Australian Englishes

Overview

1. Introduction

2. History: Colonisation and language import

3. Development of AusE

4. Regional varieties of AusE

5. Development of Creole languages

1. Introduction

TV ad: "Where the bloody hell are you!?"

1. Introduction

• TV- advertisement launched by Tourism Australia earlier this year to attract travellers from all over the world

• Any problems in understanding the spoken text? • ( obviously, it is mainly the pronunciation of Australian English that

differs from Standard British English and General American English)• British TV bosses have banned the commercial since they regarded

the language used as “bad” and too rude• England was the only country where such reactions occurred

• => the British and Australian population have an extraordinary

relationship concerning usage of language

2. History: Colonisation and Language Import• Australia has been inhabited by the native or Aboriginal people for

over 40,000 years.• Discovery of the continent by Captain Cook / Arrival of the British in

1770• Established as a penal colony in 1778 (NSW) mostly for Irish and

Southern English convicts• Free settlers came with economic growth especially after

discovering gold in 1851

• Aboriginal people lacked a single official language• technologically far less advanced• No great impact on economic developments nor on language

2. History: Colonisation and Language Import• Hundreds of different Aboriginal

languages: small excerpt:

3. Development of Australian English• Despite of numerous non-British immigrant languages, English

has always been the first official language• The majority of the Australian population speaks English with over

80% of them having it as their native language• Easily recognized by its pronunciation• Pronunciation has a clearly urban southern English bias and is

noticably slow • southern English immigrants had the strongest influence on the

nature of Australian English> AusE• Often compared to Cockney English

3. Development of Australian English• Differences between BrE and AusE:

- formal style of AusE comes closer to BrE than AmE

- more slang words and abbreviations in AusE• Names for places and objects are often influenced by Aboriginal

terms (e.g. “Boomerang“, “Kangaroo“, “Uluru“, …)• Common shortenings are for example:

Afternoon => arvo

Barbecue => barbie

4. Varieties of AusE

Varieties in social aspects:• Cultivated (spoken by 11%)• General (spoken by 55%)• Broad (spoken by 34%)

AusE varieties do not occur in regional aspects

5. Development of Creole LanguagesCreole and Aboriginal languages:

KriolTorres Strait BrokenAboriginal English

• Especially in Western Australia and Northern Territory

5.1 Kriol

• Kriol has many sub classes or dialects• Mixture of Aboriginal English and former “pure“

Aboriginal languages that tribes used to speak• Spoken by about 30.000 people

• Developed as a pidgin in early 20th century in the Northern Territory

• Widespread and well understood• Established as a creole at Roper River Mission

(Ngukurr), where cattle stations were established and a township developed

5.1 Kriol

• 200 aboriginal people from 8 different tribes used it as the only language they had in common => became a native language then

• Regions it is spoken in today:– Roper River– Katherine areas– Ngukurr– Northern Territory– Kimberley region of Western Australia– Gulf Country– Lower Cape York Peninsula– Queensland

5.2 Torres Strait Broken

• Spoken on islands between Australia and New Guinea and on Cape York

• Used for trade and commerce• Spoken by approximately 25.000 people• Pidgin but usually the first language / creole for many

speakers• Has 5 dialects

5.3 Aboriginal English

• Spoken in remote areas• Varieties between standard AusE (SAE), creoles and

Australian languages• Comprehensible for English speakers• Examples: “dey poisonous“, “Like my pop got emu eggs down is

place“, “Because this one boy, he wen an.. broke it“, “We bin go wi-i-i-ight aroun eberywhere“

5.4 Creoles

„These Creoles are distinct languages. … They show an ingenious blend of English and Australian structural features, producing a language that seems quite appropriate to the bicultural milieu in which many Aboriginal Australians find themselves. Indeed, in some areas an increasing number of young Aborigines are speaking Kriol – instead of or as well as an Australian language – and it is coming to be thought of by them as ‘the Aboriginal language‘.“

(Dixon 1980: 73f.)