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66-425: Larrikin is an Australian English term meaning "a mischievous young person, an uncultivated, rowdy but good-hearted person", or "a person who acts with apparent disregard for social or political conventions". In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the term generally meant "a lout, a hoodlum" or "a young urban rough, a hooligan", meanings which became obsolete. The word larrikin was a dialect term originating from

132-402: A standard variety , some lect that is selected and promoted prescriptively by either quasi-legal authorities or other social institutions, such as schools or media. Standard varieties are accorded more sociolinguistic prestige than other, nonstandard lects and are generally thought of as "correct" by speakers of the language. Since the selection is an arbitrary standard , standard forms are

198-512: A stroller is usually called a pram in Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, and Tasmania. Preference for some synonymous words also differ between states. Garbage (i.e., garbage bin, garbage truck) dominates over rubbish in New South Wales and Queensland, while rubbish is more popular in Victoria, Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia. Additionally,

264-406: A "dinky-di Aussie" is a "true Australian". Australian poetry , such as " The Man from Snowy River ", as well as folk songs such as " Waltzing Matilda ", contain many historical Australian words and phrases that are understood by Australians even though some are not in common usage today. Australian English, in common with British English , uses the word mate to mean friend , as well as

330-600: A "larrikin streak" as well as being an "iconic figure", and was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1988. The evolution of larrikinism in Australia is summarised in the publisher's description of a 2012 book by Melissa Bellanta, Larrikins: A History : From the true-blue Crocodile Hunter to the blue humour of Stiffy and Mo, from the Beaconsfield miners to The Sentimental Bloke , Australia has often been said to possess

396-501: A 'larrikin streak'. Today, being a larrikin has positive connotations and we think of it as the key to unlocking the Australian identity: a bloke who refuses to stand on ceremony and is a bit of a scallywag. When it first emerged around 1870, however, 'larrikin' was a term of abuse, used to describe teenage working-class hell-raisers who populated dance halls and cheap theatres. Crucially, the early larrikins were female as well as male. When

462-565: A full vowel ( /ˈnesəseɹiː, ˈmalbeɹiː, ˈmætɹəməʉniː/ ) or a schwa ( /ˈnesəsəɹiː, ˈmalbəɹiː, ˈmætɹəməniː/ ). Although some words like necessary are almost universally pronounced with the full vowel, older generations of Australians are relatively likely to pronounce these affixes with a schwa as is typical in British English. Meanwhile, younger generations are relatively likely to use a full vowel. Words ending in unstressed -ile derived from Latin adjectives ending in -ilis are pronounced with

528-415: A full vowel, so that fertile /ˈfɜːtɑɪl/ sounds like fur tile rather than rhyming with turtle /ˈtɜːtəl/ . In addition, miscellaneous pronunciation differences exist when compared with other varieties of English in relation to various isolated words, with some of those pronunciations being unique to Australian English. For example: Relative to many other national dialect groupings, Australian English

594-477: A fully backed allophone of /ʉː/ , transcribed [ʊː] , is common before /l/ . As a result, the pairs full/fool and pull/pool differ phonetically only in vowel length for those speakers. The usual allophone for /ʉː/ is further forward in Queensland and New South Wales than Victoria. The General Australian accent serves as the standard variety of English across the country. According to linguists, it emerged during

660-538: A historical dictionary documenting the history of Australian English vocabulary and idiom. The most obvious way in which Australian English is distinctive from other varieties of English is through its unique pronunciation. It shares most similarity with New Zealand English . Like most dialects of English, it is distinguished primarily by the phonetic quality of its vowels. The vowels of Australian English can be divided according to length. The long vowels, which include monophthongs and diphthongs , mostly correspond to

726-401: A particular region is called a regional dialect (regiolect, geolect ); some regional varieties are called regionalects or topolects, especially to discuss varieties of Chinese . In addition, there are varieties associated with particular ethnic groups (sometimes called ethnolects ), socioeconomic classes (sometimes called sociolects ), or other social or cultural groups. Dialectology is

