Transcription
Ah, good night. Uh, how's everything going, mate? Good mates. Good times. Having a great time, mate. How are you? Good mates. You know it when you hear it, right? The Aussie accent. Hello, Uncle Barry. Welcome to Media Watch. Hello and welcome to Gardening Australia. When they find out that I do the voice of Bandit, right, they go, "Oh my God!" You know what it is? It's the good old meat pie.
If you know Australians, or you are Australian, you've heard the voice. But you're not crazy if you think there might be little differences in the way Aussies speak around the country and between generations. Some of our top linguists agree. It may be that this country will become the most valuable acquisition Britain has ever made. To learn how close Australians are to the kind of regional accent variation you might get in the UK or the United States, I started reading what those linguists have to say.
This paper looks at four parts of Victoria, Australia's most densely populated state, to see if there's any difference in the way people speak from one end to the other. It looks at one of the most characteristic accent features of that state, the one that makes Victorians say "Mel-bin" instead of Melbourne or Melbourne. And showed that in the state's north, it's dying out, but in the south, in the city of Melbourne itself, and on the coastal town of Warrnambool, it's getting stronger. In Warrnambool, the sound change was advancing, so that meant, um, that more people were merging those two sounds together. Whereas in Mildura, only the older people were doing that, and it was like this sound change had reversed in the younger community.
Merging the "el" and "al" sounds is just one of the changes happening around Australia right now. Where I'm from in Western Australia, here is a word with two syllables. In New South Wales, it might just have one. In Queensland, you might say you're going to school or having a swim at the pool. In South Australia, they might drop the "L" entirely and sound more like school or pool. Let's start with this one. Just read it out and then read it down into the camera.
"There's no chance of clear skies here in Melbourn, but here we feel like going to the pool." "There's no chance of clear skies in Melbourn, but here we feel like going to the pool." "There's no chance of clear skies in Melbourne, but here we feel like going to the pool."
Linguists stop short of calling these all new accents, and for good reason. But you're not alone if you've noticed the little differences. When they do appear around Australia, people take a lot of pride in their lingo and particular accent, and they're not above having a bit of fun with other Aussies on the subject.
"Most Queenslanders tend, uh, to say France, demand, uh, command. It's not demand, command. France, 'cause we don't want to sound like a wanker." "When I went to Queensland, had to get a bit nasally. Uh, Victorian, uh, uh, they speak. There's, there's a little bit of an OA twang, uh, to it. And in Sydney, oh, it's tiny bit stuffy." "Generally, no, I don't think people say, 'Oh, you're from Melbourne,' uh, when I'm talking to them. I feel like it's a more gentle Australian accent, if there's such a thing."
Ultimately, the state you're from is only part of what makes an Aussie accent unique. For a better explanation, we need to look at the way people from different regions, generations, and social classes have expressed themselves over time. Going back to ABC clips from just 50 years ago, it's pretty clear to see who's making an effort to sound a certain way and who's using their genuine voice.
"What is our question? Oh yes, um, do Australians speak with a bad accent? Extremely badly? I think that they're lazy. They're speakers that they have a piece of barbed wire clamped on both sides of their jaw. Loose tongues, loose mouth. They speak like that with their mouth like that." "You speak nice, actually. I like Grandma too. Thank you for your correction."
Researchers looking at the diversity of Australian English have come a long way. One of the biggest breakthroughs in recent work has been our understanding of Aboriginal Australian English and the ways that it varies between communities around the country, and even within those communities. When it comes to Aboriginal communities where they're speaking Creole or Aboriginal English or their own dialect, for example, that accent definitely changes, uh, across the regions, varying towns and communities. You can tell the difference between, like, the Northern Territory mob and the Kimberley mob, and same as the Queensland mob and the New South Wales.
Some of the research that's going on in Aboriginal English is looking, for example. Some work that I've done is looking at sound changes. So, one of the things that we can rely on about languages is that it will change. You know that, um, that's why older people often have comments on younger people's accents, and certainly the kinds of sound changes that occur in different communities occur at different rates.
Offhand comments might be the end of it for some people, but for a lot of Australians with a voice that falls outside the mainstream, there's a tough choice to make about changing it to meet expectations. There's been some research projects that I've not been involved in, but, um, where people will play recordings and say, "Do you think this person's employable? Do you think this person is a nice person?" And if they don't say like a mainstream speaker, they, they'll have more negative judgments. And not everyone can do that. And, and it, and it absolutely is an obstacle because people can judge you on your accent. People can judge you on the way you talk. They may think you're less educated or not as intellectual.
"Do you ever find yourself changing your voice, uh, for a certain situation or a certain person?" "I think I probably did when I was first starting out as a journalist. Um, I really had to make a conscious effort not to have a kind of, uh, nasal Strine, which is sometimes associated with Queensland voices as well." "I couldn't work out what the words were for you stuff and it's used to." "Do you ever stop yourself, uh, like that anymore, or you've just gone, my voice is what it is now?" "Uh, my voice is what it is. I've been a broadcast journalist for nearly three decades, so it's, I think I've, uh, I've earned my chops to speak how I like."
"Fair enough. Like, if you end up in the remote Kimberley, you know, it doesn't take too long and then you're back in that sort of local twang. Uh, but then if you're hobnobbing it at a, at a ribbon-cutting function with distinguished guests, then we'll speak a little more clear and, um, less slangy." "We're not trying to imitate the bloody Palomies or anyone else. We got our own way of talking. Australia accent, a bloody good accent."
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