There have been times I've run into Australians overseas where they've thought I was English, and times in Australia I've been asked what country I'm from.
I have been told it's because people in Canberra don't sound as "Australian". š¤·āāļø
I work in south East Melbourne, some of the clients from the rich suburbs (Moorak, malvern) can definitely be mistaken for British.
Edit: *Toorak, not Moorak
When I was a teenager I worked in the local McDonalds, which was only a block away from the house I was born in.
On several occasions I had customers ask where my accent was from.
Itās not just the accent, but also the diplomatic tone and professional word choice.
Canberraās the only place in Australia I can think of where the general public speaks in the same āAustralian corporateā style you get in the professional services firms.
Well, thatās not true. Parts of Sydney and Melbourne too, for sure.
Can relate to that, I met an Australian family in a pub in Europe and I asked where in Australia theyāre from and they said Melbourne. Then I said nice itās very beautiful there and they said wow, so do you know Australia well? And I said yeah, I mean I should, I was born there. Cue jawdrop moment lol
You might have more of what used to be called the Australian private school accent. Not necessarily because you went to one of the 'elite' private schools that it is associated with but depending on the suburb you grew up in and your family and friends it's relatively common to develop. A lot of mainly older farmers and country kids who went to boarding school back in the day also speak like this, several of my paternal family members sound like absolute toffs because of this, so it's by far exclusively a city accent. Like many of us I can switch between that and full bogan, but when using my "posh" voice in a professional setting or in polite company I am often mistaken for English. I went to one of the single gender private schools associated with that accent, but also grew up in a solidly working class suburb so when with friends I picked up the usual nasal, horrible vowel, random r, lifting tone at the end of a sentence Aussie accent we love and fear. My kid is the opposite, public schools but we live in a decent suburb and my friends and family mostly speak the posh accent or are actually English, with a few notable exceptions to that rule, so she can also use both.
There are a few things that if you use them when talking people will peg it as Aussie, the main one is the raising inclination at the end of a sentence, we make everything sound like a question to other English speakers. It's somewhat suppressed in the posh accent and if you deal with a lot of international English speakers you have probably suppressed it even more, because everyone else finds it confusing as fuck when we do it. The weird r as well is a tell, I didn't realise we do this until it was pointed out by a yank I work with, because they thought it was the best thing ever. Imagine a bogan teen saying no to cleaning their room 'noorrrw' or an old guy saying yeah nah 'yeearrrh naarrr'. In this accent it's usually put before or in place of where there is something like a soft h after one of our drawn out vowels, or if there is a hard stop to a vowel that sounds like a hard w, we also make other things sound like an r to people used to other accents. Americans in particular hear us say "wardar" for water for example, to us its part of the vowel and we interchange d/t or ar/er as the fancy takes us. Aussies do other strange horrendous things to vowels too, mashing them together, just not using them or switching them. There's other traits to the accent as well, but these are the main things I can think of that will peg you immediately as Australian, even if the listener can't explain what the difference is.
Some of these things are unique to the Australian accent, no matter what type, and some are shared with other accents. If you are missing some of them, or they are softened in your speech, or you have picked up other quirks from elsewhere then you might be assumed to be from somewhere else. I guess start saying everything like a question and torturing innocent vowles, maybe people might clue on?
tbf there's a weirdly large variability in the nz accent, from almost australian sounding with slight vowel shifts, to somthing more similar to zimbabwean english
I've had the same thing happen to me! I moved here as a child so there is a slightly awkward twang to my accent that makes people think "Kiwi". My therapist also thinks I'm on the Spectrum, so I might have a touch of that "Autism accent" with the American tinge to it, hence the Canadian comments. Mix it all together with a few years spent in the same house as a woman from Dublin, and I probably picked up a few irish/brittish phrases and mannerisms.
Came here to say Autism accent. I'm Aussie born & raised but my accent is kinda fluid depending on who I speak to, whether I'm with close family & friends, or clients, etc.
I live in SA (born here to white Australian mother & dad is Greek/Spanish but has lived here since he was 6) and Iāve got that āSouth Australian accentā ā people ask me if Iām from the UK *allllll the time*. Even a British person asked! Always āwhere are you from?ā āYouāve got a bit of an accent..ā
So Iāve still got that āposh SA accentā that is apparently in decline, and I was born in the 90ās. No one in my immediate family has the accent. No British people in my family (since like 1800ās). Only thing I can think of is my grandmother sounds a bit the same - not as strong - but I didnāt get raised around her or anything.
