koalakim

If you read Colleen McCullough's book Morgan's Run, I assume as an author writing a novel around a real person (her husbands great great (?) grandfather) who was on the first fleet she must have done some research!

Anyway, in the book it states that the Aussie accent was born out of the children of the first fleeters. The first fleet was made up of convicts from Bristol, Gloucestershire and London together with the Marines and apparently at the time the regional accents were very strong and different so much so that no one could hardly understand each other. Therefore when the kids were born they developed a common accent. It also makes reference in the book to a new way Londoners were speaking at the time.

It's a plausable explanation and if nothing else it was an excellent read!

I'm actually quite pleased I don't have kids as I wouldn't like them to get this new pseudo-Aussie American accent - it's awful and so whiney, especially on boys who do sound very girlie! It's a shame that the Aussie accent is declining as I do think a nice one is nice! Victoria does have a milder accent which is better. However, I do think the Aussie accent is one of the easiest to pick up and also to loose. I've met a couple of Aussie's recently who have spent several years in the UK and one certainly has almost lost her accent. Also if you hear Hugh Jackman and some of the other Aussie stars speak now they are loosing their accents, presumably from playing American's so much!

I always find it funny when people ask me where I'm from. I would have thought UK was pretty obvious, no Aussie or American accent and certainly you'd know French, German etc! But apparently it's because I don't have a UK regional accent that people don't realise I'm British! I'm from Surrey so apparently someone said to me the other day it's because it's neutral! We were once asked in Tunisia and I think it was because they only ever got people from Manchester and Up North going there they thought we weren't British!

I love all the theories around accents, find it very fascinating!

Oh and I couldn't believe it when I found out that people in certain parts of Melbourne really do talk like Kath and Kim!

gmralston

I get asked where I am from too, I have got a very neutral accent but it not prevent me from being asked if was Irish last week.

jad n rich

Lower orders hey what happened to OZ having no class system.

As you say, the professional orders ( of brisbane and melb ) have to modify the 'common' version of the aussie accent, can you actually imagine being taken serioulsy as a Lawyer or Consultant with a Hogan twang.

The lower orders as you put it, exist in melbourne too, have you ever been to a sporting event down there Just as bad as Queensland.

Aussies also tend to do the aussie twang more when with others, can remember partner in the states, seeing another aussie and they both started speaking in a language unkown to me They go right off, totally OTT aussies all of a sudden My sons dental consultant is the same, to us he is fairly well spoken, no accent, but as soon as some old 'aussie cobber' walks in, he goes into mate/bonza mode.

Hopefully the accent will die out as more migrants arrive.

DadAgain

We are ALL guilty of that.

I've been told by the wife that whenever I'm around my UK family I 'suddenly' revert to sounding like I grew up in the nice side of Winchester - and my UK family note that when talking with others in Australia I sound distinctly Australian.

I remember growing up I'd be amazed by the transformation of my dads accent whenever he spoke to his parents in Cumbria - the move from Hampshire-Cumbria in accent terms was huge - but would happen instantly and completely unconsciously.

DunRoaminTheUK

The Canadian accent is quite dissimilar to the American (that being USA) accent if you listen closely and American's don't end every sentence with "eh!".

woodiesinaus

I have to agree with KK, to me the Aussie accent is a London base drizzled with S.W. England and a dollop of Irish.
The Adelaide accent sounds very English.

Kim67

A few people here hoping their kids don't develop an Australian accent or hating the fact that they have. My kids go to a British school and my son has developed the most horrible upper class british accent when asking questions - it really annoys me, I hate it, he sounds like a big whiny girl - I tell him off for it all the time. So you guys can be assured that Australians feel the same way about our kids developing accents other than our own. According to a lady from this forum (a Geordie) and some other Brits I had coffee with, I actually don't sound Australian! Maybe because I don't speak like Danni Minogue (with her bogan twang) or Kylie (with her trying to be posh but still sounding like a bogan twang).

Amazulu

My son has an Aussie accent. I think it's great - shows he's fitting in and assimilating.

sammyg

So true...that really is possibly the most despised accent in the entire world

Deancm

Well look at what happened to the Aussie accent when Italian/Greek Europeans arrived. The only accent worse than an Aussie bogan accent is an Aussie wog accent...

whitesand

I found the West Australian accent not as strong as the ones over east. Perhaps that's because I was used to it.

Shellfish

That's not what I am told - but then I have a great accent

POW148

If you superimpose a map of Australia over Europe, it will more than cover the whole land mass of that area. If you then collate all the accents/dialects/langauges of that large area, I think you will will find that Australia has very few dialects.

Have your ever heard a Brummy accent. Where the **** did that come from,Talk about nasel dialect. Go the slow drawl of the queenslander, I would rather exchange conversation with a queenslander after a night of passion than some one from Birmingham.

Barney

Rainydaze

I can't believe no-one's mentioned the Irish influence on the Australian language - an awful lot of Republicans were deported as 'convicts' on those grounds only. Although Australian, it's said that Ned Kelly spoke with an Irish accent because his parents were emigrees from the Old Country. In later years, thousands of Irish orphans stuck in workhouses during the ravages of the Famine were sent to Australia, with the aim of being useful and evening up the gender ratio (a lot of girls were sent). In Sydney, many ended up at Hyde Park Barracks while they obtained skills useful for their new life in the Colony, even though for many that meant work as domestic servants. Hyde Park Barracks museum had a great exhibition about it a couple of years ago.

emma75

How long was it before he picked it up? My boys are 8 and 4, My 8 year old seems to have turned into a real Hampshire Hog overnight! We dont talk like that! Will the kids pick the Aussie accent up? I actually love it, i think ours is boring! My mums from Liverpool, but has lost it abit from living in the South.