One of the earliest historical sources describing a distinct Australian accent comes from Scottish-born educator and musicologist Samuel McBurney.
In , travelling throughout the colonies on a lecture tour with his wife, McBurney made a study of peculiarities in the Australian dialect. This surviving article forms one of the earliest detailed accounts of the Australian tongue. The striking thing is, McBurney was confronted with broadly similar acoustic phenomena to those of today's complainants: shortening of words, elision of some vowel sounds, broadening of others. In one anecdote, McBurney describes 19th century colonials enunciating I die as Oi doi , which — to my ears — just sounds like Kath and Kim.
Rather than spurn this newfound tongue, McBurney largely approved. Australian English could "compare favourably" with any dialect of Britain, he said. Verbal contractions such as 'Straya , which some now deplore as evidence of lazy character or educational decline, McBurney saw as part of the grand Victorian teleology of progress. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle: variant pronunciations, of the national word or otherwise, are no more the result of concerted attempts to streamline language than they are of any grand modernist project.
It's just variation, which — on the historical evidence — has been a part of Australian speech for longer than the country has existed. Dictionaries, when confronted with Australia , either list multiple pronunciations Macquarie or don't offer one, assuming it to be self-evident Australian Concise Oxford. Though even then: there's often a difference in how words are pronounced in isolation, compared to how they are produced in continuous speech.
But the assumption by some that a person might might be uneducated, all because of how they pronounce one word — or that, through the use of neutral vowels in connected speech, the national character is somehow degraded?
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work. A proud tradition of pronouncing Australia incorrectly Towards the tail end of , Londoners realised something strange: BBC announcers seemed to take multiple approaches to pronouncing the word Australia. Why do Canberrans pronounce Manuka differently? More on:. Top Stories Family stranded in Simpson Desert after campervan bogged on flooded roads.
A former cop calls it 'the number one threat to society'. But it's a crime no-one talks about. Dog's breakfast.
Messy, but doesn't refer to food. Often used by parents to describe their kids' chaotic lives. Not in order, a shambles, no thought, just a bit of everything. A "dog's breakfast. Wrap your laughing gear 'round that. While some suggest you can laugh on the inside, your main laughing gear is your mouth.
So when you wrap your laughing gear 'round something, you eat it. Someone playing a good game of sport having a "blinder" , or something that's exceptionally good.
Can also be "bonza" or "beaut. Better than a ham sandwich. Better than a kick up the backside. Something that is better than nothing. Even if you are paid peanuts -- a pay rate that usually attracts monkeys -- it's better than a kick up the backside. You'd prefer a "fair whack. Buckley's chance. William Buckley was Australia's very own Robinson Crusoe, a man who escaped a convict ship during the first attempt to settle Melbourne in Three decades later, colonials returned to find a tattooed, two-meter tall, long-bearded man with half Aboriginal children who spoke tribal tongue.
He picked up English within days. They soon realized it was Buckley, who was given a pardon and used as a peacemaker between whites and blacks. Buckley's local knowledge led settlers to indigenous tribes throughout modern-day Victoria.
He advocated cooperation with Aboriginals. After the s decade of indigenous slaughter saw locals massacred, it was said that he had "Buckley's chance" of making peace. Buckley spent the latter part of his life as a poor loner in Tasmania. There was a concerted lobby for the government to give him a pension for his service to the colony.
Once again, he had "Buckley's. Pull the wool over your eyes. Similar to "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse and chase the jockey," this one derives from the bush.
A history of "earning a buck" around woolsheds meant people had to give an honest day's work "eight hours' work, eight hours' play and eight bob a day" chanted the union movement. Australians had to be genuine with each other so they could all get their "fair share" of "spuds" potatoes. If someone is being a little "sheepy," dishonest, or "spinning a yarn," they are trying to "pull the wool over your eyes. Dog's eye. There's much conjecture about what really goes inside the national staple, a meat pie.
Is it beef? The important thing is that it rhymes. So when you're having a pie, it's looking back at you, in a canine kind of way. It's a dog's eye. Could that really be the runny meat filling? Often used to refer to the British, or anyone who doesn't play fair. The last Australian to be shot by an English firing squad in the Boer War, Breaker Morant, famously shouted his last words: "Shoot straight, you bastards!
During the infamous Bodyline cricket series, English captain, Douglas Jardine, walked into the Australian dressing room to complain about being called a bastard.
An Australian cricketer supposedly asked his team: "Which one of you bastards called this bastard a bastard? In politics, a third party, the Australian Democrats, was formed in the s to "keep the bastards honest. Toads, banana benders, cockies, sandgropers, crow eaters. These are favorite ways Aussies disparage those who live elsewhere. Tropical Queensland has many more bananas and cane toads than people, so they're branded banana benders or cane toads.
Beyond the pronunciation of Australia there is a problem with Australian English more generally, for which the ABC as the arbiter of acceptable usage and abusage must accept some responsibility. For some, January 26 is a day of celebration. These people celebrated the day last year at Cronulla. Credit: John Veage.
Julia Gillard, whose nasal version of Australian English offended some not me , did a better job enunciating the name of the country than her latter-day successors. This excuses Kevin Rudd, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, all of whom managed to articulate the word without sounding like a sheep about to enter the marking pen. What might be regarded as standard Australian English is being de-standardised, certainly Americanised.
What then does the ABC have to say on the subject of the valid pronunciation of Australia in time for Australia Day in the hope of providing guidance to those who will be required to utter the word formally. In quest for answers I turned to Tiger Webb, researcher with the ABC Language unit and keeper of what we used to call in my day at the national broadcaster the "style book".
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