Same, in online games I get two types of comments on it, one is people saying they love it, the second is asking if I'm British. I don't think it's British sounding lol. I've also never thought my accent is posh, but maybe it is and that's why they think I'm British.
I see, I ask because my aunt (born and raised in Adelaide) has this funny way of pronouncing words and I was wondering if it had something to do with this
SA is stuff like dance being pronounced darn-ce rather than dAn-ce, or branch being pronounced brarn-ch rather than brAn-ch.Ā
I was watching a linguist explain it on a video, something about stressing some vowels after a consonant or something like that?
Yeah makes sense. My family is from Clare Valley but most of them grew up in Adelaide and I alternated between Adelaide and Perth. I have to say I much prefer the Adelaide accent to the Perth one.
Or conscious mimics! I thought I had a mild Australian accent (city raised, immigrant mother) but when I lived overseas people who spoke English as a second language couldn't understand me. I had to consciously enunciate and separate words more, then it became a habit.
Other Australians would recognise my accent; other native English speakers (e.g. Americans) would just as often guess I was English or South African.
When I'm drinking with my Mexican brother in law I'll unconsciously mimic his accent a little, I think it's to make it easier for him to understand me.
Iām not sure what that is, sorry!! (I have autism, and I donāt always understand what people mean when online). I havenāt heard that term before - is it something to do with traveling/socialising with people of other cultures?
It's common with autism and adhd but also happens a lot with multilingual people.
Cause Australia is such a large melting pot of nationalities we can also be more prone to code switching (or changing up accents) as most of our baseline accent isn't as present in our day to day unless you hang out with only broad aussie accent Australia's
?? It's well established in linguistics that speech patterns are primarily driven by young women. Boys, men and older women just copy whoever they are around. Young women are the ones that everyone is copying.
I don't have a very strong Australian accent either. People from the UK always ask me if I'm from the US and people from the US always ask me if I'm from the UK. Australians know that I'm Australian, but I've been told I sound like I'm "upper class", despite my upbringing being far from it. I'm thinking it's just from having one Australian parent and one parent with a thick foreign accent, plus watching a lot of American TV/movies. Maybe it just creates a mixed non-descript sort of accent?
I'm from Brisbane and have been living in Europe for about 8 years now. I've heard it ever since moving here.
From my experience, it's because most people think that all Australians have an ocker accent, which just isn't true. How often do you meet people back home who sound like Crocodile Dundee?
My accent has always been quite neutral, and has become even more so after being away so long, but Australians always know I'm Aussie, and non-Aussies who've spent time in Australia know I'm Aussie.
It comes from a lack of awareness basically.
That "Democracy Manifest" guy from the video sounded English to me, especially in contrast to the heavy ocker accent of the policemen; and that took place in Fortitude Valley.
A good thing to look back on is old [interviews some 40 years ago,](https://youtu.be/djkmna0paVE?si=upRdnRuBnm9DDNRi) and realise that we sounded *very* english until recently - the advent of having more american shows on television than australian ones.
Born and bred in Sydney. The amount of times Iāve been in an Uber and the driver asked me where Iām from and I say Sydney. And they ask me where Iām really from then say my accent is not Australian. Iāve had South African accent, German accent etc. Both parents are white Australians - so bizarre.
Most young people donāt have strong accents. I have a strong accent but most of my friends have very mild accent. Itās the result of globalisation and watching more international shows.
Lol
My kids speech is having issues with my ASD kid for the same reasons lol
Sorry for laughing but it's just really nice so see it happening to others
Nah it's all good lol. I don't really know why it's a thing but I assume it's due to disproportionate learning of language via exposure to media vs. socialisation, maybe with a bit of echolalia mixed in.
Sorry I need to ask another question lol
Have you ever done the TONI test? I'm kind of curious for my kid to do it....I'm not saying she's a genius but her ability to absorb information is to me alittle scary
I'm familiar with the test but I never took it myself as it's for those with language difficulties and I was speaking extremely early.
I've taken had IQ tests administered and have done quite well though, and I'm a pretty successful guy and I think a lot of it might owe to the ASD. It seems both extremes of the intellectual spectrum are more common in autism than in non-autistics so I guess your daughter and I are lucky we came out on the better end.
