To what extent is the Australian accent unique?

[jackinthepatch]

This is the topic of a practice essay I have to write, and I just wanted some help in brainstorming some ideas. Thanks
I'll accept ideas from anyone, not just people doing English Language, so go nuts.
Oh and yeah I just realised that you can change font colour lol
Thanks.

[/0]

Hmm I'll just list some features:
- Non-rhotic
e.g. 'better' -> 'betta'
- Nasality
- Flatness
- Drawl
- Elision of vowels
e.g. 'Goodday' -> 'g'day'
- Assimilation of consonants
e.g. 'How much is it?' -> 'Emma Chisett?'
- Tapping
e.g. 'footy' -> 'foody'
- High-rising Tone

[jackinthepatch]

Thanks /0

Unfortunately I had all of those points already lol, but it's good to know that I'm on the right track at least haha.

Anyone else got any ideas? I've also mentioned how the Australian accent shows little regional variation, compared with the large amounts of variation found within the accents of American and British English.

[Eriny]

I don't know very much about English Language (I've never taken the course), but in your essay do you have to talk about nations with similar accents as Australia in order to give an indication of how 'unique' the Australian accent is? If so, New Zealanders' accents are quite similar to ours, I'm sure that some of those features are also features of the accent there.

[jackinthepatch]

Yeah good point eriny. Might put that in my rebuttal, to show how there is evidence to back up the view that the Australian accent is not unique.
But at this stage I'm leaning towards the notion that our accent is unique...that's what our teacher wants us to write about at least lol.

[sick muzza]

haha i was just about to make a topic for this until i saw it had already been done.

[jackinthepatch]

Lol yeah I need some more ideas man, I'm on struggle street.

[sick muzza]

msn you woman^^^

[jackinthepatch]

Righto.

[mark_alec]

Anyone else got any ideas? I've also mentioned how the Australian accent shows little regional variation...

I find that the accent of those from metropolitan areas is noticeably different from those in rural areas.

[costargh]

YEH I AGREE!!!

That crap about the Australian accent having little regional variation is bull.

Whoever told you that (including your textbook) is lying.

[jackinthepatch]

Yeah that's true for sure.
But compare us to England for example: our country is over 30 times the size of theirs, but they have a multitude of varieties within their small country - you have the Cockney, Yorkshire, Cheshire and Birmingham accents to name just a few. But in Australia there are only the three recognised varieties of accent (ie. Broad, General, and Cultivated). Basically this means that it would be nearly impossible for a non-linguist to tell the difference between a person from Perth and a person from Melbourne, unlike in England, where the regionality of a speaker can be identified by their accent.

[jackinthepatch]

Lol yeah Costa the difference between rural and city speakers is the one main regional difference. Apart from that there isn't as much regional difference in accents as would be expected in such a large country. So while there is that variation, the variation is not as wide as it is in England.

[costargh]

Ok, fair enough.

I'd be careful with how you phrase it.

Something like "the Australian accent shows little regional variation relative to other countries such as England" sounds better

[wombifat]

Its unique in the sense that Australia is the largest area of land where everyone has pretty much the same accent
I dunno if that's relevent, but its interesting:P