Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

Having just read the thread about ozzie words different to ours I wondered for those out there:

1. Do you get an aussie accent eventually? My cous and her fella still have scottish accents 6 years after going to Oz (their kids have full-on aussie accents even though they were born in scotland)

2. Do you sound stupid using the aussie phrases and expressions in a non-aussie accent? or do you put on a bit of an aussie twang when saying them e.g. I feel obliged to say "g'day mate" in an australian accent wherever I am!

Cadman.

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

Hi Cadman!

My uncle has lived in Oz since 1969 and his accent sounds put on. Some "aussie" words that he has picked up since being there, such as "g'day" sound authentic, but really he has sort of a mongrel part Mancunian, part put on Aussie accent. :scared:

MM.

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

we have been here just over 8 months...me n hubby havent picked anythin up yet apart from sayin "mate" and "no worries" all the time.

kids have a Qld twang.....the pitch of their voices heightens at the end of a sentence.........and my daughters speach has become very lazy I keep saying to her...ffs its t o m o rrow....not tomowwo grrrrrrrrrr

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

People that have strong accents in the first place seem to take the longest to lose them.

I was talking to this woman who had lived in QLD for 20 years and still sounds like a Yorkshire woman.

But when I saw that 'no going back' programme, after just 6 months, the guy from London had picked up a slight accent.

I suppose its who you work with too, if you work with Aussies and spend lots of time with them, you may pick it up quicker.

I know when I worked in Devon, I worked with farmers and all our clients had strong devonshire accents and after 7 years, I sounded like a real devonshire lass.

Depends on the person I suppose.

Who feels strongly about keeping their accent or is keen to lose it?

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

Children pick it up really fast. And all that baggage that goes with it.

Adults tend to hold out! I can remember my grandmother who came out from Yorkshire in 1913 (she died in the late 60s) but the last time I saw/heard her in the mid 60s she still had a strong Y accent.

After a while you will absorb it :-) When you go back to visit relatives and squabble and bitch, they will comment on your Australian accent, out here you will receive comments about your english/scottish/welsh (I had to slip that in ;-) accent etc.

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

Hopefully my kids 6, 4 and 1 will pick up the Aussie accent.
At the moment they are a mixture of Glaswegian (me) and Black Country where they have lived all their lives.
My wife (neither of those places) is being driven mad.
Sorry to offend those in the Black Country :-)


Cameron

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

If you start using all the aussie phrases, do you use an aussie accent, your own accent, a bit of an aussie accent or what?
Do you think the locals think you're taking the piss if you put on an aussie accent when you say for example "she'll be right" or whatever ?

BTW - I don't care wether I lose my accent or not (slight northern, from warrington. kids+wife from wirral i.e scouse gets! - won't be sad when the kids stop talking like dat do won't dee do! ay, ay, carm down, carm down!)

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

:p ay, is dat my tv? :D

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

I think it depends not only on original accent but also on things much more complex. Some people pick up an accent in a week just being around a different set of people, others never do.
I wonder if it has something to do with how we hear things.
My hubbys uncle came over in the 50's as a £10 pom and sounds more north wales than my hubby (who has lived in South Africa, Australia and other parts of the UK since adulthood).
You know how we copy people's body language unconsciously, maybe its the same thing for the sound of language.
I'm trying to sound scientific but failing miserably! :(

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

I reckon. I would say I've not had a really strong accent since I was about 9. I've found that when I've changed jobs in different areas, let alone different countries, I've picked up a bit of the twang of my workmates. I reckon if I'm still in Oz in 5 years, yo'll barely be able to tell me from a local fella.

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

People in England say I have a definate Australian twang and several people there asked me if I was Australian. I just said I was a Kiwi to confuse them. The Australians say I sound English so I am stuck in no mans land. I've only been here just under 3 years.

I work with a scot who has been here 30 years. He has a soft Scottish accent with a big Australian twang. I understand his Scottish accent used to be a lot stronger.

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

I'll probably end up sounding like an aussie in the first week. My accent tends to change depending on who I am working with, socialising with etc.

I was born in Oz to British parents, when we came back I was 8 years old and spent what seemed like ages trying my best to talk like all the kids over here. I have a mix of Wigan, St. Helens, (scouse on occasion) and now Warrington so god help me.

