Which Australian accent are we talking about? We don’t all sound the same. There are three generally recognised variations of the Australian accent, but it varies more than that. Aboriginal people often have their own accent which is similar to but not the same as the “broad” accent that the likes of Paul Hogan and Steve Irwin have made world famous. Most Australians (in my experience) sound more like Nicole Kidman or Russell Crowe (yes, I know he’s from New Zealand). The third accent is referred to as Cultivated Australian English, and is often mistaken for a British accent.
That provides exactly zero evidence for your contention.
Pure speculation, without any evidence.
Because I’ve done a fair amount of reading on the subject, and have never seen the American accent attributed to any major influence by the native Indian languages. (This is not to say there may not be any, but the influences are slight if any can be detected at all.) The northeastern American accent is generally believed to be based mainly on the dialects spoken in southern England, especially East Anglia, while the southern accent is based mainly on that of the English West Country with some Scottish influence as well.
No, because I’ve read that, whereas I haven’t read that Indian languages have.
In any case, the issue at hand is whether or not Indian languages have had an influence on American English, not whether or not some other languages have. You need to provide some evidence for your proposition rather than just speculation and analogy.
Only of those words imported - a tiny minority, almost entirely place names and local fauna and flora. I challenge they there was any measurable effect on existing English words.
And as the actual number of aboriginal words imported was tiny compared to the overall English vocabulary, the effect would be tiny also.
You hear the differences, because you live in the largest Australian city and the city with the third largest population of New Zealanders. That’s like people from the US immediately hearing the difference in a Canadian accent. People from outside Australia and New Zealand find it hard to tel the difference.
People from the US find it hard to tell the difference between ANY two anglophone accents they are not familiar with, it seems to me. Thus we get the dreadful “Australian” Simpson’s episode that used exclusively cockney accents for the Australians, completely bizarre - especially given the number of Australian actors in the US that could have done it. I’ve been accused by Americans of being Canadian, NZ, Scots, Irish and English. I contend that, for instance, pretty much anyone from England, Ireland, Scotland, or Canada could immediately tell the difference.
And don’t forget the differences between states. For example, the South Australian and Western Australian accents (different in themselves) are even more distinct again from those of the eastern states.
Oh, give me a break. Differences in speech between Australian states are miniscule. A word here or there, that’s about it. I cannot accept it counts as having regional accents; the US and the UK have those unquestionably but not Australia.
I would beg to differ actually. The WA accent more resembles that of New Zealand than it does the eastern seaboard. The SA accent is more reminiscent of a cultivated British accent…
I’m a telemarketer who rings people all over the country every day of the week. At first I thought it was a case of ‘confirmation bias’, that I was only ‘hearing’ accents that differed remarkably and extrapolating from there. However, after 6 years now, and with lots of lab experience under my belt (so to speak), I can assure you with confidence that the accents of those living in WA (and SA) are VERY different to those who live in the eastern states.
I heard a radio program many years ago which said that Australian law enforcement could only reliably distinguish two Australian accents: rural and urban. Variatons between states coudln’t be picked relibly but whether someone was raised in the city or bush was readily detetced from listening to random conversations. Can’t remember what cues they used but it was something to do with the sounds that weren’t pronounced .
To me that’s good enough to sy there are no Australian accents. If people who make a living identifying people from their voices cna;t do it then it can’t be done. I don’t think the FBI woudl have too much toruble identifiying a Loiusiana vs a Bronx accent for example.
Very different to you perhaps. As Tolkein said, sheep doubtless all look very different to other sheep. The fact is that very few if any foreigners could reliably separate a New Zeland from an Australian accent, much less separate Australian accents from one another.
In actual fact I would be interested if you have any evidence at all that even a tiny majority of Australians can reliably separate any of the alleged accents. I imagine that you wouldn’t dispute that most people, even foreigners, could readily separate a Bronx accent from a Cockney, or a Glasgwegian accent from a South African after listening to just a few seconds of speech. I doubt if most Australian’s could manage to seperate a SA from a Qld accent from just few neutral sentences with any better success than random guesses.
Note that I’m not saying you can’t do it due to your particular experience and genetic talents, just that most Australisn, including people who do it for a living, can’t do it.
You might also be interested to hear that there are regional accents in New Zealand, too… the “Fush and Chups” thing tends to be much more of a North Island thing, people from down Gore/Invercargill way are more prone to rolling their "R"s, and Christchurch… well, it’s known as the most English city outside England for good reason, and it’s just not the Avon River, the Cathedral, and the trams, either.
I liked that episode. The little boy had a Cockney accent, but I can’t help wondering if that was a deliberate piss take at Hollywood or America generally- maybe I’m wrong, but that show is usually smarter than that. The boy’s father though, I think was voiced by an Australian. The accent was exaggerated for the show, but I’d have money on it being done by a local.
I agree with that. When they do Irish accents they are always over the top “top of the morning to ya/Fath and begorrah” kind of deals. IMO it’s intentional. They do it for British accents as well.
I got this all the time in the States. Some just knew instantly I was Irish, a good few even ID’d south Dublin(This was in Massachusetts though ) but a lot just couldn’t place it and went through the countries that they knew where native english speakers until they got the right one.
Brits, Aussies and Kiwi’s have all been able to ID me as Irish straight away and visa versa(although I have messed up the Aussie\Kiwi thing myself a few times)
Here’s a trick for you if you ever meet a girl (that you like) with an American sounding or Australian sounding accent, ask her if she’s Canadian/Kiwi. If she’s American she’ll think it’s funny you thought she was Canadian and if she’s Canadian she’ll love ya. Not entirely sure if it would work with Aussies/Kiwis but worth a shot.
Yes, that’s true for Oz and NZ: an Australian might think it odd to be mistaken for an NZer, but probably won’t mind, but a New Zealander might be offended by the reverse mistake.