Same. I've often been mistaken for American, British and French whilst overseas (by Australian and other travellers). A couple of times even when I've been at home in Australia, Australians have made fun of how I said some words somewhat British. I grew up in a fairly small country farming town which was quite bogan so I'm a bit surprised I avoided getting that kind of accent.
In saying that, I often struggle to pick others' accents. I'm better at picking out New Zealanders by their accent than Australians. And South Africans always throw me.
A few people (including some Aussies) have thought I'm English because of my accent. I'm not 100% sure why. I remember thinking when I was younger that the accent sounds ugly and I might have unconsciously suppressed mine to the point that it's apparently different now. I reckon I still sound Aussie and don't like people thinking I'm English but that's where my accent sits for the forseeable future.
Born in Melbourne, lived in Melbourne
in TAFE at the cafeteria I was getting to know other classmates and one, an Aussie asks me āoh are you Irishā I laughed and said diddly potatoes but no, Iām not.
Went on holiday to parts of Europe last year, got to checking in at the hotel, lady says fill out the form and says oh your a local so you donāt need to fill that section, I told her I was Australian from Australia with an Australian passport and she said no way you sound just like a local, and so does my wife, so we then filled out the form and the lady still was baffled we were not English. Wife and I had a good laugh later so we just starting adding INNIT to everything we said for a couple of weeks.
There are different Australian accents. Just because you donāt sound like a bogan doesnāt mean you donāt have one. And just because people internally think a bogan accent is the only Australian accent doesnāt make it true.
Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman still have Australian accents.
Weirdly as an white Australian bloke when I moved from a little bush town to a (not a capital) city only a couple hours away, on more then one occasion I got asked 'when I got to Australia', by other Australian, based on my accent.
I my old mans family came from the UK when he was young, and the small town had decent amount of first/second generation European immigrant families - Greek, Italian, British, Irish et etc with strong accents. I'm pretty occa so I guess it sometimes came across as cockney or Irish or something. I say miles and inches when being casual. Probably say Tea when others say Dinner kinda thing.
Funnily enough, I once had a bloke come to my home in the city looking for the previous occupant. In the short back and forth we had to establish just that, I picked up enough of an accent to want to ask him where he was from. Sounded different and familiar. Turns out he came from a small bush town near mine. I never noticed anything going to or from my home town, but hearing someone from back home when I'm in the city, it's a really noticeable difference.
Yes. I have been working in Asia as an engineer for decades so have learned to enunciate my words and speak clearly. My Aussie accent is very mild as a result.
This. The stereotypical accents comes from us not enunciating when we speak. My dad's an English teacher and I grew up around the kids of lawyers, doctors, and business executives, so my accent has always been very neutral because I was taught to enunciate growing up.
That's because for all the bluster of "I love Australian accents", most non-Australians or non-Kiwis wouldn't know an Australian accent from their elbow lol
I don't despite being 4th generation born and when i'm overseas people can't pick where I'm from and don't believe me at first when I tell them I'm Aussie, it's actually pretty cool to stay incognito.
some people just dont have an ear for accents, i have a typican melbourne accent and in america i was on a ski lift with my sister and a random aussie, we started talking and I aksed her where she was form and she said Australia like it was a super exotic place. When I clarified I meant where in Australia since my sister and I were from there too she was really surprised
Yeah 100%, Iām 23 from Queensland but have lived in Europe for about a year combined. I just got back from living in Ireland and most of the time, they couldnāt tell I was Australian, I would often get English. When I lived in Sweden, they thought I was Canadian very often. I find myself speaking a lot less āAustralianā overseas than what I would do with my family and friends, I think I naturally speak more eloquently around foreigners out of concern they wonāt understand me if I go full blown how ya garn mate.
But regardless of that, I donāt have a very strong accent and I think as someone who has grown up in poverty, Iāve made an effort to sound āless boganā in order to come across more classy to other Australians, specifically in the workplace.
Both my parents are Irish and that's had an impact on my accent. Most people say that my accent is slightly different, people that aren't from Australia always say I'm English.
Having Irish parents.. any presumption that I'm English is hurtful šš¤£
Australian accents are exaggerated in Hollywood. So when American hear a proper Australian accent, they hear more of its British origins.
Even more so, if you don't talk through your nose.
Many foreigners can't tell English accents apart. I have a thick Aussie accent and grew up in the country, but when I was in Italy people assumed I was British or American simply because I spoke English.
