Like someone in the article commented (I think), that is not laziness, that's just the non-rhotic accent we inherited from the English, which is also shared by Kiwis.
I have a feeling that Aboriginal accents probably deserve an entry, which would be a bit interesting as there's literally hundreds of Aboriginal languages and cultures, which tend to get lumped together in the media. Oddly, it tends to sound a fair bit like the Broad accent- or should we say vice versa?
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I think Aboriginal accents definitely deserve an entry, but I don't have any exposure to them personally, so I couldn't write a good entry myself. What I have noticed is the accent seems to have much sharper (is that the right word?) consonants than non-Aboriginal Oz accents.
Maybe we should also add something about indigenous languages?
Mr.
Is it true that Aussies call every female a "sheila"?
I’m just that kind of guy, you know? Hide / Show Replies
Bogans are our equivalent of rednecks. He means using sheila makes you sound like an ignorant hick, basically. We have an ultraconservative country 'maverick' politician, Bob Katter, who calls women 'sheilas' though. Old slang tends to hang on more in the country.
Yee haw.
When writing an Australian character, is it important that the accent itself be written out phonetically? Or does that depend on the region? As an American, I'm finding it difficult to find the best balance for a character who's not laughable or exaggertated.
Words, words, words.. Hide / Show Replies
A Phonetic Accent is automatically comedic, regardless of who is speaking. A couple of localisms and then note the accent in narration and you are good to go.
G'day - Just asked around my work (I work in the middle of the city in Melbourne) and about half of my workmates say they use "G'day" daily, and the rest never use it...but we all agreed that we hear it daily.
General language thing- "R"s
Our accent is quite lazy on 'r' sounds, especially when following an 'a', we tend to draw out the vowel sound instead.
Examples would be: garbage- pronounced "gaahbage" or "gaahbige" car- pronounced "kaa" fart- pronounced "faaht" smart- pronounced "smaaht" courier- pronounced "couriah"
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