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792-556: A range of forms which developed differently in different parts of Australia, and are said to vary along a continuum, from forms close to Standard Australian English to more non-standard forms. There are distinctive features of accent, grammar, words and meanings, as well as language use. Academics have noted the emergence of numerous ethnocultural dialects of Australian English that are spoken by people from some minority non-English speaking backgrounds. These ethnocultural varieties contain features of General Australian English as adopted by

858-670: A reaction to corrupt, arbitrary authority during Australia's convict era , or as a reaction to norms of propriety imposed by officials from Britain on the young country. The term was used to describe members of the street gangs that operated in Sydney at the time, for example the Rocks Push – a criminal gang in The Rocks in Sydney during the late 19th and early 20th centuries – who were noted for their antisocial behaviour and gang-specific dress codes. In

924-425: A specific community". More recently, sociolinguists have adopted the concept of the community of practice , a group of people who develop shared knowledge and shared norms of interaction, as the social group within which dialects develop and change. Sociolinguists Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet explain: "Some communities of practice may develop more distinctive ways of speaking than others. Thus, it

990-972: A stream or small river, whereas in the UK it is typically a watercourse in a marshy area; paddock in Australia means field, whereas in the UK it means a small enclosure for livestock; bush or scrub in Australia, as in North America, means a natural, uncultivated area of vegetation or flora, whereas in England they are commonly used only in proper names (such as Shepherd's Bush and Wormwood Scrubs ). Some elements of Aboriginal languages have been adopted by Australian English —mainly as names for places, flora and fauna (for example dingo ) and local culture. Many such are localised, and do not form part of general Australian use, while others, such as kangaroo , boomerang , budgerigar , wallaby and so on have become international. Other examples are cooee and hard yakka . The former

1056-550: A wave of academic interest and codification during the 20th century which resulted in Australian English becoming established as an endonormative variety with its own internal norms and standards. This culminated in publications such as the 1981 first edition of the Macquarie Dictionary , a major English language dictionary based on Australian usage, and the 1988 first edition of The Australian National Dictionary ,

1122-602: Is also the main language used in compulsory education, as well as federal, state and territorial legislatures and courts. Australian English began to diverge from British and Hiberno-English after the First Fleet established the Colony of New South Wales in 1788. 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

1188-428: Is defined as "the language use typical of an individual person". An individual's idiolect may be affected by contact with various regional or social dialects, professional registers and, in the case of multilinguals , various languages. For scholars who view language from the perspective of linguistic competence , essentially the knowledge of language and grammar that exists in the mind of an individual language user,

1254-402: Is found across the continent and is relatively more prominent in rural and outer-suburban areas. A largely historical Cultivated sociocultural variant, which adopted features of British Received Pronunciation and which was commonplace in official media during the early 20th century, had become largely extinct by the onset of the 21st century. Australian Aboriginal English is made up of

1320-611: Is general social acceptance that gives us a workable arbitrary standard, not any inherent superiority of the characteristics it specifies." Sociolinguists generally recognize the standard variety of a language as one of the dialects of that language. In some cases, an authoritative regulatory body , such as the Académie Française , maintains and codifies the usage norms for a standard variety. More often, though, standards are understood in an implicit, practice-based way. Writing about Standard English, John Algeo suggests that

1386-683: Is generally retained in other consonant clusters . In common with most varieties of Scottish English and American English , the phoneme /l/ is pronounced by Australians as a "dark" (velarised) l ( [ɫ] ) in almost all positions, unlike other dialects such as Received Pronunciation , Hiberno (Irish) English , etc. Differences in stress, weak forms and standard pronunciation of isolated words occur between Australian English and other forms of English, which while noticeable do not impair intelligibility. The affixes -ary , -ery , -ory , -bury , -berry and -mony (seen in words such as necessary, mulberry and matrimony ) can be pronounced either with

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1452-516: Is mostly evident in phonology. Although Australian English is relatively homogeneous, there are some regional variations. The dialects of English spoken in the various states and territories of Australia differ slightly in vocabulary and phonology. Most regional differences are in word usage. Swimming clothes are known as cossies , /ˈkɔziːz/ togs or swimmers in New South Wales, togs in Queensland, and bathers in Victoria, Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia. What Queensland calls

