jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Interesting article.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/15/opinion/australian-accents-the-good-place.html

wds0410 Loc: Nunya

G Brown Loc: Sunny Bognor Regis West Sussex UK

Britain, despite its size, has a host of different accents. There was a time when people added an upward lilt to the last word uttered to have a 'mid Atlantic' accent. Not quite 'American' and not quite 'Neighbors' on TV. We have also gained a 'Whine'.....once the preserve of toddlers now its endemic to the Twenty Somethings...The BBC had an accent all of its own.

Perhaps it is not so much the convicts that altered 'Australian' as much as the £10 immigration of the past. That will have gathered every one of our verbal twangs of the lower classes.

English has a large vocabulary, The public school accent tends to have more Latinate components than local education taught. It is the Posh accent much beloved by 'Actors'. Spoken slowly with a break between syllabulls as well as words. Often it is the words one uses that maketh the man. (spell check is having a breakdown)

At least the Austalians kept the English use of words....Bonnet not Hood, Arse not fanny, Pavement not sidewalk..Shopping centres not Malls....

TV plays such a large part in training our young as to how the written word sounds. More than even families. Just like text has started to limit the sentence structure. Perhaps the next generations of 'The British' will have less words to use and more gallic shrugs and facial expressions!

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I watch a lot of English and Australian TV, and the accents fascinate me.

phlash46 Loc: Westchester County, New York

I do a lot of cruising and Aussies do as well. With very rare exceptions they are a lot of fun to be around.

buckbrush Loc: Texas then Southwest Oregon

It was a very interesting article especially for someone like myself who is hard of hearing. She commented that an Australian can conduct an entire conversation by barely moving their lips.

It made me realize how I much I depend on 'lip reading' to comprehend what is being said. I totally ignore many newscasters who don't move their lips much. That leads to my disinterest in most movies and TV shows made recently.

I'm also noticing how young people do not open their mouths to speak as much as older persons.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I know exactly what you mean.

aphelps Loc: Central Ohio

And young people talk so fast it's hard to understand them. Not to mention their own language!

CaptainBobBrown

Native English speakers rely much more on intonation than we realize. Back in the 1960's a linguist and gifted Shakespearian actor named Edward Bostain recorded scattered Englishmen reciting "Mary had a little lamb". At that time English accents were so diverse that for us middle class American speakers it was impossible to actually understand the words of this well known poem as they were recited but it was always clear that they were reciting "Mary had a little lamb" because the intonations and rhythms matched our expectation of the way the poem sounded in English. No video, only audio.

Orson Burleigh Loc: Annapolis, Maryland, USA

Mary had a little lamb
Jelly of Mint was on it.
The fleece of the beast
was lying there, then
Mary chose to don it.

2Dragons Loc: The Back of Beyond

My other half was in Vietnam in the late 60s and there were Aussies serving there at the time. He absolutely loved the Aussies and vowed they were the best to have your back.

mtcoothaman Loc: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

All accents can be hard to understand, not just our Australian accent. Ever tried your luck with a Glaswegian or some Southern US folk?

DickC Loc: NE Washington state

That was a good read, same goes for the Canadians!

Valenta Loc: Top of NZ

Here in New Zealand (or nu zillan) as it is often pronounced, it irks me when the letter e is pronounced as an i. Litter instead of letter etc. Another favourite (note the spelling) is axchully for actually. Whereas in A'stralia, school is pronounced as 'skoo-ul" or similar.

buckbrush Loc: Texas then Southwest Oregon

I was a helicopter tech rep covering the Far East and Australasia. When I went to NZ first, I could understand the Australian accent but if I went to Australia first, there was no way to understand the New Zealand accent until two days had passed. The New Zealanders spoke too fast. They also drank too fast. Put me on my lips after just a couple of hours.