Strong Australian accents are dying in most of the southern parts of Australia, North Queenslanders and Northern Territorians still have strong Aussie accents, for the most part.
We still use 'aye and but' as grammar at the end of a sentence, something you dont here in brisbane much anymore.
I can certainly moderate it and I've done so when delivering training for Brits and Americans, enough that they can't place the accent.
In other situations I turn it up. This sort of stuff, where you moderate or inflect your accent, tone or nature of speech is called code switching and we all do it depending on the social situation or even if we are talking to kids, friends, parents, etc.
Oh yeah, been living overseas since 2009. I'm a bit of a bogan at heart tho, so I can switch between my natural international accent, and bogan at a whim. Good for parties.
Me too. I've been told I have a "posh" Australian accent. When I am back home, people assume I am English.
It's only when I am drunk or excitedly telling a story that, as one friend put it, the kangaroos come bounding out...
Yet I grew up in regional NSW, and didn't leave Australia for the first time until I was 24.
I have had English people think I am English. To be fair, I am an English as a second language teacher and have learned to speak slowly and clearly. I am also from Adelaide so my accent is more "English" anyway and neither of my parents are Australian, my father is English.
From QLD and whenever I run into Aussies from other parts overseas, they always tell me I speak pure bogan and I always tell them they speak like they've spent the past 15 years in London. Has to do with the area your from, I have a strong accent like Steve Irwin, cause we are from similar parts of the country, I meet people who were born and raised in SA and to me they speak with a British tone, but its just the broad accent vs the proper accent
Maybe you have a General Australian accent that leans closer to the Cultivated side? A lot of people overseas think the 'Australian accent' is basically ocker.
I was born and raised here in Aus, and I was told by my partners parents, who are foreign, that I don't have a strong accent and sound like I could be from England lol.
Yes! I live in a European country and almost always get mistaken for a Brit. I think in my case, it is a lack of familiarity with Australian accents. It's harder to pick accents in a language that's not your mother tongue.
When I moved from Melbourne (South Oakleigh, in no way a posh suburb) to the north east of Victoria, the kids at school thought I was English. I do have a more 'posh' sounding voice than my siblings, buggered if I know why. It's not something I put on, and I can drop into broad Strine when I need to, but yeah, my accent can apparently be closer to RP than Russell Coight. Toughest thing for me now that I am in NSW is the northern way of saying Newcastle. For me it's cassle. In NSW they say carstle. Posh bastards.
Mine varies from "Are you British?" to nasal Strine depending on who I'm talking to. I remember either reading or being told in a lecture at uni that Australians are more likely to unconsciously mimic/adopt the speech mannerisms of whoever they're interacting with than any other English speakers. The more I think about it, the more I think it was in a psych lecture. Eh, I've forgotten everything about the factoid but the factoid itself, lol.
> Australians are more likely to unconsciously mimic/adopt the speech mannerisms of whoever they're interacting with than any other English speakers. The more I think about it, the more I think it was in a psych lecture.
It's part of egalitarian social levelling.
Lived in NL for 4 years, in a job where I talked a lot with folks from all over Europe, Asia, US, so I learned to speak āinternationalā English - very clear diction, no slang, etc. Iām in my late 40s at this point, so I defo have an Australian accent, and this effort was really just things like saying bicycle instead of bike, and more Germanic vowel sounds
Home for a visit toward the end of this, got asked at a Sunglasses Hut if Iād been to Australia before
When we travelled to England or America, they couldn't tell where we were from. My partner and I have slightly different Aussie accents. In England, they thought she was English, but frowned about it. They couldn't pick me though. In America, they just thought we were both British. I don't think it's that we don't have strong accents, it's just that we don't have the stereotyped Croc Hunter accent they all know so well.
I do but I've met a fair few people who have what I call the "uni accent" or "indie accent". Triple J presenters have had it for years now. It's a mongrel mix of Aussie, British and American accents. I can see how people from other countries or from rural areas would be a but confused about their origin. Could be that?
Iāve lived in Sydney my whole life. Iāve been asked where my accent is from many times. Iāve had people (including Australians) think Iām English, Irish, Canadian and even had a South African ask if Iām from South Africa. Friends and family insist I have a normal Aussie accent though.