1518-454: Is no exception. Australian English is uniformly non-rhotic ; that is, the /ɹ/ sound does not appear at the end of a syllable or immediately before a consonant. As with many non-rhotic dialects, linking /ɹ/ can occur when a word that has a final ⟨r⟩ in the spelling comes before another word that starts with a vowel. An intrusive /ɹ/ may similarly be inserted before a vowel in words that do not have ⟨r⟩ in

1584-636: Is relatively homogeneous across the country. Some relatively minor regional differences in pronunciation exist. A limited range of word choices is strongly regional in nature. Consequently, the geographical background of individuals may be inferred if they use words that are peculiar to particular Australian states or territories and, in some cases, even smaller regions. In addition, some Australians speak creole languages derived from Australian English, such as Australian Kriol , Torres Strait Creole and Norfuk . Academic research has also identified notable sociocultural variation within Australian English, which

1650-481: Is sometimes omitted in broader Australian English. For instance, "really good" can become "real good". Australia's switch to the metric system in the 1970s changed most of the country's vocabulary of measurement from imperial to metric measures. Since the switch to metric, heights of individuals are listed in centimetres on official documents and distances by road on signs are listed in terms of kilometres and metres . Variety (linguistics) Variation at

1716-475: Is the set of varieties of the English language native to Australia . It is the country's common language and de facto national language ; while Australia has no official language , English is the first language of the majority of the population , and has been entrenched as the de facto national language since British settlement , being the only language spoken in the home for 72% of Australians . It

1782-502: Is used as a high-pitched call, for attracting attention, (pronounced /ˈkʉːiː/ ) which travels long distances. Cooee is also a notional distance: "if he's within cooee , we'll spot him". Hard yakka means "hard work" and is derived from yakka , from the Jagera /Yagara language once spoken in the Brisbane region. The word bung , meaning "dead" was originally a Yagara word which was used in

1848-477: Is within communities of practice that linguistic influence may spread within and among speech communities." The words dialect and accent are often used synonymously in everyday speech, but linguists define the two terms differently. Accent generally refers to differences in pronunciation , especially those that are associated with geographic or social differences, whereas dialect refers to differences in grammar and vocabulary as well. Many languages have

1914-613: The Australian gold rushes in the 1850s began a large wave of immigration , during which about two percent of the population of the United Kingdom emigrated to the colonies of New South Wales and Victoria . The Gold Rushes brought immigrants and linguistic influences from many parts of the world. An example was the introduction of vocabulary from American English , including some terms later considered to be typically Australian, such as bushwhacker and squatter . This American influence

1980-653: The First World War broke out, larrikinism became closely connected to diggers (Australian soldiers), and remains part of the Anzac legend . The notion of larrikinism acquired positive meaning and it became a term of admiration. Indiscipline within the AIF (Australian Imperial Force) was often portrayed as harmless larrikinism that continued in folklore and anecdote. "After the armistice these larrikin digger characters were increasingly celebrated as quintessentially Australian. The idea that

2046-608: The West Midlands region of England (particularly the counties of Worcestershire and Warwickshire ). It was also related to the verb to larrack in the Yorkshire dialect, meaning 'to lark about'. While larrikin eventually fell into disuse in its place of origin, the word started to become widely used in the streets of Melbourne from the late 1860s. The term larrikin was reported in an English dialect dictionary in 1905, referring to "a mischievous or frolicsome youth". A letter to

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2112-503: The de facto standard dialect , which is perceived to be free of pronounced regional or sociocultural markers and is often used in the media. The earliest Australian English was spoken by the first generation of native-born colonists in the Colony of New South Wales from the end of the 18th century. These native-born children were exposed to a wide range of dialects from across the British Isles . Similar to early American English ,

2178-811: The pidgin widely spoken across Australia. Many towns or suburbs of Australia have also been influenced or named after Aboriginal words. The best-known example is the capital, Canberra , named after a local Ngunnawal language word thought to mean "women's breasts" or "meeting place". Litotes , such as "not bad", "not much" and "you're not wrong", are also used. Diminutives and hypocorisms are common and are often used to indicate familiarity. Some common examples are arvo (afternoon), barbie (barbecue), smoko (cigarette break), Aussie (Australian) and Straya (Australia). This may also be done with people's names to create nicknames (other English speaking countries create similar diminutives ). For example, "Gazza" from Gary, or "Smitty" from John Smith. The use of