I'll probably end up speaking more local than the locals ;)

Louise :)

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

my mate has been in NSW for 7yrs, she was a real wiltshire lass but to talk to her now its so funny, she sounds a real confused mishmash of wiltshire and oz, if i spend loads of time with my ozzie mate i find my accent starts to reflect hers, im not bothered about losing my accent, just want us all to live life to the max and settle into life there :)

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

Children will defo pick up the accent and that's fine.
However adults that pick it up sound completely mental. I have a mate from derby who has been here 2 years and sounds more australian than any ozzy i know. It sounds fake and stupid and I cringe everytime he speaks in front of anybody especially when he starts using ozzy phrases.
I met a bloke from sheffield the other day who'd been here 25 years and hadn't lost his accent at all.
On the other hand if you are from Birmingham it might be worth trying to pick it up....just kidding (being a midlands chick myself)

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

i've been here 4 years, and after 18 months (the last time i was back in the uk) all my mates thought i had an aussie accent, but all the aussies didn't. now even my aussie girlfriend thinks i speak aussie, and up in brisbane people think i'm from melbourne!! i'm back again in 6 weeks and i dread to think what my uk friends will think of my accent now!!

i never had a strong accent (thankfully) as the wolverhampton/black country/brummie accent is soooo bad

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

I am told i have quite a strange accent these days. Firstly i come from London. Then i lived in NZ for 2yrs (and also married to a kiwi)
Now that i am here in Adelaide, my job involves talking to people on the phone all day long. This has now resulted in a muich stronger accent developing. I didnt do this consciously at first but after a while realised it made my job a hell of a lot easier as the Aussies understood me better.
One very amusing thing though, i find that if a pom from London phones up i inadvertently use my London accent, and my colleagues laugh as they pick up on it straight away and say they can't understand a word i'm talking about. :D

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

i've been told that when i talk to my mum in the uk, my accent shifts to sound more english too.

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

Australians know I'm not an Aussie ( been here for 8 years), but they can never put their finger on my accent ( been accused of most nationalities here scottish, Irish the usual ,then from S.African to even an American once lol - strange one that) - I don't have a really strong Welsh accent today, been out of Wales for 13 years. And yet my parents and friends back home reckon I and my hubby have an Aussie twang. My accent changes I do know that - I can hear myself doing it, but can do nothing to stop it . Take for instance one week back home I revert back to my old Welsh accent. I used to do it with my grandmother too ( who had rife old Irish accent unlike my mum, who's softer spoken and all but lost hers) . It depends who I'm talking to.

Children pick up accents very easily as they are still developing and spend most of their waking hours in school and with friends. Adults don't. I can spot an English, Irish, Socttish or Welsh twang a mile off here in Aus, even from the old timers who have been here 30 years plus - there is always a twang of their old accent. I've yet to come across any adult who completely loses their Uk accents , they may they think they do themselves, but you can spot it a mile off where they are from.
People in the UK always think you pick up an Aussie twang, which you do to their ears, but in Aus you don't sound like a true Aussie to the Australians.

:)

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

We have been here 9 wks now,My 7yr old daughters accent changed very quickly,she had a friend already here & Dani copied the way she spoke,which was extreemly irritating at first! Im still at the stage where im telling Dani to speak properly!!
My youngest (3) has the aussie twang in her voice probably listening to her sister & being at Kindy.

I very much doubt Andrew,hubby or myself will sound like an aussie in the future.

Yesterday was the first time anyone has actually reconised my scots accent,its usually are you Irish? :eek: are you English & just about everywhere else except Scotland!

Since when did a Scots accent sound anything like an Irish one :confused: :mad: !!

Donna.

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

Try and speak with a Welsh accent , and you may get called Scottish then by the aussies like myself Lol :D I get the opposite to you- mostly Scottish and Irish, then S African, then Kiwi then that odd one a yank ( sound nothing like an american I don't think :scared: lol) , but never Welsh - they must think the Welsh speak like this " helllooo boyo, right then, like mun" lol ( don't think I've been accused of English yet - only in Asia but that's because they haven't got a clue on Uk accents most of them, but never here have I been accused of English) - It's mostly only other Welsh people who spot my accent.

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

My english relies say i sound aussie, the Aussies ask me where a bouts i'm from in England :rolleyes:

I use heaps of Aussie termenology though :(and i don't put it on, it just kinda happens)

The kids both have a twang but loose it on the walk down the hill from school:)

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

OMG! Hunted this thread down because someone I've been talking to for work on an almost daily basis only just realised I'm English after 3 months!!! :eek: I've been here nealy 3 years now and my other half occasionally picks up on certain sentences and says I sound Australian but I thought he was winding me up. Am going to have to put some pebbles in my mouth and preactice elocution Hoooow-Nooow-Brooown -Coow ;)

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

Two years down the track my accent hasn't changed, the kids have an Aussie twang but for some inexplicable reason my wife is now talking with a West Country accent??? Go figure.

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

\this is the long and short of it.

Stronger accents defo stay around longer like north, midlands, brummie, scots. A cockney from London would be the first to lose an English accent.

