Australian Accents

[bobblicious]

I thought that the first australian settlers were convicts from England. If thery were then why do they have different accents from the english in England?

[sophie_1003]

you could ask the same about America, and different regions in England. Don't know the answer though, it's just one of those things. Also, why are there so many different languages across the world, why not just one for EUrope, one for Africa, one for Asia etc?

[jno]

there's no one answer, but there's some evidence that English accents have changed since then: we drawl less than we did

[Sherry1]

Errrr the first settlers were aboriginals not the English

[~Wingnut~]

My sister moved to Perth just over 2 and a half years ago and for the first few mintutes talking to her on the phone she sounds slightly australian, kind of higher voice than normal. I usually laugh and tease her and then she's back to speaking her normal voice, obviously this is from being around australian people all day everyday. Could it be that when settlers moved over there they got used to the accent from the aboriginies and started to talk with their accent and so forth thru the years???
Have I just made myself look totally stupid? Sorry if so! Just a thought I had.

[sophie_1003]

I would say that made sense, the settlers began to learn the aboriginal language and therefore accent and so this accent started to creep in to their English, just as a German person speaking English would still have a German accent for example.

[joko]

aboriginals were not settlers - they already lived there.

i suppose the accent could come from a mix of brummie, geordie, scouse, cockney, yorkshire, scottish, irish, welsh...and generally every other accent in the uk - then mix it with the aboriginals language and accent - all mixed up it would become a very odd accent

[seekeerz]

watch it you lot - you're all sailing rather close to the wind !!!!
take it from one who knows, I live here !!!

[~Wingnut~]

Hi Joko,
yeah that's what I meant that the settlers arrived and learned the accent from being around the aboriginies and it progressed from there over the years.

In one or two films I have seen (and an episode of only Fools and Horses) the British (to the americans) are sometimes thought to be Australian, so maybe there isn't that much difference between the two accents! :o)
(Sister def sounds an octive higher first thing on the phone tho!)

[Sherry1]

Joko the aboriganies WERE settlers to be accurate.... Asia and Australia were joined many many years ago and they walked to Australia from Asia and settled there. Hence the term Australaisia.