2244-471: The tense vowels used in analyses of Received Pronunciation (RP) as well as its centring diphthongs. The short vowels, consisting only of monophthongs, correspond to the RP lax vowels. There exist pairs of long and short vowels with overlapping vowel quality giving Australian English phonemic length distinction , which is also present in some regional south-eastern dialects of the UK and eastern seaboard dialects in

2310-403: The "correct" varieties only in the sense that they are tacitly valued by higher socio-economic strata and promoted by public influencers on matters of language use , such as writers, publishers, critics, language teachers, and self-appointed language guardians. As Ralph Harold Fasold puts it, "The standard language may not even be the best possible constellation of linguistic features available. It

2376-515: The 19th century. General Australian is the dominant variety across the continent, and is particularly so in urban areas. The increasing dominance of General Australian reflects its prominence on radio and television since the latter half of the 20th century. Recent generations have seen a comparatively smaller proportion of the population speaking with the Broad sociocultural variant, which differs from General Australian in its phonology. The Broad variant

2442-649: The Police and Irish soldiers as It takes eight or eleven of the biggest mud crushers in Melbourne to take one poor little half starved larrakin to a watch house. — Ned Kelly in the Jerilderie Letter , 1879. In 1965 Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser was banned from competition by the Australian Swimming Union for various incidents at the previous year's Summer Olympics . Fraser was later described as having

2508-674: The US. An example of this feature is the distinction between ferry /ˈfeɹiː/ and fairy /ˈfeːɹiː/ . As with New Zealand English and General American English, the weak-vowel merger is complete in Australian English: unstressed /ɪ/ is merged into /ə/ ( schwa ), unless it is followed by a velar consonant. Examples of this feature are the following pairings, which are pronounced identically in Australian English: Rosa's and roses , as well as Lennon and Lenin . Other examples are

2574-502: The both prominent codes, rugby league and Australian rules football, interchangeably, depending on context of usage outside of regional perrameters. In some pockets of Melbourne & Western Sydney "football" and more rarely "footy" will refer to Association football although unlike more common international terminology, Australian English uses the term soccer and not football or footy. Beer glasses are also named differently in different states. Distinctive grammatical patterns exist such as

2640-555: The children of immigrants blended with some non-English language features, such as Afro-Asiatic languages and languages of Asia . Samoan English is also influencing Australian English. Other ethnolects include those of Lebanese and Vietnamese Australians. A high rising terminal in Australian English was noted and studied earlier than in other varieties of English. The feature is sometimes called Australian questioning intonation . Research published in 1986, regarding vernacular speech in Sydney , suggested that high rising terminal

2706-686: The course of a communicative event as the relationship between speakers changes, or different social facts become relevant. Speakers may shift styles, as their perception of an event in progress changes. Consider the following telephone call to the Embassy of Cuba in Washington, DC . Caller: ¿Es la embajada de Cuba? ( Is this the Cuban embassy? ) Receptionist: Sí. Dígame. ( Yes, may I help you? ) Caller: Es Rosa. ( It's Rosa. ) Receptionist: ¡Ah Rosa! ¿Cóma anda eso? ( Oh, Rosa! How's it going? ) At first,

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2772-436: The development of the new variety and constituted "the major input of the various sounds that went into constructing" Australian English. All the other regions of England were represented among the early colonists. A large proportion of early convicts and colonists were from Ireland, and spoke Irish as a sole or first language . They were joined by other non-native speakers of English from Scotland and Wales . The first of

2838-423: The dialect. Internationally well-known examples of Australian terminology include outback , meaning a remote, sparsely populated area, the bush , meaning either a native forest or a country area in general, and g'day , a greeting. Dinkum , or fair dinkum means "true", "legitimate" or "is that true?", among other things, depending on context and inflection. The derivative dinky-di means "true" or devoted:

2904-504: The dialects of South East England . By the 1820s, the native-born colonists' speech was recognisably distinct from speakers in Britain and Ireland. Australian English differs from other varieties in its phonology , pronunciation , lexicon , idiom , grammar and spelling . Australian English is relatively consistent across the continent, although it encompasses numerous regional and sociocultural varieties . "General Australian" describes