As I've said before what changes is your diction and pace, not accent anyhow. I have a theory that Aussies call English whinging partly because their accents sounds more of a 'worry' - they speak quicker, they are more direct and harsh so its all a misunderstanding.

My first year, I didn't see an English person for 9 months and I found myself
almost bewildered by the pace of English speaking people when I went back to Sydney.

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Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

ahh there is a heaven then :D
(sorry I just could not resist it, it was the voices in my head that made me say it lol )

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

I thought the same actually.. :D

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Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

Firstly, I had a Canadian accent to begin with (which I've been told is a very soft accent) and I've been here just over a year now.

I'm married to an Aussie with 2 Aussie step-children and I work on the phone all day with west-aussies. I've picked up a lot of aussie slang from association (No worries, cheers, ta, etc...)

People ask me all the time if I'm Irish!!

My daughter has a bit of an aussie accent (that I don't hear but my mother tells me it's so) My son is a full on aussie now... it's rare that he sounds anything but Australian (he's the youngest and tried to sound like his mates at school.)

My step children tell me that though they REALLY noticed my accent in the beginning, now they think I sound normal. I don't know if that means I sound Australian or if they are just used to the way I talk.

Recently, a friend told me that I used to sound really Canadian (He's British) but now he feels like he's listening to an episode of Eastenders when we speak...LOL

Draw your own conclusions :p

Siren

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

I speak Welsh with a Welsh accent & Australian with an Australian accent :beer:

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

It's being around all us pommie ladies that does it, now get back to your work !!
:D

Jill x

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

I've been here for 2 years and people back home say I've picked up the aussie way of going up at the end of a sentence but other than that my accent has stayed more or less the same.

Picking up up aussie words does seem strange at first and there are some things I won't say because it sounds so ridiculous to me but they just become second nature after a while especially if you're around aussies most of your time.

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

In the last month a few people have been suprised to find out I am English. I guess I must be going native.

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

If another person asks me how long I have been here for or where I come from in the UK Im gonna cry http://instagiber.net/smiliesdotcom/cwm/3dlil/cry.gif :mad:

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

Been fraternising with poms, Mrs D?! ;)

A lot of the words we used anyway ( being from the midlands ), i.e 'cheers', 'ta' etc are second nature to us. I find 'no worries' comes very naturally now, as does 'heaps' and 'cracking the shits' (a great one I learnt from me aussie mate!!!). (( Irony and sarcasm with that last one )). :D

First time I said: 'G'day, how are ya?' I felt the fakeness, even though it came naturally and have avoided it ever since.

'Too easy' is another good one, very easy to pick up.

Our kids, oldest boy especially, is great and very quick to correct me at any available opportunity - "it's not TROUSERS, it's PANTS", "they're not CRISPS, they're CHIPS" etc etc.....

Vive la differance. :)

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

If you come from London the Aussie slang/strine is a variation on/same as of rhyming slang anyhow so it all comes naturally. Only the extreme Northerners like the Geordies or Brummies would find it unnatural.

I don't say G'day, but I do say "How are ya".... The only way things sound unnatural is if you say it too quick, its not the accent, its the pace and diction. I work with aussies - we had mates over from Perth and the pom there thought I had a bit of a twag - apparently he works with Poms so he has changed less.

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Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

agree, the g'day thing just feels like i'm taking the piss:D.

I am answering that all important "how are ya?" with "good thanks" now insted of "fine thank you" :o :D Made me stick out like a sore thumb:D

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

You didn't stick out as much as me. I used to reply "'Fine thank you, my good man, splendid, splendid" until someone in the office took me to one side and had a word. :D

My wife took a while to realise the "Good" rather than "Fine" thing.

The only Pom I know who carries "G'Day"" reasonably well is Dagboy, he's not bad at it.

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Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

Yeah, No, I think it is because I have been here a while now, eh?

I still answer the "how are you?" with "One mustn't complain old chap", but, eh?

Cheers,

DagBoy

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

Yeah, must stop doing that. Now wheres that new bolt for the front door, must fit it before he gets home :D

Badge, I taught him good, eh? :D

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

Whoops! Sorry Jill,I meant Neighbours not Eastenders...LOL

Just goes to show you my poor knowlege of British and Australian soaps.

I THINK I'm right this time.

I don't even use "How are ya?" any more... I've fallen into "Hey, how ya goin'?

"No worries" rolls off the tongue as do "heaps" and "fair 'nuff" but "G'day does NOT sound right at all. Neither does "fair dinkum" or "she'll be right"

Maybe I haven't been here long enough...LOL

Siren

Re: Have you got an Ozzie accent yet?
 

I can just about get away with fair dinkum as I got to ''practise'' it in the country a fair bit. Some are better than others. :D Strangely enough it only seems to fall flat in the company of English people.

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