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.
The Aussie accent started with kids
The Aussie accent, as we know it today, started more than 200 years ago with the children of the convicts, soldiers and other European arrivals. The parents spoke with all different kinds of English accents because they came from many places in England.
Early European settlers to Australia — many of whom were convicts — were from all over Great Britain and Ireland, and their speech patterns blended to form the new Australian accent.
Today, this means that there are three types of Australian accent. Some people speak with a “general” accent, which is more or less the way it has been for centuries. Other people speak with an accent that is closer to RP English. The third group of people have a “broad” Australian accent.
The results revealed that women and men find different accents attractive, and the only common accents on both lists were Australian and Southern.
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.
Australian English is most similar to British English in spelling and sentence construction, although its accent and vocabulary are very distinct from the UK.
The most common verbal greeting is a simple “Hey”, “Hello”, or “Hi”. Some people may use Australian slang and say “G'day” or “G'day mate”. However, this is less common in cities. Many Australians greet by saying “Hey, how are you?”.
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."
Strine, also spelled Stryne /ˈstraɪn/, describes a broad accent of Australian English.
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”.
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.
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.
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.
Contributor's comments: "But" at the end of a sentence is used in Sydney where it is the same as putting "but" at the beginning of a sentence. Thus "But I didn't do it!" is the same as saying "I didn't do it, but!"
It surely sounds strange to those who are familiar with American or British English, but it is a very common expression in Australia. G'day is a shortened form of 'Good Day' and it is the equivalent of 'Hello.
The Mainstream Australian Accent is a distinct accent produced by native English speakers in Australia. It's a tough accent to replicate, even for actors in Hollywood.
There's a subtle change that has crept into the accents of one group of Australians - and you probably haven't even noticed yet. A subtle but telling change in the Australian accent has been delicately unfolding in recent years, but most would be hard pressed picking out the change unless someone pointed it out.
They have much in common with other varieties of Australian English, but there are distinctive features of accent, grammar, words and meanings, as well as language use. These Aboriginal English features often show continuities with the traditional Aboriginal languages.
Traditional IPA: ˈsɒriː 2 syllables: "SORR" + "ee"
In Australian English, diminutives are usually formed by taking the first part of a word, and adding an ending such as a, o, ie, or y.
6. Strewth! A common word that Aussies use to express surprise, exclamation or disappointment. Similar to saying, “oh my god!”, for example.
(Noun) An uncouth or uncultured person, usually. See also: feral, ratbag, reptile, bevan etc. “I can't understand that bogan's broad Australian accent.”
Modern IPA: gə́ːl. Traditional IPA: gɜːl. 1 syllable: "GURL"