2970-621: The editor of the Geelong Advertiser in November 1870, complaining of the "larrikin nuisance" on the market reserve in Geelong, described the typical behaviour of larrikins as engaging in "rows and fights", obstructing the footpath and employing "the foulest and most blasphemous language, frequently to passers-by". Commentators have noted the larrikin streak in Australian culture, and have theorised about its origins. Some say that larrikinism arose as

3036-609: The end of a word or morpheme before any vowel in the same breath group. Examples of this feature are that the following pairs are pronounced similarly or identically: latter and ladder , as well as rated and raided . Yod -dropping generally occurs after /s/ , /l/ , /z/ , /θ/ but not after /t/ , /d/ and /n/ . Accordingly, suit is pronounced as /sʉːt/ , lute as /lʉːt/ , Zeus as /zʉːs/ and enthusiasm as /enˈθʉːziːæzəm/ . Other cases of /sj/ and /zj/ , as well as /tj/ and /dj/ , have coalesced to /ʃ/ , /ʒ/ , /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ respectively for many speakers. /j/

3102-400: The following pairs, which rhyme in Australian English: abbott with rabbit , and dig it with bigot . Most varieties of Australian English exhibit only a partial trap-bath split . The words bath , grass and can't are always pronounced with the "long" /aː/ of father . Throughout the majority of the country, the "flat" /æ/ of man is the dominant pronunciation for the a vowel in

3168-466: The following sentence as an example of a nonstandard dialect that is used with the technical register of physical geography: There was two eskers what we saw in them U-shaped valleys. Most speakers command a range of registers, which they use in different situations. The choice of register is affected by the setting and topic of speech, as well as the relationship that exists between the speakers. The appropriate form of language may also change during

3234-447: The following words: dance , advance , plant , example and answer . The exception is the state of South Australia , where a more advanced trap-bath split is found, and where the dominant pronunciation of all the preceding words incorporates the "long" /aː/ of father . There is little variation in the sets of consonants used in different English dialects but there are variations in how these consonants are used. Australian English

3300-704: The late 19th century, one Melbourne newspaper, the Leader , claimed that police records showed nearly all the larrikins were the product of Catholic schools. An October 1947 editorial in The Australian Women's Weekly equated larrikinism with vandalism including arson, "They are the people who leave their picnic fires smouldering, and start blazes that deal the final blow to green loveliness", and defacing monuments, "A similar larrikin streak sends louts into city parks to shy stones at monuments and chip noses off statuary". The Queen must surely be proud of such heroic men as

3366-401: The level of the lexicon , such as slang and argot , is often considered in relation to particular styles or levels of formality (also called registers ), but such uses are sometimes discussed as varieties as well. O'Grady et al. define dialect : "A regional or social variety of a language characterized by its own phonological , syntactic , and lexical properties." A variety spoken in

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3432-503: The other states they may also be realised as monophthongs: [nɪː, skweː] . A feature common in Victorian English is salary–celery merger , whereby a Victorian pronunciation of Ellen may sound like Alan and Victoria's capital city Melbourne may sound like Malbourne to speakers from other states. There is also regional variation in /ʉː/ before /l/ (as in school and pool ). In some parts of Australia, notably Victoria,

3498-544: The other states. Accordingly, words such as dance , advance , plant , example and answer are pronounced with /aː/ (as in father ) far more frequently in South Australia while the older /æ/ (as in mad ) is dominant elsewhere in Australia. L -vocalisation is also more common in South Australia than other states. In Western Australian and Queensland English, the vowels in near and square are typically realised as centring diphthongs ( [nɪə, skweə] ), whereas in

3564-471: The process of dialect levelling and koineisation which ensued produced a relatively homogeneous new variety of English which was easily understood by all. Peter Miller Cunningham 's 1827 book Two Years in New South Wales described the distinctive accent and vocabulary that had developed among the native-born colonists. The dialects of South East England , including most notably the traditional Cockney dialect of London, were particularly influential on