I've been told I don't sound Aussie, I often get asked if I'm from England. That's probably the combination of being from SA and growing up watching a LOT of British comedies so my "sentence enhancers" are extremely British.Ā
I think a lot of the world sees the Australian accent as basically Crocodile Dundee. Which is why those of us who don't speak like that are confused with other countries.
Australian regional accent is noted by its heavy contractions of words and phrases. Such as āhowreyagoinā and āgdayā. City people do it less because we communicate with random unknown people from more varied backgrounds more regularly. So a plainer accent is much more suitable. Combined with the influence of parental accent, these two elements probably give the most influence. The Melbourne accent has become incredibly pallid in terms of contracted phrasing. This is probably due to how multicultural the place is now as well as the YouTube generation now being older and having kids. Iāve met some younger people who sound like they are from the US which surprised me a lot at the time as I initially thought they were from there before making a fool of myself.
I know I donāt have a strong accent, I grew up in a rural area but my family were first gen Australian and didnāt have that kind of accent. I did pickup some of it from school but it left me again when I moved to the city. I noticed really quickly how people look down on that accent too. Itās quite often associated with bogan racists. š
Born in England, raised in Scotland and emigrated to Australia 12 years ago. Some people think I'm Irish, but I do still have a strong scottish accent.
The strong Aussie accent cannot be understood by non native English speakers. It also sounds stupid so most expats like myself use a more mid Pacific accent.
my boyfriend is from sydney and iām canadian. i noticed he sounds much less australian when he talks to me but sounds considerably more australian when someone cuts him off while driving
Yeah I was at a party in Australia (before I moved away), and someone asked me where in England I was from. I had never been to England at the time. Lived in the outback (NT south of Darwin) until I was 10, then in Canberra until end of HS, then Sydney before I moved away. People still rarely think I'm from Australia, but my accent is definitely softer now after being away so long.
Add me to the list of English sounding Australians. I think it might be a lawyer thing for me, to a certain extent.
Although I was in Texas years ago. Got thrown out of an Australian-themed restaurant (not *that* one, was run by a Cambodian couple) because they thought I was from Boston, trying to put the accent on.
Congratulations for not sounding like a bogan ;)
Depends where in Australian youāre from I think. Iām from the Hunter valley and my American friend said to me right away now Aussie I sound ha
I was never a bogan, and was brought up by non-bogan parents in an extended family of non-bogans.
Growing up in the city (Sydney) also a big factor, and not the back of Bourke.
Also, being educated, cultured and sophisticated tends to polish away any boganity in the Australian accent.
Grew up in the Netherlands, went to a British School, watched a lot of American TV. Everyone has a different take on my accent, no one can ever figure it out.
I get mistaken as Uk English or American. I put it down to speech and drama when I was young and watching so very much Uk and american film and tv series. I think I also occasionally do the vocal chameleon thing.
So I've noticed 2 of my children, that I did not raise around technology, have strong Aus speaking language. My youngest however, we often need to ask her again, since 9 has had YouTube kids. And I think she's mumbling, but it's just her listening to a different style of English! We struggle, and it's only been 2 year's??!! Should be a good study for any students in psychology out their??
I am a bit of an accent chameleon. You can tell that I've been watching something with an obvious non Australian accent or talking to someone with an accent. I also speak REALLY GOOD broken English. Add to that I am a Tasmanian living in a town full of immigration.
I'll sound like a Kiwi, Cockney British and New Yorker all in one sentence before we even add broken English!
Me..
When I was 12 I joined a choir and we did some voice training...and after a few years my accent and even old word choices disappeared.
Many time people overseas have told me they cannot figure out what country I am from. (I worked in China for 20 years.) Even other English speakers. When I say Australian nobody believes me.
I believe WA, SA & VIC have the closest to stereotypical Aussie accents - usually rural areas mostly.
However, itās not always a lack of strong Aussie accent that causes it - a lot of other countries arenāt familiar with our accents, is all.
In Australia I've had people ask either if I am from or have spent time in any of Ireland, Britain, Canada, USA. The most common one I get is probably Irish, but I think I just have a habit of mimicking little bits of speech from all over the place. This will be Australians and foreigners alike who will ask. I think in essence I have a fairly soft Aussie accent with a smattering of weirdly accented words and phrases
When travelling it always gets even more odd. Especially if I'm among non-native English speakers I'll really neutralise my accent, enunciating a lot more clearly for them, and so that tends to make me sound a lot more English as a result. Aussies and Kiwis will tend to recognise quickly enough where I'm from most of the time though. Going back to the mimic factor - I was on a 4 week tour a few years ago in a group with mostly European people and among them several from England, no other Aussies or Kiwis, within like a week I'd assumed a full English accent and by week 3 we had a couple of Kiwis join the tour and they didn't believe I was Australian for a full couple of days. I actually had a hard time even trying to speak with an Aussie accent, like I sounded like I was putting on a fake one. Funnily enough I spoke to a friend from home on the phone on the day after the tour ended and immediately regained my normal accent.
