Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

Hi
I spoke to a few Australian historians in Oz (yes they do have them)
I asked where the Australian accent came from and none of them were able to answer.
Most looked really shocked and offended and said we have always spoken like this. !!

Now I am no historian but as the country was made up of convicts mostly from the UK and from free settlers / immigrants, where did the accent come from.

It is like a rounded nasaly drawl. That's what my ears hear anyway.
Can anyone help

Thanks

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

I think it has evolved from the Landan 'cockney' accent. That's where most of the crims came from that founded the country anyway. :rofl:

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

Of course, the two accents are completely identical. :sneaky:

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

That's what I've heard, it came from Cockney and then evolved into what it is now.

I think the Aussie accent is horrible, I cringe when I hear it on TV or people around me. It's too slow and nasaly.

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

Its even worse when youre surrounded by Aussies when overseas. Its magnified.

How did the scouse accent come about, thats what I want to know. :unsure:

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

I always notice that, you hear it a mile away and think 'oh god they've followed me'. I always get to hear them saying something silly, I was in Dublin a while ago and 'they' were on the bus and one said to the other one 'why are all the street signs in French and English' I felt like slapping them, it's bloody Irish!

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

I said evolved, which tends to imply it has changed.

It's an awful accent, very whiney. I cringe every time "Summer" talks on Neighbours. When I'm there I take pleasure in taking the piss out of their accent.

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

Thanks for the replies,
Glad it's not just me that can't stand it, with it's high pitched endings to words.

One historian told me it came from England and that it has always been the way it is.. Think he was just making that up hmmmm..
I have never heard anyone in the UK speak like an Australian except the people from Oz over here of course.

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

I remember when we were moving over to Oz and other half said, Oh! god I hate that accent, I said they won't all sound like that..
We moved to Qld and every day in work he got asked numerous times
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaws it gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwn.

I thought he was going to have a nervous breakdown, ha ha

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

Ive noticed in recent years the Aussie accent (particularly among teenagers), has started to develop a slight American twang to it.

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

I think the same when I hear thick-ass Midlands, Manchester, Welsh accents. Really magnified.

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

A mate of mine in England was from Queensland and we'd all piss ourselves laughing when he said 'pool' and 'school' in that true Queensland fashion.

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

At least you can avoid those places in the UK and not hear those accents, unfortunately in Oz every one has the same nasaly drawl
Hence no escape from that high pitched drawn out accent.

Are there any accents in the UK you do like?
I assume you like your own, although I may be wrong and you may not like that either.

Hopefully you won't get too many foreigners from the UK living near you so can just enjoy the Australian accent.

Did you have an answer to my original question ? or were you just playing tit for tat.

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

Do you not understand that it can originate from the English accent without you hearing any English speak like an ozstraylian in England?

BTW there is quite a variation in Australian accents with regards to the amount of nasal and drawl. Is your husband a tradesman?

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

I do - Geordie (especially women), Liverpool, N Irish (women again), some Scottish accents, London.

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

I read recently that 300 years ago, people in London basically spoke like Australians do now. As none of us was around then I doubt whether we will ever know if this is true.

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

I like Geordie, Scottish, Irish, Mancurian, Cockney....like all of them my least favourite is the middle class english accent. ;)

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

The smog is to blame.

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

I don't mind the accent, much less unappealing than seppo ones.


Those who reside down under, can you differentiate between strine accents from the various states?

Just curious.

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

Some would say yes but I reckon they would get it wrong half the time. Lot more difference between city dwellers, bogans and country folk than between states :eek:

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

There is a slight difference in accent between the states but not really obvious straightaway IMO.

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

Only with particular words, especially the oo sound. But as fish says, it's more about country, bogan, city kind of thing.

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

I am sorry I have read and re read your first sentence and I still can't understand what you are trying to say.

No my husband is not a tradsesman and neither am I and I was asked on a daily basis in QLD whilst I was at work also.

Are you saying that only tradesman say
haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaws it gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwn

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

The Australian historian said that
"when the convicts were sent from the UK and the free settlers came over that they all spoke with an Australian accent"
I discussed this with him for a while and he was adamant that the Australian accent has never evolved and has always sounded the way it does.

So can anyone tell me does that mean that all the convicts that were deported spoke with Australian accents and all the convicts not deported didn't speak with Australian accents?

The historian I spoke to in Canberra seemed to think so.

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

I see a pattern here and it involves women ha ha

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

So the historian could be right, or perhaps he wrote the article you read,

Right if so when did we in the UK stop speaking Australian?

Also does this mean that all the convicts were from London?

Always knew that Tommy Steele spoke with a dodgy accent

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

No, there is the Australian accent and sometimes you will be unfortunate enough to come across the bogun accent,
You will have to get someone to explain this one to you.

