Evolution of Colonial English Accents - Australia and New Zealand

[cookie]

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24441265-28737,00.html

 

[LondonLuke]

I always thought the Australian accent emerged from cockney accents, as it was generally the poorer members of society and convicts who were sent down under?

 

[lolly_loisides]

Facinating article -thanks Cookie. I'm just back from Melbourne (& saw the art deco exhibition, I loved it!) & I couldn't help noticing the small differences in pronunciation between NSW & VIC. Not as obvious as regional accents in the UK & US, but the differences are still there.

 

[AlanC]

Fascinating. I've wondered about the development of the various English colonial accents

 

[lolly_loisides]

Colonial English? Like American?

 

[Talbot]

Facinating article -thanks Cookie. I'm just back from Melbourne (& saw the art deco exhibition, I loved it!) & I couldn't help noticing the small differences in pronunciation between NSW & VIC. Not as obvious as regional accents in the UK & US, but the differences are still there.

Great article. I notice a bit of a difference in SA and WA, but I can't tell a Sydneysider from a Taswegian

 

[BellyTank]

Colonial English? Like American?

No, not like that.


B
T

 

[lolly_loisides]

No, not like that.


B
T

Geez, to use an Australian saying, "It's a joke Joyce".

 

[Benny Holiday]

Fascinating article, thanks Cookie! One of my best mates is a huge fan of everything Ned Kelly, so I sent the link to the article to him.

 

[BellyTank]

Geez, to use an Australian saying, "It's a joke Joyce".

Sorry, Mate- nice one Cyril.


B
T

 

[lolly_loisides]

No worries Joyce.

Aren't vintage Aus sayings fabulous? Let me kick off with one or two,

Well, it's better than a poke in the eye with a blunt stick, isn't it?
or
This place looks like a pakahpoo tickets

Anybody else want to add some sayings that your Nan or grandad used to come out with?

 

[Luddite]

Recently I heard an alternative, or possibly additional theory for the Australian inflection, which captured my imagination...

As we all know, it's very sunny most of the time in Aus. The brightness of the sun causes one to squint. The fierceness of the squint tenses the throat and tongue, and therefore changes the way language is sounded.

I tried it, works for me!

 

[AlanC]

Colonial English? Like American?

Yes, that, too. American as well as Canadian, although those began earlier than Australia, et al. I think it's fascinating linguistically.

Cleanth Brooks did a little book on the relation of the Southern American dialect to provincial English accents that was quite interesting. I have it around here somewhere, but can't recall the exact title. In it he showed that the dialect later identified with black slaves was actually the preservation of an early English provincial dialect.

 

[AlanC]

No worries Joyce.

Aren't vintage Aus sayings fabulous? Let me kick off with one or two,

Well, it's better than a poke in the eye with a blunt stick, isn't it?

That's one I've heard all my life in the Southern US, although the "blunt" part wasn't used that I recall.

 

[Mojito]

No worries Joyce.

Aren't vintage Aus sayings fabulous? Let me kick off with one or two,

Well, it's better than a poke in the eye with a blunt stick, isn't it?
or
This place looks like a pakahpoo tickets

Anybody else want to add some sayings that your Nan or grandad used to come out with?

"As mad as a cut snake"

"Off like a bucket of prawns in the sun" (as in "I'll be off now")

"Off like a bride's nightie" (they start to get rather crude after this!)

Are these phrases my grandmother loved Australian regional, or more widely spread:

When we asked what was for dinner, the response was inevitably "Duck under the table."

When asking "But why?" the response would be "Because Y is a crooked letter and Z's (pronounced "Zed's") no better."

Then some classic rhyming slang, which is probably familiar to some British friends:

"Time to hit the frog and toad" ("frog and toad" = "Road")

"Are you on your Pat?" ("Pat Malone" = "Alone")

A popular one in our circles, which again I suspect we share with the British:

"Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb" (usually said while pouring out yet another glass of wine).

 

[dhermann1]

Another related issue is the whole "Valley Girl" speech syndrome. Linguists now tell us that this speech, called "Up talk", for its upward inflection at the end of phrases, originated with Australian surfers during the WW II period, and migrated to Southern California in the early 50's with the birth of the surf culture there.
There are a couple of enclaves on the coast of Maryland that supposedly preserve the closest thing to Elizabethan speech that exists today. And when the people on the island of Tristan de Cunha, in the South Atlantic, were evacuated back to England around 1960, they all spoke exactly as their ancestors did in 1812 when they first went to the island.
Likewise, the French Canadian accent is said to be closer to 17th century French than anything spoken in France today.
The evolution of language is SOOOO FASCINATING!!!

 

[Miss Sis]

A few Kiwi-isms

My Mother is a regular user of these sorts of phrases:

'Fair go!' - when someone is trying to give you anything but

'In the wapkaks' and 'Beyond the back stump' - both mean far away

'Up the boohai shooting pukekos' - up s*** creek without a paddle (pukekhos are protected endangered native birds and it is an offence to kill one, the boohai is a stream or river)

I can never remember others when asked, but slip straight back into them when I go home again.

And here's one Ozzies use too:

'What a dag!' - means someone is really funny. A dag is the name for all the muck on the back end of a sheep. I don't know how it came to be associated with a joker!

I will have to try and think of some more.

 

[scotrace]

This is the book to read.

It also speaks of Elizabethan English being preserved in the US - in West Virginia, as I remember. Have to read it again. A wonderful book.

 

[BellyTank]

Rattle yer dags!

B
T

 

[Smithy]

Here's a few...


Couldn't see the road to the dunny if it had red flags on it

Can't handle the jandal

Shark and taties

Wrap your laughing gear around that

2/3 of 5/8 of f**k all

Pack a sad

Waikikamukau

Don't come the raw prawn with me

He threw all his toys out of the cot

Up sh!t creak in leaky gumboots

I'm a box of budgies

Were you born in a tent?

Don't know him from a bar of soap