by Paola Lizares
Home >> Strine
Ever thought of coming “down under” to improve your English? Then, aside from being able to spend your afternoons improving your surf style in shark-infested waters, you will be able to almost understand a kind of English that most Europeans aren’t acquainted with.
The first lesson is to understand the diphthongs, particularly the diphthongs used in Broad Australian English, basically spoken in Queensland. You call your friend your “mate,” but you actually pronounce it “mait.” If you want to say “my mate,” you should actually say “moi mait.” So if you want to say “My mate has a date with Kate,” you have to say “Moi mait ez uh dait with Kait.” Or if you want to say “I want to buy some wine today,” it’s “Oi wanna boi sim woin todai”—a bit exaggerated, but…
On the morphological level, you’ll find that the Australians are fond of shortening words and adding –ie to them. Hence, an Australian is an Aussie. A mosquito is a mossie. A barbecue is a barbie. So a coupla mossies can ruin an Aussie barbie.
On the lexical level, you’ll encounter words unheard of in other places. I once passed by a seafood restaurant. A sign said that you could eat bugs. I had always thought that a bug was an insect. But then I found out that, in Australia, a bug is a kind of shellfish, similar to the lobster. Another sign at the restaurant said “No thongs allowed.” Now to me, a thong is a type of underwear whose back part is so narrow, it displays the cheeks of your bottom. It took me some time to realize that an Australian thong is what I have always called a flip-flop (the kind of cheap, rubber sandal where your big toe and second toe are separated by a V).
When greeting an Aussie, you say “G’day.” At a shop, they’ll always ask you “How are ya?â€? or “How are ya doin’?â€?, to which I haven’t quite found the appropriate answer yet. If someone helps you, you show your gratitude with a British “ta.” When saying goodbye, you say “Seeya” or “Seeya then.”
I could go on forever. If you’re interested in hearing more Australian English, you should travel to Australia. Its strangeness is certainly a part of its singular beauty. And if you can’t make it all the way here, why not watch some Australian movies in their original version? I recommend “Muriel’s Wedding,â€? “Crocodile Dundee,â€? and any of the documentaries of the late Steve Irwin.
Seeya!
Released under the following licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDeriv
You are free to copy, distribute and display the contents of this article but you must give credit to and mention the original author. You are not allowed to use these contents for commercial purposes, and you may not modify them to make any derivative works.
For full licence description, go to: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.1/es/deed.en
Posted on http://www.weeklyletter.com at 2007-01-04 11:02:00 +0100
Copyright (C) ITT (http://www.itt.es) and Planet Lingua (http://www.lingua.es)
We have more weekly letters by Paola
Poll for this weekly letter
Which can you understand better?
Licencing
You are free to copy, distribute and display the contents of this article but you must give credit to and mention the original author. You are not allowed to use these contents for commercial purposes, and you may not modify them to make any derivative works.
(click the above link for more information)
Add a comment
Dear Paola,
Greetings from cool Spain.
I really like your article, it’s very interesting.
I reckon that if I want to improve our English, the last part of the world where I should go, it’d be Australia.
I think that if I’d live two weeks in Australia, I’d lose all my knowledge of the English language. Oh my god!, It’s very complicated their listening and pronunciation !
Congratulations, I’m astonished with your Australian intonation.
Have a nice time there.
Best regards.
Hi Paola,
Congratulations for your article. It’s very interesting. Because when you are a beginner English student you can doubt about which English you may learn. British, Irish, American…… Who knows?
Anyway, If you pass much time there. I think you will speak like an Australian. What do you think about it?, Do you like the idea?
Seeya,
Ramón
G’day mate!
I must say I’m very jealous – not because of the weather, but because you have easy access to Vegemite… mmm…
I have family in Perth who emigrated there over ten years ago. My cousins went to school there, so now they have strong Aussie accents. You’d never know they weren’t Aussies. Curiously though, their parents – my uncle and aunt – still have very strong Northern English accents! In fact I’d say that their accents are stronger now than before they left England.
So the next time we hear you, will you be talking like an Aussie? Fair dinkum, mate!
Seeya!
Dave
Paola is a chameleon and she is a very good imitator. Those of us who know her just LOVE her imitations. They can make one’s day. She can mimic almost anyone. She can even imitate me. It may be because she has lived in 4 continents, 5 countries, and 6 cities. But it’s also simply because she is Made in the Philippines, and lots of Pinoys and Pinays are, by nature, great APES!
Thanks for your comments, blokes!
Ignacio: Aussie English really isn’t as bad as I have portrayed it. It’ll take me some time to really imitate the accent well. Anyway, if you had the time and money, you should really come here to learn English. Not only would you improve, but you’d have the opportunity to see really interesting landscapes. Come and see the outback!
