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Гуманитарные науки
UDC 81.23
THE MAJOR FEATURES OF AUSTRALIAN ENGLISH
North Robyn
Sydney College of Business and Information Technology Australia
Sydney, Australia [email protected] Phone: +61-2-1234 5678
Abstract: The article presents an overview of the characteristic features of Australian English with a special focus on the interrelation between the Australian identity and the language.
Keywords: identity, Australian English, linguistic features
English spoken in Australia is usually referred to as 'Australian English', a broad term which encompasses the various types of English spoken by people across the country. Australian English is a unique dialect which evolved from a mixture of sources from the late 18th century onwards.
For the first 100 years after Europeans settled in Australia, English was in fact a minority language. The main languages were spoken by the Aboriginal people of the Australian continent and were estimated to be about 250 language groups spoken by an estimated million people. The most common language spoken by non-Aborigines was in fact Gaelic that was the language spoken by the majority of convicts who were prisoners transported to Australia by the British government from 1788 to 1830.
From the mid 1850s the ascendancy of English can be attributed to both the growth of Australian nationalism within the umbrella of the British Empire, the growth of compulsory schooling using English as the medium of instruction and the genocide of Aborigines which saw the numbers of indigenous language speakers drop.
The Irish and Gaelic tradition is commonly seen to have strongly influenced the accent, tone and vocabulary of Australian English. The language was typified and characterized by a distinctive accent described as high-pitched, nasal, lazy or drawling. The intonation is also seen as a "questioning intonation" with a rising terminal and has phonetic pattern that is truncated. Thus the word Australia becomes "Ostryan" and the shortening of words means words, such as, football become "footie". [4]
Australian English vocabulary is a hybridisation of Gaelic, Welsh, Scots, London Cockney, Northern English dialects, as well, as some Indigenous, Malay and Polynesian words [1]. It has been depicted as featuring informality, abbreviated expressions, rhyming slang, as well, as descriptive similes. The informal and colloquial nature of Australian English is described by Angela et al as: "It is said of Australian English that it has a wide range of inventive and colourful slang and colloquialism. It is perhaps truer to say that a range of colloquialism is much the same as in any other language but Australians make more of it. Indeed they sometimes flaunt it" [1].
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The Australian idiom has been identified as part of the emerging Australian character. The informal and abbreviated nature of Australian English is seen as a form of resistance to the domination of the English colonial masters who attempted to replicate the life and style of the English in language and culture. While formal British English was firmly established as the language of the Australian state in aspects of orthodox Anglo-Saxon political, social and cultural aspects of Australian life, the more informal and idiomatic forms of Australian English were popularised. Australian variations of English were generally marked by class, regional and social divisions and were subject to considerable scrutiny by the state. Attempts by supporters of standard British English to censor and restrict these variations were evident in organizations such as the Australian Broadcasting Commission who introduced rigid style guides for the pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary of broadcasters [5]. The tensions between notions of appropriate English and Australian English have characterized debates around English in Australia that continue today.
Of the two variants, British English has the most confusing grammar and spelling rules. This is probably because those involved in English standardisation processes in the 18th century wanted to showcase their French influence and thus differentiate themselves from the uneducated masses. In other words, British English reflects the British preoccupation with class. Australian English is different from British English in that it has a bias towards a classless society. At times, this can make it almost impossible to understand and quite offensive to speakers accustomed to formality. It reflects Australia's identity conflicts born out of its penal history. In addition, it perhaps reflects the strong desire of many 19th century Australian to adopt Aboriginal names and words, particularly in rural Australia, which may have influenced pronunciation and inspired the fondness for the diminutive.
Australia's every day language is rich with slang that reflects experiences from the country's history. Slang can be seen as a demonstration of how experience shapes language and also how language shapes identity. From borrowings of Aboriginal language words, through convict sources, the gold rushes and bushranging to the First World War, words have emerged to describe essential aspects of the Australian character and identity. Australian slang utilised humour, wit, rhymes, flash language, the bizarre experiences of the bush and the beach, the familiar and the personal to realise terms that could describe experiences that were often new or transforming. For example, 'having a bash' at something is similar to 'giving it a burl', and both phrases reflect a history of Australian improvisation and hard work as part of working in the bush.
Thus, Australian English has characteristic linguistic features which set it apart from English dialects elsewhere: invention and deception, diminutives, profanity and informality.
