'Strine' declines as Aussies lose twang

[T_i_B]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/01/26/wocker26.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/01/26/ixportal.html

Strewth, mate, it's enough to make a dinky di bloke choke on his pot of XXXX. The Aussie accent is losing its distinctive ''ocker'' twang.

"Strine" is in decline as Australians soften the broad, stereotyped accent epitomised by the likes of the comedian Paul Hogan and Steve Irwin, a reptile-baiting television presenter known as the Crocodile Hunter.

The nasal, flattened vowels familiar from the rants of Dame Edna Everage, the former prime minister, Bob Hawke, and from countless television commercials for Australian beer is making way for less extreme, more mellifluous sounds.

Language experts from Macquarie University, Sydney, are puzzled by the phenomenon. "Part of the reason is that there are now negative connotations associated with the very broad ocker accent," said Felicity Cox, a lecturer in speech science.

[demnan]

1. Too bad

But then I'd like the Welch to speak more Gaelic.

[Demit]

2. "Let Stalk Strine!" I bought that book on a visit to Oz years ago.

Needed to know how to order "Stike n Eygs" for breakfast. :)

[Djinn]

3. thank christ for that

now maybe I wont be one of teh few people who pronounce it AustraLIA rather than Orstraya

[no safe haven]

6. That Qantas ad will have to be redone

(The one with the kiddies perched on frighteningly unsafe places of scenic significance.)

"Oi steelcaw Lorstray yahome"
...apologies to Peter Allen

[Matilda]

4. It's alive and well in Julia Gillard.

For me, it's her biggest drawback. I really wouldn't want to listen
to too many speeches from her unless she has some voice lessons
down the track.

[SweetLeftFoot]

5. Her biggest advantage

you want just another smooth Labor machine pol? Jesus, I have personally seen the vat they grow them in.

[Matilda]

7. No, I promise you I don't want that.

But her father was Welsh - what happened?

[Djinn]

8. you don't have to be slick/smooth

to pronounce Austra-Lia properly

[SweetLeftFoot]

9. Just how does

one pronounce it properly then? In the nice rounded BBC tones of those who sent my ancestors out there in chains?

[Djinn]

10. it's easy really

However one got here it's prounounced as it's spelt AustraLia the L isn't silent.

Unfortunately most of the world views Australian accents through the prism of a couple of people who became famous - Paul Hogan and the Croc Hunter are NOT typical Aussies, the vast majority of us live in cities, we have a higher urban concentration than most developed nations yet we persist with promoting an image of yokel-dom.

we don't all speak with the accent you think of when you think Australia

BTW - in your profile you have Scotland down as a state and Britain as a country - as someone who had as little choice to leave Scotland as most convicts how come you've relagated the motherland down to a state! ;-)

[Violet_Crumble]

11. What???

None of that matters! I have detected NO mellowing of Alf Stewart's accent, and if it's good enough for Alf, it's good enough for me! Anyway, I've never noticed that we have accents...everyone else does...

Violet...

[oscarmitre]

12. Nah it won't disappear as long as the ABC is around

There are plenty of people on ABC radio current affairs programmes who mangle the language. Aside from those that have the most nasal whining accents imaginable there are also those who pronounce Cairns as Cans, Australia as Austrarlia and million as meeyan. I'm not asking for a return to dinner suits and fake BBC accents (but have you 'eard the World Service lately?} just pronunciation that doesn't grate.

[Cascadian]

13. Before Paul Hogan, Americans never recognized the Strine.

Ask any Yank and they would have told you that Australians talk in a funny British type accent. It took Paul Hogan and the Aussie craze of the 80's to change all of that.


It seems to me that many dialects in the English language are giving way to homoginization. How long before everybody starts speaking English with a bland American accent (god forbid!)? It's sad really. Dialects identify who we are and where we from.


John