Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Sub-accents of AusE


As we must know, Australian accent is one of the hardest in the world. There is a tripartite division of Australian English accents:broad, general, and cultivated, occasionally tied to notions of social class, education and urban or rural backgrounds.The 'prestige' accent of England(RP) also exerts a considerable influence.

 -'General' Australian English is a neutral accent. It is the most spoken variety of Australians. This is what you will hear on the radio or on television.

 -Cultivated Australian accent (used by about 10% of the population) is similar to British English (the Near-RP),associated with high status.

 -Broad Australian English is a more extreme accent often identified as 'Australian'.It is associated with the values of the traditional Australian working-class and lower middle-class male.'This form moved the Australian vowels and diphthongs even further away from what was now the British standard of pronunciation, and emphasized nasality, flatness of intonation, and the elision of syllables'

                                       
This is an excerpt from the ABC Documentary, The Sounds of Au, about the three Australian accents.


You should also visit these interesting web sites, they have many useful information and so you'll learn to love AusE :


And if you wanna' feel like an authentic australian speaker just click down here:

How to speak with an Australian accent with a voice coach (Garrett Jamison).



Sources:
-Moore,Bruce.Australian English in the twentieth century.Oxford English online Dictionary.Retrieved from Australian-english-in-the-twentieth-century
-Macquarie University online(Sydney).Faculty of Human Sciences.Retrieved from Macquarie-University/australian-voices/australian-accent

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