“Our forefathers regularly got drunk together and through their frequent interactions unknowingly added an alcoholic slur to our national speech patterns,” wrote Frenkel in The (Melbourne) Age.
The distinctive Australian accent is the result of a “drunken slur” caused by the heavy drinking of the early settlers, according to a communication expert from the country. "It's not just about pronunciation; vocal quality or timbre matters, as does intonation – the way the pitch of the voice rises and falls."
According to Dean Frenkel, a lecturer at Victoria University, the Australian accent was passed down by inebriated forefathers who added a slur to the Queen's English. Historically, the Australian language was influenced by English, Irish, Aboriginal, and German.
Australian English can be described as a new dialect that developed as a result of contact between people who spoke different, mutually intelligible, varieties of English. The very early form of Australian English would have been first spoken by the children of the colonists born into the early colony in Sydney.
Munted (mun-ted) / Drunk.
Plonk, chardy and the goon of fortune
Plonk is perhaps Australia's best-known word for alcohol. It originally meant cheap, fortified wine but over time came to mean any cheap alcohol.
“Cheers!”
Aussies use “cheers!” in a number of instances: to say thank you, in celebration, when drinking, and to say hello and goodbye. Get ready to hear “cheers mate!” a lot. No matter how strange sounding these Aussie slang terms are at first, you will inevitably adopt them in no time.
"Barbie" is Australian slang for barbecue and the phrase "slip a shrimp on the barbie" often evokes images of a fun social gathering under the sun. Australians, however, invariably use the word prawn rather than shrimp.
What does it mean? Another word for friend. Common in Britain as well, but used even more enthusiastically by Aussies, who pepper the ends of their sentences with a longer, stretched out “maaaaate” that conveys friendliness and establishes a relaxed bond between the speakers.
Approximately 40% of the population (aged 14 years and over) drink alcohol at least once per week, including 5% of the population who drink daily. Twenty-three percent of Australians do not drink alcohol at all.
The use of alcohol and other drugs is not a traditional part of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander culture. Although people did consume weak alcohol made from various plants, traditional rules controlled how and when it was used.
No female drinker consumes more than 12 drinks. For Aboriginal drinkers the pattern is reversed. Fewer Aboriginal people drink one to two drinks (10% male, 16% female), the majority are heavy drinkers: More than 40% of the Aboriginal men and more than 20% of the women drink more than 13 drinks when they go drinking.
Australian English often contains higher levels of nasal resonance to oral resonance. Resonance refers to voice acoustics and is determined by where the bulk of sound vibration from the voice is reinforced in the your face.
Heavy drinking in Australia was a cultural norm since colonisation. For a period, convicts in Australia were partially paid with rum. The distribution of rum amongst the New South Wales Corps led to the only successful armed takeover of an Australian government, which later became known as the Rum Rebellion of 1808.
According to Richards, the beginning of our Australian accent emerged following the arrival of European settlers in 1788. "It emerged from a process called levelling down because you had all these people who came here on 11 ships from different dialect areas, regional dialect areas across England," he said.
Sheila = Girl
Yes, that is the Australian slang for girl.
See also: 'Dirty Bird' (KFC). “Let's pop into Maccas after the footy.”
“My research shows the British and Irish working-class introduced most of the swearing we have in Australia,” Krafzik says. “It was cemented in those early colonial days.” The British officer class tended to rotate in and out of the colonies. The working-class settlers – and convicts – stayed.
Z is for ZINGER
Meaning: A witty remark.
Stunner. To start off with a really good all-rounder, “stunner” is a common one that you can use. Most commonly, stunner is used to describe a person—often not to their face. So, someone who is particularly attractive would be a stunner: “I met this total stunner the other night,” for example.
Aussie Word of the Week
A blue is a fight, dispute or row. You can bung on a blue, stack on a blue or turn on a blue. The slang word has been around since the 1940s and is used to refer to everything from fisticuffs at the pub to a brawl on the footy field.
“Mate” is a popular word for friend. And while it's used in other English-speaking countries around the world, it has a special connection to Australia. In the past, mate has been used to address men, but it can be gender-neutral. In Australia, you'll also hear mate used in an ironic sense.
Morn – Morning
Morn is an Australian slang word for 'morning', and is used as a friendly greeting. It can be used as a simple way of saying hello when you meet someone in the morning. For example, if you are running late to work and you see someone on the street, you could say “Morn!”.