Where Did The Australian Accent Come From?

support name explained on patreon for ad-free videos exclusive podcasts and blog posts and to help choose what names get explained click the link in the description accents are weird things aren't they like i understand why different people from around the world end up speaking different languages but one of the people ended up sounding different depending on where they come from why do specific places affect the way we speak it seems that accents come about when people been living together for a long enough period of time and pick up on specific speech patterns from one another until eventually everyone in the community speaks in a similar way accents are way more than just the way we speak however not only can an accent signify where we come from but it can also signify what social economic background we come from two in example a rich person and a poor person from the same part of london will most likely speak differently they're truly fascinating things this has of course led some accents being more beloved than others undoubtedly however one of the most beloved accents has to be the one this video is all about that being the dialect spoken by those in the land down under the australian accent it really is one of those accents that pretty much everyone knows straight away and everyone has attempted to do it themselves with varying degrees of success what i find most interesting about this accent is that it's not entirely native to the land the modern nation of australia is primarily made up of descendants from settlers from other parts of the world much like other nations like the usa or brazil this is different to many other nations which have inhabitants that have lived there for many years and have accents that are native to the land like french and irish in example so where exactly did the australian accent come from to start with the official language of the nation should give you a pretty clear idea as to where this story begins while aussie speak english australian english has very much become its own unique thing not only do they speak english but the union jack is part of their flag too if you haven't guessed by now australia and the united kingdom are very much interlinked nations australia was in fact a colony of the british empire from 1788 until 1901 this explains to us not only why they speak english but also shows us how exactly that famous accent started to take shape as mentioned the british colonization of australia started in 1788 it was in this year that the famous first fleet arrived in the continent this fleet of 11 ships left portsmouth in the southeast of england on the 13th of may 1787 carrying over 1 400 inhabitants to their new home at this time australia had no european settlement so making the land habitable was quite the challenge for the people on these ships on these 11 boats there were a huge variety of people there are high-ranking government and military officials who'd be running the operation once they landed in australia but these officials brought their families with them too on top of this you had the ship's crew members but also people would fill important roles once they arrive in the land like builders cooks and various other workers though most famously of course are the convicts on these boats too there were fought to be around 700 to 800 convicts aboard the 11 ships of the first fleet they were being sent to australia simply due to the growing amount of prisoners in britain this is something we covered in much more detail in our video about tasmania's stranger names so go check that out to summarize the british empire used australia as a plaster for their prisoner problem rather than fixing the problem outright australia wasn't just a dumping ground for britain's conflicts as various stereotypes had to depict regardless as to why there were convicts in australia they definitely were there as well as many other people from fancy government officials in their fancy families to other various workers who were enlisted to create this new colony all these people would have come from different parts of great britain and would have come from different social economic backgrounds too this meant that not only did this huge variety of people arrive in australia but their huge rudge of accents arrived in the land too great britain is home to many accents and dialects despite its relatively small size one source pointed out that there were up to 300 different accents on this island these changes in voice can be seen on a large scale when comparing someone from the north of england to somewhere from the south however there are even slight differences in the way people speak in counties right next to each other even people from different boroughs of london can speak differently it's an island full of a staggering amount of accents and an awful lot of these accents made their way over to australia with the first fleet in the 18th century people didn't travel as much as they do now especially people from lower economic backgrounds this meant that many of these people may have never heard some of these other british accents before let alone understand them communicating with one another became quite a challenge and when you are literally on the opposite side of the earth trying to create a new community from scratch in the blazing australian heat you kind of need to be able to communicate with one another efficiently from the fact that australia is still around to this day we can gather that these various people did manage to communicate with one another despite the disparities in their dialect how did they do this however well something happened to the way in which these various british people spoke their language this something is known as dialect leveling dialectic leveling is something that happens in the world of language and linguistics in which various distinct variations of a language strip away the things that make them distinct for ease of understanding words present in one dialect but not in another would be removed and other words that pronounced differently in different accents would be leveled out and be said in a way that fits all the different dialects and accents removing all these quirks and traits in a language and getting to the bare bones of it really help people who speak the same language but in vastly different accents and dialects communicate with one another and this is exactly what happened in australia and set the wheels in motion for the birth of the aussie accent this birth didn't happen overnight however it was after 50 years from that initial european settlement of australia that the accident that we all know and love started to appear those initial settlers still alive after 50 years would have undoubtedly changed the way they spoke but the real change of the accent would have come with descendants the kids and grandkids of the initial settlers who would have spent their entire life in the accent melting pot that australia had become these children would have really sounded how australians