3630-581: The real Australian was a bit of a larrikin crystallized." While larrikinism was defined during the colonial era mainly "as a problem of male violence", females were also present among larrikin gangs. Colonial larrikin girls could be just as vulgar as larrikin boys; some of the girls even took pleasure in exhibiting masculine qualities. These girls often engaged in violent behaviour, smashed windows, sang songs with obscene lyrics and had no desire to become "respectable" women. Australian English Australian English ( AusE , AusEng , AuE , AuEng , en-AU )

3696-418: The receptionist uses a relatively formal register, as befits her professional role. After the caller identifies herself, the receptionist recognizes that she is speaking to a friend, and she shifts to an informal register of colloquial Cuban Spanish . The shift is similar to metaphorical code-switching , but since it involves styles or registers, it is considered an example of style-shifting. An idiolect

3762-460: The spelling in certain environments, namely after the long vowel /oː/ and after word final /ə/ . This can be heard in "law-r-and order", where an intrusive R is voiced between the AW and the A. As with North American English, intervocalic alveolar flapping is a feature of Australian English: prevocalic /t/ and /d/ surface as the alveolar tap [ɾ] after sonorants other than /m, ŋ/ as well as at

3828-566: The standard variety "is simply what English speakers agree to regard as good". A register (sometimes called a style ) is a variety of language used in a particular social setting. Settings may be defined in terms of greater or lesser formality, or in terms of socially recognized events, such as baby talk , which is used in many western cultures to talk to small children or as a joking register used in teasing or playing The Dozens . There are also registers associated with particular professions or interest groups; jargon refers specifically to

3894-456: The study of dialects and their geographic or social distribution. Traditionally, dialectologists study the variety of language used within a particular speech community , a group of people who share a set of norms or conventions for language use. In order to sidestep the vexing problem of distinguishing dialect from language , some linguists have been using the term communalect – defined as "a neutral term for any speech tradition tied to

3960-568: The suffix -o originates in Irish : ó , which is both a postclitic and a suffix with much the same meaning as in Australian English. In informal speech, incomplete comparisons are sometimes used, such as "sweet as" (as in "That car is sweet as."). "Full", "fully" or "heaps" may precede a word to act as an intensifier (as in "The waves at the beach were heaps good."). This was more common in regional Australia and South Australia but has been in common usage in urban Australia for decades. The suffix "-ly"

4026-412: The use of the interrogative eh (also spelled ay or aye ), which is particularly associated with Queensland. Secret Santa ( ) and Kris Kringle are used in all states, with the former being more common in Queensland. The most pronounced variation in phonology is between South Australia and the other states and territories. The trap–bath split is more complete in South Australia, in contrast to

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4092-489: The vocabulary associated with such registers. Unlike dialects, which are used by particular speech communities and associated with geographical settings or social groupings, registers are associated with particular communicative situations, purposes, or levels of formality, and can constitute divisions within a single regional lect or standardized variety. Dialect and register may thus be thought of as different dimensions of linguistic variation . For example, Trudgill suggests

4158-417: The word bloody as a mild expletive or intensifier . "Mate" is also used in multiple ways including to indicate "mateship" or formally call out the target of a threat or insult, depending on internation and context. Several words used by Australians were at one time used in the UK but have since fallen out of usage or changed in meaning there. For example, creek in Australia, as in North America, means

4224-403: The word footy generally refers to the most popular football code in an area; that is, rugby league or rugby union depending on the local area, in most of New South Wales and Queensland. More commonly "rugby" is used to distinguish rugby union from "footy" which refers to the more popular rugby league. Footy commonly is used for Australian rules football elsewhere however the term refers to

4290-437: Was continued with the popularity of American films from the early 20th century and the influx of American military personnel during World War II ; seen in the enduring persistence of such universally-accepted terms as okay and guys . The publication of Edward Ellis Morris 's Austral English: A Dictionary Of Australasian Words, Phrases And Usages in 1898, which extensively catalogued Australian English vocabulary, started

4356-512: Was initially spread by young people in the 1960s. It found that the high rising terminal was used more than twice as often by young people than older people, and is more common among women than men. In the United Kingdom , it has occasionally been considered one of the variety's stereotypical features, and its spread there is attributed to the popularity of Australian soap operas . Australian English has many words and idioms which are unique to

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