To Australian and UK ears, the accents sound as different as Alabama and California, but to American ears they seem identical.
The English accent is the one that is victorious, with the latest survey showing that 17 per cent of people have it at the top of their list. French came in next at 13 per cent, which is unsurprising considering that this is the language spoken in the city of love.
Australians have an accent that is often confused with New Zealand's dulcet tones. However, for those in the know, they are as distinct as Canadian and American accents. Kiwis have a tendency to flatten their vowels, and Aussies have more of a nasally twang.
The results revealed that women and men find different accents attractive, and the only common accents on both lists were Australian and Southern.
The Australian accent is famous for its vowel sounds, absence of a strong “r” pronunciation and the use of an inflection – or intonation – at the end of sentences, which can make statements sound like questions. According to Felicity, the way vowels are pronounced is the most peculiar feature of Australian English.
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.
Australian English arose from a dialectal melting pot created by the intermingling of early settlers who were from a variety of dialectal regions of Great Britain and Ireland, though its most significant influences were the dialects of Southeast England.
Here's how foreign accents rank, according to our survey: British: 69% Australian: 54%
Australian English often contains higher levels of nasal resonance to oral resonance. Resonance refers to voice acoustics and is determined by where the bulk of sound vibration from the voice is reinforced in the your face.
Strine, also spelled Stryne /ˈstraɪn/, describes a broad accent of Australian English.
New Zealand. The New Zealand accent is most similar to Australian accents (particularly those of Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales and South Australia) but is distinguished from these accents by the presence of three "clipped" vowels, slightly resembling South African English.
"Australian English is a bit different from normal English. Here they speak so fast and at the same time, the words get jumbled up. So sometimes, it's a bit hard for me to understand. 'G'day mate'... is a common term they use here.
While some Australian speakers would pronounce “no” as a diphthong, starting on “oh” as in dog and ending on “oo” as in put, others begin with an unstressed “a” (the sound at the end of the word “sofa”), then move to the “oh” and then “oo”.
The majority of Australians speak English as a first or other language, however a significant number of people also speak languages other than English.
Apparently, it is harder to fully pronounce certain words in a non-native accent, for instance, while singing. In singing, some syllables and vowels naturally get stressed to go with the cadence, rhythm, and melody of the music. As a result, some singers tend to naturally drop the accent without even realizing it.
Yeah nah yeah = yes. No wonder you're confused! A commonly-used word here is mate, which normally means friend.
Its relative rarity (in the US), making the accent somewhat “exotic". The perception of Australians as a interesting, friendly, generally harmless and, once again, exotic species.
When it comes to American, British, and Australian accents, there are a few differences that are easy to spot. For instance, most American English accents pronounce 'r' sounds more clearly while most Australian and British accents drop the 'r' sound.
The distinctive Australian accent is the result of a “drunken slur” caused by the heavy drinking of the early settlers, according to a communication expert from the country. "It's not just about pronunciation; vocal quality or timbre matters, as does intonation – the way the pitch of the voice rises and falls."
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.
Aussies and Kiwis are very much alike. Both are generally friendly types, Kiwis are a bit smarter tho, hah! Aussies and Kiwis can sometimes have banter going with each other - cross Tasman rivalry.
A few historians believe that the slight 'drool' or 'slurring' which with Australians speak can be traced back to the fact that so many of the first Englishmen, colonizers, sailors and prisoners were drunk often, and that the children, upon hearing this garbled, mushy type of speaking, picked it up and passed it along.