Why is the Australian accent unique? (full segment) | The Drum

We know the Australian accent is well travelled, with ambassadors like Kylie Minogue, Paul Hogan, and Dame Edna Everage.
But what is about our accent that makes it unique?
For more on this, we're joined in Canberra by Languages and Linguistics Professor Catherine Travis, from the ANU.
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[@snowstrobe]

Didn't talk about how the indigenous accent caused the distinctive long vowel sounds.

[@JoanHolloway1931]

My grandmother had the “cockatoo” accent… She really resisted the Americanisation of the Australian accent

[@Jacob-Vivimord]

Yeah, I remember hearing that type of voice a lot when I was younger, and that's in rural Victoria.

[@MicMc539]

As a Queenslander you could pick an South Australian accent back in the 70's. Sounded a bit like a Kiwi!

[@dougstubbs9637]

Pommies from the Para suburbs.

[@coover65]

Even today, the way South Australians say "dance", "example" "chance" etc. with a long A is different to Queenslanders. And SA people sound like they're saying "Gill" instead of "Girl".

[@soulsurvivor8293]

I personally get accused of having an American accent oddly enough. My mother is Scottish but arrived in Australia early in her life so adopted an Australian accent, a somewhat proper NSW flavour, as she grew up. However parts of it are distinctly Scottish like heavy rolling of R sounds. I grew up in Queensland so I have an odd mix of those Scottish Quirks, proper NSW Australian English and South East Queensland Australian. Add in some little Quirks of my father's new Guinea cross Victorian accent (he spent some time in his childhood in new Guinea) for more oddity to my accent. My accent flows from near proper British English to relaxed south-east Queensland Australian depending on my mood and what I am talking about. Altering everything from speed to emphasis along the way. Fun stuff.

[@Waitingforthemetro]

Living in a non English environment since 15 years, often my English comes out in Dutch sentence construction. My husband has to tell me after I've done it. And I hear an Aussie from a mile away when ever I'm in town. The word, 'home' is the easiest to pick.

[@Tymbus]

I think a key feature is that sentances rise at the end as if the speaker is asking a question. This has spread and apparently the TV show "Neighbours" introduced this to we here in Britain.

[@Waitingforthemetro]

Haha, so true. My in-laws (non English) think my parents are constantly asking questions, so they ask them to constantly to repeat things, then realising they weren't asking anything, simply making a statement. Takes them a couple days to get used to it. 😂

[@dmangsmile]

Born and raised in Melbourne, I had a really strange experience travelling around Tokyo. A guy came up to me, started asking me for directions and picked up immediately that he was from Australia too. He then asked me where I was from. I told him Melbourne and he looked at me surprised 'oh, I thought you were South African!' I guess our accents do have similarities but I've just put it down to having a South African tutor when I was younger.

[@sophitsa79]

An English woman at Heathrow thought I was South African - I'm Melbournian

[@jayden-zz2di]

My accent got mistaken for south African more then American or English, while I was in Europe. I always say south African is like a mix of new Zealand and Australian.

[@suzanneedmonds1566]

Adelaidians vowels are rounder while Melbournians vowels are flatter. I think my Adelaide accent is why so often folk here in the US think I am British.

[@marmadukescarlet7791]

I remember seeing something about accents years ago, saying that the upper crust British speak from the front of the mouth, Americans speak from the centre of the mouth and Australians speak from the back of the mouth. Just my observation but I think the Australian accent has moved towards the front of the mouth and is closer to the British these days. Listening to KZbin videos, it sometimes takes me a while to work out if a creator is Australian or British-not that we sound like the upper crust brits but more like the middle class. We articulate more now and syllables are more clipped, whereas, in the past we had the distinctive Aussie drawl.

[@MegaMARLEEN1]

Also remarkable how we use a language to differentiate us from other society classes etc...interesting. This was, I think especially pronounced in the past.

[@AussieTVMusic]

I'm from WA and I've noticed the east coast states pronounce Castle and Raskell differently to here.

[@pianowhizz]

That's exactly how HG Nelson calls the rugby! The worst Australian accent is for the word 'able' where people say 'arble', even worse some people alternate randomly between able and arble! Dan Andrews is a prime culprit: 'Everyone wants to be arble to go to the footy...'

[@MegaMARLEEN1]

This is the same phenomenon everywhere in the world. Sofunny and interesting. I love the jokes that are made around accents and the funny imitations. Also, when I travel, and specially at area's such as borders, I love the influences u can hear and see on both sides of the official lines. And last but not least, I am very interested in good and clear communications. And in this frame, I think it is very important to use a language as correct as u can, and to make clear agreements about this, so no misinterpretations are possible. This is good for the media and official messages, jobs, and specially jobs that require high precision such as for instance the medical world, specially at an operation table and also in aviation. So I think space to stay original and jokes are compatible with clear and official neutral language skills. It just depends on where, when and what for.

[@KatieB33]

My style does change depending on whom I’m with.

[@joeyphaahla]

Same

[@mytruecrimelibrary]

I love Aussies 🤍🤍🤍

[@necieau2700]

Would love to hear the expert's take on the customer service voice

[@HergaDergaDonkeyKong]

Or naur, Cleor, the condensation

[@mikle2129]

I notice my accent changes when talking to my Lebanese & some Greek friends who talk with then distinct Aussie “wog” accent where my accent starts to develop that “wog” variant it’s crazy then with anyone else I talk with a very general accent

[@MegaMARLEEN1]

This happens to me too. Sometimes I catch myself speaking a language with for instance an Italian accent, after I just had a chat with Italians speaking that language. It's unconscious, and it's a kind of sympathy, I think.

[@daveb3987]

Here’s clips where we can listen to accents… *plays loud music over the top of it*

[@medialcanthus9681]

Man(me-anne), here (heeiir), what state is that from? Today (to-die). Mate ( maight)

[@VanillaMacaron551]

Ellen's accent is very broad!

[@efnikzuri1257]

Malarkey

[@aussie8114]

If I wrote a sentence here using true blue Aussie lingo I know damn well what would happen. Any wonder our lingo has gone the way of the Dodo bird 🤐

[@Your.Uncle.AngMoh]

Queenslander? What's the eighth letter of the alphabet? There's no such thing as "haitch"!

[@ivan7453]

Social media has destroyed our language. "...I'm done..." "...are you done..." What a ridiculous way to speak.

[@tobejustinryan5027]

Because it's full of lies and violence

[@pamelawoodall5891]

ABC is just like NPR.

[@hus390]

More like PBS. NPR is radio. But ABC of Australia also have panel shows. PBS try to avoid that.

[@ronibieri2357]

Not really. NPR is very pc, the ABC is not