Ramon: A woman from Adelaide says that my accent could actually be Australian. So I think it’s slowly starting to seep in. I don’t care if I end up with an Aussie accent as long as it isn’t too radical. When are you coming to Australia?
Dave: I knew you’d like Vegemite. I’m sure Jeremy and Paul Batkins like it, too. How can you eat Vegemite when there’s Nutella, peanut butter, jam and marmelade? Anyway, I’m glad you’ve brought up ‘fair dinkum’. I wanted to mention it in my article but couldn’t due to lack of space. It means something like ‘honest’ or ‘genuine’.
On holiday in the Philippines this Christmas, I got used to Philippine English, and to VARIETIES of Philippine English. My mother says that a good speaker, listener, reader, and writer of English, of of ANY language, is flexible and adaptable and chameleonic and will never ever say that one variety is better or higher or truer than another. She says that good learners of a language will open-mindedly and agreeably expose themselves to the varieties from the very start. And it’s not just a matter of country. Within a country there are regions, “tribes,” classes, generations, lifestyles, registers… As Gloria Estefan sings, in relation to Spanish, HABLAMOS EL MISMO IDIOMA.
Gina: They say that imitation is natural for people who have musical and/or bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. That said, my level of intelligence in these areas isn’t high enough to earn a living out of them. I wish I could imitate voices and behavior as well as the famous comedians that you can see on TV. What talent!
Oscar: What you say is very true. It isn’t nice to say that a variety of a language is better than another variety of the same language, especially because you can hurt people’s feelings that way. Americans don’t like it when you say that they speak as if they were chewing gum, much in the same way an Andalusian who makes ‘ceceo’ wouldn’t like to be considered vulgar and uncouth simply because of that circumstance of his environment.
I would like to understand every English accent, but it’s impossible for me…right now.
I hope to tell you, someday, that I understand Australian English but not now. It sounds really strange!
The different accents between the UK and ‘Down Under’ produced the following anecdote. In World War Two a British general was inspecting some Australian troops who were about to be sent into battle.
General (to soldier): Tell me, soldier. Did you come here to die?
Soldier: No sir, I came here yesterday.
Most Americans don’t talk like we have gum in out mouth. That’s pure ignorance speaking and, frankly, bothers the hell out of me. What a stupid simile! It’s like saying that the Spanish speak without opening their mouths.
Anyway, Australian English is not a dialect that I am extremely knowledgeable about, only having met irritatingly brute Australian tourists in San Sebastian and Pamplona. It all reminds me of a movie I am ashamed to say that I have seen: Dumb and Dumber.
The scene goes like this:
Lloyd: That’s a lovely accent you have. New Jersey?
Lady at bus stop: Austria.
Lloyd: Austria! Well, then. G’day mate! Let’s put another shrimp on the barbie!
Lady at bus stop: Let’s not.
HI, all
When I went by first time to USA I didn’t understand anything! People said to me that the English spoken in TV was easier to understand but…. I hardly catched some words! After that, I restarted studying English and, thanks to Dònal, for instance, I learnt to be relaxed regarding to pronounciation. The fact of knowing that each word can be pronounced in different way in every country or world region…. supposed for me an important improvement, because I was not so worried or nervous when I had to say something.
Maybe I’m not the best and I haven’t an Oxford accent, but I’m able to talk to anybody (almost always…)
I continue having a lot of difficulties to understand american people…. english people…. irish people… if they aren’t my teachers!
Elena
Anonymous: Australian English really isn’t that difficult to understand. Firstly, not all words contain the diphthongs that I mentioned. Secondly, ‘strange’ words are very few compared to all the words that are shared with British and American English. Believe me, this is a good place to improve your English!
Donal: Your comment reminds me of Anzac Day, a public holiday celebrated on 25 April. The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps Day commemorates how Australian and New Zealand soldiers landed close to Gallipoli, Turkey in the second year of World War I. Due to a navigational error, they found themselves in a place where the Turks clearly had an advantage. 10,000 Anzacs and over 30,000 Brits died.
Wesley: Pronunciation differences aside, people often seem to get mixed up between Austria and Australia, and Switzerland and Sweden. Even Iowa, Idaho and Ohio!
Elena: If you can understand your teachers, then you’re on the right track to understanding other English speakers. Patience!
Hi Paola,
In first time congratulations for you article. It’s very interesting the differents kinds of english languages. If it’s difficult for me listening and understanding the typical English, the ustralian lenguage ought to more difficult.
I’d like speak well English and after I’d like to know the different accents.
What you comment is the same in Spain with the “dejes” between people of Murcia , people of Andalucia, people of Etremadura or people of Castilla. All of them speak Spanish but aren´t the same.
Ah, the first thing that I have in my head when I hear the word ‘Australia’ is a Kangaroos.
Regards
Carlos