sound today of course it was a huge mixture of accents that went into the creation of the australian accent we have today though some dialects and accents are seen as being a bit more pivotal and had a larger influence in the sound of the speech today it seems that the south east english accent is seen as one of the key players in the aussie accent this makes an awful lot of sense the first fleet left from portsmouth which is in the southeast of england and the south east is one of the most popular parts of the country the south east houses london so many important figures and convicts on these boats would have arrived from the capital more specifically in london we have the cockney accent too cockney is seen very much as the precursor of the australian accent there are definitely similarities between the two that's for sure likewise scottish is seen as having a large influence on the australian accent too however there's one huge omission i haven't mentioned in this video yet and that's the native accent of the australian aboriginals i've read conflicting things as to whether their accent affected the australian accent somerset had a direct impact on the way aussie speak while other sources point out that it's the other way around while aboriginal names and words are very present across australia it seems that accent isn't quite as abundant pretty much as soon as the accent emerged it was instantly beloved what's even more surprising is that when it first came about australian english and their australian accent was seen by scholars of the time as the purest form of the english language this purity of the australian accent goes back to the dialect leveling we mentioned earlier the people of australia have come to speak english without any of the local quirks that plague the various forms of english spoken in the uk all because this accent and well speaking was born out of a means to communicate easily and efficiently author of the story of australian english carol richard explained it best saying that australian english is english with the dialect variations taken out unfortunately this love of the aussie accent at its position as the purest form of english wouldn't stay around for too long across the 18th and 19th century some huge changes were made to the english language and the way in which it was perceived the most noticeable change was the introduction of the concept of received pronunciation known as rp for short rp is named by many other names bbc english the queen's english and oxford english to name a few examples it's that definitively british accent spoken by the likes of the queen and those who present the news on bbc it was in this period of time that rp was put on a pedestal and declared the definitive way of speaking the language not only was it seen as the definitive way of speaking english but ducey spoke with this kind of accent was seen as superior to other english speakers those who didn't speak like this in not just the uk but across the empire in general were looked down upon it's worth noting here that despite being seen as the stereotypical way in which british people speak to this very day very few british people actually speak in rp on a regular everyday basis it's pretty much just the royal family and the rest of the upper echelons of british society at this point despite this however it meant that the once beloved australian accent had gone from being seen as the purest form of english to being a rather harsh rough and coarse accent sorry australia soon enough rp was being taught in classrooms all across the empire including australia not only were young aussies being taught to speak like this but many posh aussies started to use rp2 to distance themselves from their traditional aussie accents what was seen as unpleasant sounding in the time even once the country gained its independence from the uk in 1901 people were still trying to speak with an rp accent and sound less australian all this brings us to today luckily nowadays there isn't as much stock put into rp and by and large people aren't shamed or judged for the accents they have at least they shouldn't be anyway luckily for us rp's boosting popularity in the 19th century didn't wipe out the aussie accent though what's so interesting about this dialect is that in its roughly 200 years of existence not many variations of the accent have actually emerged there are a few variations of the australian accent and the variations that do exist aren't particularly related to geography like the accents of the uk or usa in example the aussie accent really doesn't change that much depending on where you are from most sources claim that there are just three different versions of the aussie accent and these are more defined by social economic backgrounds as opposed to geographic backgrounds these three are called general broad and cultivated general australian is by far the most common aussie accent you hear it's the way in which the vast majority of the nation speak someone like hugh jackman is a prime example of this kind of aussie accent broad australian is the accent spoken by people living in more rural areas part of the nation that are more isolated and would have been less affected by rp and its influence in the 18th century a great example of a broad australian accent is with steve irwin cultivated australian is perhaps the least australian sounding of these three variations it seems this accent is most linked with the high society of australia those whose ancestors did in fact pick up an rp all those years ago i read that kate blanchett is a prime example of someone with a cultivated australian accent in all honesty i didn't even know she was an aussie the history of this accent is an interesting one that's for sure from being born out of necessity for easy communication between people from vastly different backgrounds to being considered the pinnacle of english to being shunned thanks to rp to being the beloved accent is to this day it's even evolved more so to become its own thing with unique australian words and phrases in fact you could call this form of english and the accent swedes bro that's what they say in australia right thank you to all my patrons who support name explained on a monthly basis patreon is vital to name explain and donating just two dollars a month allows you to enjoy ad-free videos and bonus patron exclusive content it also allows you to help choose what names get explained in upcoming videos and gets your name here with all these awesome people thank you so much for all the support you guys give name explain thank you so much reaching the end of the video check out another video and subscribe stay in the loop and all things name explain don't forget to follow my instagram while name explain yt and also join the facebook group friends on name explain 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Channel: Name Explain

Views: 356,472

Keywords: name explain, etymology, accent, australia

Id: ixpB-JqzY4M

Length: 12min 39sec (759 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 09 2021