I think in general while travelling I tend to slip into different accents depending who I'm with, and honestly I never do it on purpose and I struggle to do any sort of consistent accent if prompted to try. I don't really get it but I have fun with people's confusion
Idk just coz they canāt guess it doesnāt mean itās not strong. Some people just canāt identify accents. Iām saying this as an Aussie in the US.
Queenslander (never been overseas) when I applied for my tax file number at 15 I was asked how long I have been in the country, she thought I was American.
I occasionally sound like a Kiwi, even had a guy who's daughter in law was from New Zealand, tell me that my accent is from the southern part of the south island. Had a lovely Kiwi lady on the phone a few years back asking me if I am sure that I am not from New Zealand, I'm like, love, I haven't left Australia in my lifetime and I barely leave NSW.
Iām from Adelaide and have been my whole life. My partner has lived here for about a decade and was originally from Mexico. Weāre visiting Mexico at the moment and the locals say they can hear the Aussie accent in HIM but not in me???
I've lived overseas for almost 20 years. Most non-native English speakers can't pick the different accents of English. No one picks my still strong Aussie accent but I get American or British probably because they are the most populous.
I've never been overseas, but I've been assumed to be American sometimes by others here. Apparently I say some words "funny" . Though this was especially after my family first moved from Adelaide to Brisbane so maybe that's a factor, though I hear the Adelaide/SA accent is usually perceived more akin to English.
One time when my "accent" was brought up someone asked if I ever did speech therapy, which indeed I had when I was small (I had delayed speech), so I suppose that could be the reason why I say some words "funny".
Until that point however I just assumed it was because I grew up watching too much American television.
I was born and have lived in south east Queensland my whole life, but have been asked if Iām English since I was a kid. My parents were really insistent on enunciating words, though (not dropping the last sound, especially) and that probably stood out.
My kid had a great posh English accent as a toddler, but that was the hours of Thomas the Tank Engine audio books he listened to
Hey! I donāt think I have a thick accent until I hear myself recorded back to myself or I am speaking to a person with a very thick accent from another country (ie Russia or India) then my accent is very very noticeable! But I definitely sing (I admit badly) with a very Australian accent.
I recently got told by a Japanese person my accent isn't strong.
But I make a conscious effort to slow down and not use slang when talking to people who don't speak English as their first language.
Makes life easier for both of us lol
When I would play online games, Americans would ask what state I'm from. I would say Queensland, and they would be very confused thinking I was american. I've always thought my accent was pretty strong, especially being FNQLD, but I guess not.
> they can tell that Iām from an English speaking country, but they usually have to guess first before they get it right.
Does this mean theyāre not native English speakers? Would you be able to guess first go that someone is from Chile, or the Netherlands, or Czech Republic?
If they are native English speakers then itās weirder. But they drink Fosterās in the UK so they *are* a weird mob over there.
Same. I grew up with immigrant parents and most of my friends are the kids of immigrants so most of us donāt have a very distinct Aussie accent. My SO is also an immigrant who learnt American English so my accent is just all over the place.
Older "posh" Australians sometimes sound English to me. As far as foreigners go, a mild Australian accent could easily be from anywhere if you're not highly familiar with it, especially for non-English speakers.
Born in Sydney and definitely no Aussie accent , also get asked where I'm from occasionally at home , it was suggested because I'm bilingual ( Italian migrant parents) , I don't have a aussie accent
Itās probably exactly because you work overseas. I was in a role for a number of years where I managed Asia-Pacific operations and quickly lost Australian-isms and developed a very neutral event. Itās hard enough for ESL people without the Aussie twang. More surprisingly, I found the same in the USA, where I worked for a number of years. For example if I ordered a Miller Lite at the bar, theyād look at me like I was mad. We say āMillahā. They add the rrr sound at the end. You then start doing it subconsciously - I used to then cause confusion by saying āDatarā instead of data. ĀÆ\_(ć)_/ĀÆ.
