One of the first things you'll notice about Australia will no doubt be the very unique speaking habits of its people. Australians speak fast, 'chew' words and skip pronunciation of letters – combine this with their penchant for slang and abbreviations, and you have a language that's quite difficult to comprehend!
The Australian accent is for the most part non-rhotic. This means that the pronunciation of the /r/ sound will never occur at the end of words. Where an American will say three separate sounds for the word car /kar/, an Australian native speaker will only say 2 /ka:/.
Etiquette. Aussies tend to be casual and relaxed and are not very big on formal greetings. When meeting for the first time, generally Australians shake hands, smile and introduce themselves with their first names. They love their laid-back lifestyle and take their time with family and friends very seriously.
The major features of AusE pronunciation are: (1) It is non-rhotic. (2) Its intonation is flatter than that of RP. (3) Speech rhythms are slow, stress being more evenly spaced than in RP. (4) Consonants do not differ significantly from those in RP.
If there's one thing Aussies are known for, it's their easy-going, friendly attitude. Of course food, events, art and history are all vital parts of the Australian culture, but what really distinguishes an Aussie is his or her laid-back outlook on life.
Australians place high value on friendships and are usually relaxed, casual and informal when greeting someone. There are no laws regarding friendships or dating. Friendships and social events with both sexes are common. The Aussie students have all been kind and welcoming in all of my classes.
Australian English can be described as a new dialect that developed as a result of contact between people who spoke different, mutually intelligible, varieties of English. The very early form of Australian English would have been first spoken by the children of the colonists born into the early colony in Sydney.
Some key features of the Australian accent are the schwa, /ə/, the non-rhotic /r/ sound (listen to an Australian say a word with the /r/ sound, and then listen to an American say the same word and you can here the distinct difference in the way that the /r/ phoneme is pronounced and stressed), heavily nasalised vowel ...
Pronunciation in Australia
One of the most noticeable features is the different sound for the 'i' in words like 'night' and 'like'. Instead, it sounds like a less pronounced 'oi', (e.g. 'noight'). The soft 'a', which can be heard in words like 'cat' and 'hat', is usually pronounced similar to 'eh'.
The Aussie accent, as we know it today, started more than 200 years ago with the children of the convicts, soldiers and other European arrivals. The parents spoke with all different kinds of English accents because they came from many places in England.
The results revealed that women and men find different accents attractive, and the only common accents on both lists were Australian and Southern. While men desired Israeli and Colombian accents the most, this was not mirrored amongst the women who were surveyed, who ultimately preferred British and Spanish accents.
Three main varieties of Australian English are spoken according to linguists: broad, general and cultivated. They are part of a continuum, reflecting variations in accent. They can, but do not always, reflect the social class, education and urban or rural background of the speaker.
According to linguists, there are three main kinds of Aussie accent: broad (think former Prime Minister Bob Hawke), general (closer to Kevin Rudd) and cultivated (like Malcolm Fraser).
Article Talk. Strine, also spelled Stryne /ˈstraɪn/, describes a broad accent of Australian English.
"Naur" is "no" spelled in an Australian accent. More accurately, it's "no" spelled in what an Australian accent sounds like to Americans. "When you tell an Australian that there's an 'r' in the way we pronounce 'no' they're like 'Mmm… no, there's not,'" says Hume.
Interesting facts
There are Indigenous Australian accents and ethnic Australian accents. Australian English reflects the relaxed nature of Australian people and life in the country. There are a lot of vowel sounds (a,e, i,o,u) in Australian English. Australians don't pronounce the 'r' at the end of words.
1. G'day. One of the first things you'll hear when in Australia, is the classic “G'day, mate”, which is basically the same as saying, “good day”, or “hello”.
So, what is the Australian attitude to work? Australians tend to have a laidback approach, and while workplaces are generally more informal, arriving on time to work is important. We prefer chit-chat to start a business meeting, as this assists with easing into the deeper conversations.
Among other things, it has been used in reference to Australia's natural resources, weather, history, its early dependency of the British system, distance from problems elsewhere in the world, and other sorts of supposed prosperity.
Work Culture in Australia
Australian professionals seem able to blend a relaxed workplace environment with a strong focus on hard work that produces results. Early starts often go with a willingness to work extra hours, fitting in brief breaks away from their desks or screens for their favorite coffee!