The bias in Australian English towards invention and deception can be seen as a Convict influence. Nearly two generations after the arrival of the First Fleet, 87 per cent of the population were either convicts, ex-convicts or of convict descent. With such strong convict foundations, it was inevitable that Australia's linguistic traditions would be different from the mother country. According to Sidney Barker, author of the Australian Language: "No other class of society would use slang more readily or adapt it more expertly to their new environment; no other class would have a better flair for concocting new terms to fit in with their new conditions in life".
In 1869, British author Marcus Clarke described how Australians devised language to "convey a more full and humorous notion of all his thoughts" or to conceal "the idea he wishes to convey from all save his own particular friends" [4].
The most notable method of concealment was cockney rhyming slang. One of the most common forms of slang is through substitution and comparison. One form of substitution is when rhyming slang removes one part of a phrase and replaces it with a word that rhymes. For example to 'have a Captain Cook' means to have a look. Rhyming slang created an idiom type sentence out of two or more words, the last of which rhymed with the intended word.
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Although few Australians use rhyming slang today, its inventive legacy may be seen in the prevalence of idioms in Strine. For example, idioms like "mad as a cut snake" (in a furious rage) or 'flat out like a lizard drinking' (working very hard on a task) all illustrate a creative application of visual imagery to a linguistic discourse.
Substitution could also include a 'metaphor', where one word or idea stands in for another. There is no town in Australia called 'Woop Woop', however it has been a popular and evocative byword for a remote location, and has been in use since the 1900s. For example, "plates of meat" were "feet" and "hit the frog and toad" was "hit the road."
Aside from rhyming slang, another method that the Convicts used to conceal their true meaning was to turn the meaning of a word upside down. For example, "bastard" or "ratbag" were used as terms of endearment as well as insults. The only way to know up from down was to infer from the tone of the sentence and the context it was used in.
Australians also demonstrate a strong impulse to abbreviate and alter word endings, resulting in 'barbie' for barbecue, 'arvo' for afternoon, 'cossie' for swimming costume. Known as diminutives, they are formed by taking the first part of a word and substituting an a, o, ie, or y sound for the rest. In all, about 5,000 diminutives have been identified in Australian English.
To explain the popularity of profanity and informality, there is an Australian saying that proposes, "If the guy next to you is swearing like a wharfie, there is a good chance he may be a billionaire or just a wharfie." It is a saying that not only indicates how pervasive swearing is in Australia, but also how it has egalitarian connotations. This love of swearing is also reflected in political circles where politicians use it around journalists in order to signal their membership of the common classes. Again, the penal foundations help explain the profane influence.
Aside from the use of profanity amongst those who would be endeared by it and those who would be offended by it, the Australian bias towards a classless society is reflected in the reluctance to use formality and titles. In Britain, titles like Mr, Mrs, Ms, Lord and Your Highness help structure social relations but also reduce social comfort. In Australia, the use of titles is relative rare. Bosses and workers are usually on a first name basis as are students and professors at universities.
A significant number of Australian colloquialisms are affectionate insults or backhanded compliments. A clumsy friend or colleague may be called a 'dag', 'galah', 'drongo' or 'boofhead'. There are also many ways of saying that someone is not very useful, for example: 'couldn't find a grand piano in a one-roomed house' or 'useless as an ashtray on a motorbike'.
So, no language can be understood without close attention to the cultural context in which it exists. The identity of a nation is influenced by the language they speak and the other way around.
References:
1. Angelo, D., et al. Australian Phrase Book. - Hong Kong: Lonely Planet Productions. Singh, Kell & Pandian, 2002.
2. Barker, S.J The Australian Language. - Sydney: Currawong Publishing Co.,1966.
3. Mitchell, A. G., Delbridge, A. The Pronunciation of English in Australia. -Sydney: Angus and Robertson. 1965.
4. Strong, G. From Queens English to the World's Globlish.. .Or Not. - The Sydney Morning Herald, 2005.
5. Taylor, B. A. Australian English in interaction with other Englishes. In D. Blair & P. Collins (Eds.), English in Australia. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2001. - pp. 317-340
6. Turner, G. W. English in Australia. - The Cambridge History of the English language. Vol. V: English in Britain and Overseas: Origins and Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. - pp. 277-327.