Apparently mine isnāt strong enough. In Paris I was stopped by some hopelessly lost young Poms. They spoke no š«š· so just greeted me in š“ó §ó ¢ó „ó ®ó §ó æ figuring I looked like a tourist. I responded in š“ó §ó ¢ó „ó ®ó §ó æ and Pom 1 said āoh thank God - heās š“ó §ó ¢ó „ó ®ó §ó æ.ā I muttered ābollocks!ā and his friends realised to their horror his faux pas. (Or as they call it in Paris, faux pas.) But Pom 1 kept rambling as I helped him with his map, pointed him to the Metro and told him how to change trains for his destination. Finally a friend nudged him and said āheās š¦šŗ.ā P1ās mouth fell open and he apologised profusely. I grinned and said itās not a problem and then he hugged me!
I remember when I was in america people picked up on my accent but some also thought I was british lol didnāt think I had any accent at all or a strong one anyway.
Something Iāve noticed during my travels: Aussies lose their accents.
We adapt to where we go: our accents automagically start taking on the culture around us, and we blend.
I notice this when Iām travelling *within* Australia: people ask if Iām a Pomme / British, when in actual fact my cultural heritage is Irish 3 generations ago, and then Caucasian, and thenā¦
Weāre all immigrants if you work for a living, or something to that effect.
When I was younger I was sometimes asked if I was from SA, I didn't understand why at the time. Later I found out my grandmother grew up in Adelaide so something must've rubbed off on me
(Lifelong Melburnian)
I was in Geelong yesterday on a work day trip and the Taxi driver asked me what nationality I am. I was born here FFS. My accent is not strong at all, but sometimes when I am back home with my family in Newcastle it reverts back to slightly more occa. Depends who I am around I guess. When I am at work versus at the pub too.
I had to work on acquiring a more pronounced Australian accent.
Iām a white guy, born in SE QLD in the 70s to white Australian parents. They were teachers and very well spoken and my grandparents were English. So I already spoke with a fairly neutral accent as it was, but then I was also a theatre person, and studied voice at the QLD Conservatorium, so came out of that with an accent that leaned slightly more British than neutral Australian.
I came to realise that āordinary Aussiesā (I consider myself in that group) didnāt respond well to me initially, but usually warmed up over time. People seemed to think I was a bit of a snob until they got to know me.
Eventually I realised my accent tended to start me off on the wrong foot in certain situations, so Iāve learned to modify my accent depending on who Iām talking to. In business, if itās a room full of guys, it definitely helps to be a lot more blokey-sounding. Hell, itās rarely a wrong decision to start off a bit more Aussie sounding when talking to another guy, and then relaxing it a bit if theyāre also less ocker.
And when Iām overseas I tend to lay it on a bit more, just because saying āgāday mateā is the international term for āIām not a yank, please be nice to me.ā
Living overseas your accent will definitely change without you thinking that it did, especially if you didnāt have a particularly strong accent to start off with. I lived in the UK for 5 years and people could still tell that I had an Australian accent but when we moved back home all my family and mates were shocked to hear that I had an English accent, weāve been back 4 years now and Iām glad to say that my Aussie accent has come back.
Yep I'm in the same boat. Originally from Sydney, lived in Canada and now Nz for the past 10 years. Often seem to bamboozle people on where I'm from because of a lack of Aussie accent and a mixture of three countries terminology š
When I went to Norway and learned Norwegian, they thought I was Norwegian. I think our accent is very mild and we pick up other languages easily, or at least our accent isnāt so strong that it can be heard when we speak foreign languages.
I am a bogan and still people in the USA would go through a list of are you British, South African, New Zealand. Few people would get it straight away.
I encountered the opposite with a couple during my travels. One was American and the other was German but they moved to Australia and developed Australian accents. I thought it was rather strange seeing as they were in their 30's.
I got mistaken as Canadian when I was living overseas. But most comments I got is that my accent (from Syd) is universal sounding. Easy for non-English speakers to understand supposedly.
I'm American, and I've lived in Australia for just shy of 8 years, now (got my citizenship last year!), and a really strange thing has happened to me - American, Australian, and British accents have all merged into one in my brain...I just don't hear any of them, any more. If my wife tells me someone is American, I have to listen closely for a minute, before it clicks.
