There is nothing more iconic than a thick Australian accent; the kind that elicits fond memories of Russell Coight.
But it’s not just Coight’s broad “‘ow ya gawen?” that you hear in everyday life (unfortunately).
There are countless variations of the Australian accent that only seem to be evolving. Our accents might be ever-changing, but linguists Arthur Delbridge and A.G. Mitchell still managed to sort them into the three categories in 1965: broad, general and cultivated.
These classifications were explained using points of reference such as:
Broad: The thick Aussie drawl (generally associated with the working class)
General: The most commonly heard English.
Cultivated: The “prestige” accent marked by a heavier adoption of the British accent.
In order to understand this more clearly, one could use three recognised Australians as a point of reference.
Broad: Pauline Hanson.
General: Julia Gillard.
Cultivated: Cate Blanchett.
The Australian Journal of Linguistics put out a paper in 1997 that sought to provide greater clarity between how to classify the broad, general and cultivated accents.
Researchers analysed the vowel sounds of a variety of speakers in order to determine which features corresponded with each category of accent.
Speaking of Australia, what about that lamb ad? Agree? Disagree? (Post continues after audio.)
Dialectblog provided an example that helps explain this with the differing pronunciation of the word "buy".
A cultivated speaker would say buy with a higher vowel sound so it would mimic "bi".
A broad speaker's "buy" would sound more like an American's pronunciation of "boy". (I strongly recommend you put on an American accent to say "boy" in order to understand this.)
Many contemporary academics believe there has been a reduction in broad-accented speakers in recent times.
Academics David Blair and Peter Collins speculated in 2001 the reduction was the result of individuals actively attempting to escape the "working class - low brow" social stigma attached to broad-accented-speakers.
It was also speculated that ethnic speakers were similarly disassociating themselves from the trappings of the "low prestige" accents of their parents by adopting the "general" accent.
It seems a shame to think we're losing one of the most iconic accents, but as we've previously discussed — who's to say the "general" accent won't develop into something even better?
Top Comments
Julia Gillard was infamously picked on because of her notorious bogan voice. She has a Kath and Kim 'noice' type bogan strine accent. Probably even worse than Hanson. Whoever put Gillard in the 'General' category instead of the Broad strine one, has CLEARLY *never* heard Gillard speak. Gillard is the most prominent example of broad nasally Ausse Strine than anyone else in the entire country. Someone there made a mistake in writing that article.
Despite all our past differences on many various topics, I'm going to fully agree with Salem on this one.
I thought the same thing about Gillard. Her accent is definitely more broad than general.
They forgot the states accents. Qlders speaking with almost every sentence ending in an upward inflexion as if they are asking a question. NSW accent is flat and monotone. Victorians speak very fast. And South Australians have a very posh-sounding accent for e.g 'are' for our. Both Christopher Pyne and Penny Wong do it, too. They'll be saying something like "our polices at the last election" and it will sound like "ARE policies at the last election". Also they say 'narn' for nine.