Australian/NZ accent

[Stickieee]

Need te geet thee fush und chups at the fush und chups shup... und pet thum in thee frudge...

Fucking New Zealanders... learn how to speak english!

I'm Finnish, but for a reason or the other I spent a year in NZ couple of years back. For the first few days I was like what the &¤#@6"!? but rather soon I realised how beautiful the NZ accent is. It's almost like the upperclass British accent, but a bit more relaxed. After the year I spent there all the American movies etc. sounded unbelievably stupid.

Last year my little sister spent a year in Tasmania, Australia. When she came back it was really horrifying to hear her wide, lazy Australian accent. Now THAT's something awful.

[TheYak]

I have a related question.
Anyone in the USA:
Do Californians really have an accent?

We do, but it's more a lack of peculiar inflection. If you ignore the stereotypical Cali accent (the valley-girl, surfer-dude or making every sentence sound like a question accents)... a Cali accent is more the phonetic pronunciation of each word.  It's also very monotonous with a steady delivery.  If anything, I would have to say that the largest distinguishing feature is the cadence of it.  You can tell an Oregon accent from a Californian one if you just listen to the rhythm and inflections.  

I've been told by people in North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, New Orleans, Texas and Wyoming that I've got an accent.  Strange they should say that considering most radio DJ's and newscasters speak the same way (traditionally, most professional broadcasters in the US undergo vocal training to speak the null-accent California-style if they already don't).  I have blathered way too much about a simple subject.. sorry.

[Las Naranjas]

I'll add to that, to say that the Cali accent seems a bit like the American equivalent of RE [received enunciation], or "BBC English" except that in this case it occurs naturally, whereas the latter was always taught.

[DGMacphee at Uni]

I also heard that accents differ in each Australian state, also similar to the US.

For example, Queenslanders are supposed to have an inclination on the last sylable of their sentences, or say 'ay' at the end (similar to Canada's 'eh').

[Las Naranjas]

Half of NSW is in Queensland then.

There are obviously differences, but they don't compare in anyway to the bounty and variety found elsewhere though, and it's doubtful whether most Australians could tell the difference between states, let alone foreigners, whereas the difference between  Boston, Southern, Brooklyn and Cali accents, or between Cockney, Somerset, Cornwall, Geordie, Welsh, Scots etc etc etc. is easy to tell.

[DGMacphee]

You're probably right, ay.

[Peter Thomas]

For example, Queenslanders are supposed to have an inclination on the last sylable of their sentences, or say 'ay' at the end (similar to Canada's 'eh').

I've never heard that one before! I can't think of anyone I know, or ever met that finished off with 'ay' on a regular basis, apart from those wannabe thugs that wear two-tonne necklaces.

At the risk of sounding almost sort of racist against accents, I must say the american one really irritates me. I (seriously) get a headache from listening to George Bush, and Bill Clinton did much the same. When I watched the 9/11 reports on TV, the thing that stuck out most to me was how stupid those people sounded. I know it's all about what you get used to etc, but I didn't think an accent would grate that much with me...

[Timosity]

There's sort of a country aus accent that's different to the city, but I have them both depending on who I'm talking to. The country ones a bit more layed back and contains more non offensive swearing like ending something with fuckya or cunt. none of this 'eh' shit, fuckya

Tasmanian accents can be very different all over, but the fuckdest one was that stupid chick that won the last 'big brother', that was so irratating, the type of voice that would make you want to destroy their vocal cords.

There was a NZ chick in my year at school, I loved the way she called me 'Tm'. It is similar to the aus accent but to us it's very different cause we don't hear the bits that sound the same, and the differences stand out.

most bouncers in sydney are either Maori, Tongan, Samoan, or other South Pacific Islander, they're all friggin huge, but their accents are probably even stronger sometimes, but I like it.


I can only tell different accents in English though, I'm sure there's all sorts of accents in Japanese, Cantonese, Mandarin, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Finish, Swedish, Swahili etc, but I couldn't pick it up.

But trying to understand a strong Indian accent (an English one) can sometimes be really difficult, and they speak english. Much stronger than Apu style.

Accents can be really interesting.



Just on another note, Accents are continually evolving, I don't know if it's the same everywhere but looking at old footage of tv or movies, the accents are different from today.