To me it is awful and drawley

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

If you want the truth about Australia, never ask an Australian.

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

Someone wrote a book on the subject recently I remember reading about. One of things it mentioned was that when certain words twanged in to an Australia like accent from the British one. Great lengths at school were made to stop the Australian accent from evolving.

QLD and WA have distinctive accepts or essentially a little slower.

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

Why do Canadians have pity much the same accent as people from the USA and not their own accent? and where did the American accent come from? the Irish?

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

l think that is wrong l remember reading in a histroy book someone in the early 1800's noted that people born in Australia or first generation Australians had a different accent or a new accent that was different from any type of British accent.

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

The south african one is pretty awful as well

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

Seen Anna Friel being interviewed by Jonathon Ross years ago about a film in which she had an Australian accent. She explained how she "mastered" the accent something along the lines of talking like a cockney but then having to squint your eyes because of all the sunshine and then out comes australian ;)

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

The American accent comes from Olde English and so does their spelling of the English language. Ironically their English is more English than current modern day English English.

Since the first settlers arrived in the US, Europe has had a massive effect on the English language, accent and spelling and the Americans haven't had the same influence.

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

Too much American TV.

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

I am no expert but find it as interesting as you clearly do and have made these comments in the past.The interesting aspect of it for me is the diction, not the accent. I like the diction - the British common accent is stilted with the awful glottal stop which seems to be getting worse - makes UK documentaries cringeworthy. Not everyone speaks RP in the UK any more. The most dreadful English regional accents are far worse than the Australian.

The worst Australian voices have a nasal, even rasping quality but the worst tends to be owned by the lower orders, with a better variant with superior diction in use in the country. I confess that I have been here long enough that I hear it from my own lips at times...I don't mind the country variant - much like I don't mind the true Cockney accent - not the faux Estuary that has been adopted by the SouthEast.

Another annoying Australian accent is the female surburban variant - with the infamous rising intonation mixed in with Callifornian Valley girl babble. Another male annoyance is when the owner sounds distinctly gay. These accents seeem to be adopted only on public transport or in suburbia - I have never heard them in common usage by friends, acquaintances and colleagues.

It's interesting that you have found no relief from awful Australian accents -professional and educated Australians - in Melbourne at least - moderate the drawl and although they don't adopt RP, have pleasant diction which is missing from many of the lower English orders - and end up with a very pleasant English international accent. When I first came across it I found myself asking if they were English. One such accent comes from the Western Districts of Victoria. One of my wife's friends speaks with RP but it was beaten into her at school. A mate of mine has a public schoolboy accent but less high pitched. He did go to a very smart school though by his own admission.

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

Sorry but its an awful sounding accent. One of the teens hit 15 and developed what was either a teengage mumble:lol: or an aussie drawl, I just told him, "cant understand a word your saying" till he spoke properly again. The crazy thing was the kids teachers had all commented on how well they spoke, manners and accent up till then. I would really hate daughters to develop the aussie accent:eek:, and the women talk so LOUD, why:eek: its awful.

I have to deal with a lot of aussie tradesmen on the phone, it really is hard sometimes to understand the Yeahhhhh, Naaaahhhh, gerrrrrrr, the only words that are clear are the swear words:lol:

And I hate the T being pronounced as a D. Dwenny bucks, the news punctuated with the 'dwennys' drives me mad.

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

Some of that would be definitely QLD. In Victoria there is definite departures from the worst.

Average English accents would sound better if people lost the glotttal stop or the lazy regionalism. Not the accent - the lazy part of it.

Many average Australian accents would sound better if they lost the rasp. It's a shame because many Victorians have nice vowels and sound consonants - losing the rasp would be almost easy. And that's precisly what some Melbournians do.

Years ago, when I was in my late teens, I had people asking me if I was from South Africa. Most bizarre. But there are South African accents which are influenced by RP.

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

Could be worse, could all come from wherever Loyd Grossman was spawned.

Or Chelmsford.

Re: Where did the Aussie accent come from?
 

How's it go? I remember a boy at school from Middlesborough who had everyone in stitches when he said 'school'. It was 'sckuuooouuul' and he still managed to strangle a vowel or two in a way I can't show or fathom, even now!

My mother spent time in South Essex and clearly loathed the accent which she said was vastly inferior to a Cockney accent. She said it was a 'garbled' version of it - which it is - a version I mean.

From there comes Estuary and it has been making inroads into London and the rest of the South East ever since.

Jad's kids are adopting the aussy 'teen' accent, English teens in the SouthEast adopt their teen version of Estuary. You can but hope that all teens moderate it as they move into the worforce...