnno's a flamin' galah.”
If you say “no” with an extra syllable or two, chances are you are actually saying naur, an Australian-ism defined by its listeners, not its speakers, which continues to be one of the internet's favourite jokes.
There are a few things you will notice straightway when you talk to Australians (or Aussies for short). First, they tend to add the word “aye” to many sentences – but don't worry about that, it doesn't really mean anything. Secondly, they LOVE to use slang. Lots and lots of slang.
Buckley's chance – no chance, unlikely to occur, as in 'they've got Buckley's chance of beating Australia in the cricket'.
“Cheers, mate” is the same as the English word, Thank You, while “No worries” or No drama” translates to “You're welcome” in Australian slang. If you notice, the word “mate” is often used.
D – dee. You might be picking up on a pattern here. Like B and C, the letter D is spelled out with -ee: d-e-e. Like the letter B, dee originally had another name in the Phoenician alphabet: daleth.
Zed is the name of the letter Z. The pronunciation zed is more commonly used in Canadian English than zee. English speakers in other Commonwealth countries also prefer the pronunciation zed.