I notice this with old Australian footage, it sounds closer to  an English accent, same with old American footage.

I guess with more communication with the rest of the world eventually the accents will get closer. It happens so slowly you don't notice it, although I guess in some isolated parts it still will still be different.

[Kinoko]

I can't tell the difference between any Australian accents at all! I'm constantly asking foreigners if they can tell the difference between any different states' accents. I haven't really met anyone that can apart from one Korean guy. He couldn't tell me what the difference -was- though.

[auhsor]

I used to know a guy from Queensland, and I do remember that he said 'ay' alot. This was a few years back, but yeah, I even picked up on it for a while and used to say it a bit... and I'm from Wollongong, which is nowhere near queensland, so it was a bit weird... I think thats why I stopped.

And as you sat Timosity, understanding foreign english accents are really hard sometimes. Half my lecturerers at uni are asian, and it is really hard to understand them. I'm getting used to it now, but at first it was very hard.

And I'm not being racist... I know that it must be hard for migrants coming from overseas having to learn english.

[TheYak]

At the risk of sounding almost sort of racist against accents, I must say the american one really irritates me. I (seriously) get a headache from listening to George Bush, and Bill Clinton did much the same. When I watched the 9/11 reports on TV, the thing that stuck out most to me was how stupid those people sounded. I know it's all about what you get used to etc, but I didn't think an accent would grate that much with me...

I'm with you on that one. Honestly, I started to get defensive and wanted to rant about how those aren't the only American accent. A second later, adjusted perspective kicked in.  Keep in mind that Clinton & Bush have southern accents (Not that you wouldn't find mine equally annoying). Clinton's got the Arkansas thing going whereas Bush's is an amalgamation of Texan and Paleolithic.

[DragonRose]

DG: The Canadaian "Eh" sound is usually pronounced "ay." So that's a much more apt comparison than you might have thought.

Going back to the very first post- Kinoko, I'm impressed!  I've been exposed to Canadian and American accents my whole life, and I STILL can't always tell them appart- at least the east coast US and Ontario/BC accents. Southern US and East Coast Canadian are so different from just about every thing they're easy to tell apart.

[Layabout]

Ah, the difference in the Australian accents.

Melbournians speak alot more uppity and try to be posh with they way they speak. Dumb gits.

Bogans, everything ends with azza, like Gazza, Shazza, Dazza, or o, like Robbo, Stearlo. ANd they swear with every fucking second fucking word.

Most other people speak in a midway between this, with some variences.

[LordHart]

You would not believe how they talk out here just past the blue mountains... it seriously reminds me of watching some hillbilly movie of something, it pisses me off. And they seriously go off with fucken, not so much fuckya... but fucken and they also use cunt alot...

The Victorian accent is annoying as well, it reminds me of just a more refined version of the New Zealand accent.... seriously, just watch those stupid Victorian shows like Kath and Kim, or Con the Fruiterer... I hate them all... they should burn to death by ways of acid.

[Jockstrap]

Um...the accents in both those shows are put on....

[DGMacphee]

DG: The Canadaian "Eh" sound is usually pronounced "ay." So that's a much more apt comparison than you might have thought.

There's a difference, though. The Canadian one is longer, like an "Ayyy". Whereas the Queensland on is supposed to be short and sharp, like "Ay!"

[Timosity]

While we're on accents, on a slightly related topic, there are many languages that are based from Latin, eg. English, French, Italian etc and they are all very different, if you know one it doesn't mean you can understand the other.

What I was wondering was how different are languages like, Spanish, Mexican & Portuguese?

or Swedish, Finnish & Norwegian?

are they completely different, or can you understand certain things without having to learn a whole new language?

[Las Naranjas]

I should mention that English isn't based on Latin, like the Romantic languages [French, Spanish, Italian, Catalan, Portugese and Romanian], although obviously many words are sourced there. It is in fact a Germanic language. Which means that it's generally easier to learn German than a Romantic language if you're from an English speaking background.

[Timosity]

That's interesting, I was sure I remembered something from school about English being about 70 odd% from Latin. I could be wrong, or maybe the others are just a higher percentage?

[Fuzzpilz]

Many words in English are from Latin, but the actual language itself is Germanic.