Naur is literally just the phonetic spelling of the word “no” in an Australian accent, which has become a playful way to mock the nasal, drawn-out sounds of an Aussie speaking. As mentioned above, the word naur was already in everyone's minds from the lingering H20 Challenge trend on TikTok.
Australian English arose from a dialectal melting pot created by the intermingling of early settlers who were from a variety of dialectal regions of Great Britain and Ireland, though its most significant influences were the dialects of Southeast England.
The American accent is rhotic, so when a word is spelt with an "r," a "hard r" sound is used. When Americans apply their pronunciation to the Australian "no," it results in the phonetic spelling of "naur." (To an Australian, "naur" looks like it would be pronounced "naw.")
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”.
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.
Zed is widely known to be used in British English. But it's also used in almost every English-speaking country. 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.
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?”.
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 Australian accent is for the most part non-rhotic. This means that the pronunciation of the /r/ sound will never occur at the end of words. Where an American will say three separate sounds for the word car /kar/, an Australian native speaker will only say 2 /ka:/.
A few historians believe that the slight 'drool' or 'slurring' which with Australians speak can be traced back to the fact that so many of the first Englishmen, colonizers, sailors and prisoners were drunk often, and that the children, upon hearing this garbled, mushy type of speaking, picked it up and passed it along.
"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.
Australian customs & etiquette basics
It's common and perfectly polite to address people by their first names (even your boss or people older than you). People often call each other “mate”. Communication: Australians are very casual, direct and humorous when communicating.
There are Aussie accents from the city, from the country, from older and younger people, from different places in Australia, from Indigenous Australians, from people whose families came from Lebanon, Greece, Italy, Vietnam, China, India and lots more too. These different Aussie accents are all Australian.
Certainly if you're in the US, your mother is your “mom” – short for “mommy” and in the UK, Australia and New Zealand it's “mum” – shortened from “mummy”.
“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.
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.
While Australians have a reputation of being friendly, New Zealand "does it even better", the report says. New Zealand was named one of the easiest places in the world to settle in, coming in fifth place, while Australia ranked 20th.
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.