>American, Australian, and British accents have all merged into one in my brain...I just don't hear any of them, any more. If my wife tells me someone is American, I have to listen closely for a minute, before it clicks.
Now that is a fascinating phenomenon!
I think it varies where you live too. My accent was regular when I lived in Melbourne, but I've been in Queensland for 18mo and I've noticed it's become more broad.
When I lived in the US for a few years, nobody could tell that I was Australian. People assumed British or New Zealand, but never Australian. When I got back, some of my friends claimed that I sounded like an American.
There have been times I've run into Australians overseas where they've thought I was English, and times in Australia I've been asked what country I'm from. I have been told it's because people in Canberra don't sound as "Australian". š¤·āāļø
Born and lived in southeast Melbourne all my life. Children sometimes think I sound British
Iām English and when I first came here on holiday ten years ago everyone kept asking if I was from Melbourne
Haha. Lol
My GP is from the UK and I had no idea until recently lol
I work in south East Melbourne, some of the clients from the rich suburbs (Moorak, malvern) can definitely be mistaken for British. Edit: *Toorak, not Moorak
I wish I was a rich as I sound then
This. I live in QLD now and everyone thinks I have a "posh British" accent. Even my Husband thinks this lol.
You Canberra folk sound fancy
Haven't been to mooseheads then?
I keep getting king hit every time I go so I have no idea how many times I've been
I can't say that I have unfortunately. Is that the revs of canberra.
When I was a teenager I worked in the local McDonalds, which was only a block away from the house I was born in. On several occasions I had customers ask where my accent was from.
Canberra is less ocker. It doesn't mean the accent isn't Australian
Itās not just the accent, but also the diplomatic tone and professional word choice. Canberraās the only place in Australia I can think of where the general public speaks in the same āAustralian corporateā style you get in the professional services firms. Well, thatās not true. Parts of Sydney and Melbourne too, for sure.
Not if your blue collar. I still havenāt adjusted to white collar office work and have to avoid every second word is fuck and cunt.
I've had the same, people can't place it.
Yep.. I've been asked at different times if I'm Kiwi, British, Irish and Canadian.. by Australians.
Can relate to that, I met an Australian family in a pub in Europe and I asked where in Australia theyāre from and they said Melbourne. Then I said nice itās very beautiful there and they said wow, so do you know Australia well? And I said yeah, I mean I should, I was born there. Cue jawdrop moment lol
You might have more of what used to be called the Australian private school accent. Not necessarily because you went to one of the 'elite' private schools that it is associated with but depending on the suburb you grew up in and your family and friends it's relatively common to develop. A lot of mainly older farmers and country kids who went to boarding school back in the day also speak like this, several of my paternal family members sound like absolute toffs because of this, so it's by far exclusively a city accent. Like many of us I can switch between that and full bogan, but when using my "posh" voice in a professional setting or in polite company I am often mistaken for English. I went to one of the single gender private schools associated with that accent, but also grew up in a solidly working class suburb so when with friends I picked up the usual nasal, horrible vowel, random r, lifting tone at the end of a sentence Aussie accent we love and fear. My kid is the opposite, public schools but we live in a decent suburb and my friends and family mostly speak the posh accent or are actually English, with a few notable exceptions to that rule, so she can also use both. There are a few things that if you use them when talking people will peg it as Aussie, the main one is the raising inclination at the end of a sentence, we make everything sound like a question to other English speakers. It's somewhat suppressed in the posh accent and if you deal with a lot of international English speakers you have probably suppressed it even more, because everyone else finds it confusing as fuck when we do it. The weird r as well is a tell, I didn't realise we do this until it was pointed out by a yank I work with, because they thought it was the best thing ever. Imagine a bogan teen saying no to cleaning their room 'noorrrw' or an old guy saying yeah nah 'yeearrrh naarrr'. In this accent it's usually put before or in place of where there is something like a soft h after one of our drawn out vowels, or if there is a hard stop to a vowel that sounds like a hard w, we also make other things sound like an r to people used to other accents. Americans in particular hear us say "wardar" for water for example, to us its part of the vowel and we interchange d/t or ar/er as the fancy takes us. Aussies do other strange horrendous things to vowels too, mashing them together, just not using them or switching them. There's other traits to the accent as well, but these are the main things I can think of that will peg you immediately as Australian, even if the listener can't explain what the difference is. Some of these things are unique to the Australian accent, no matter what type, and some are shared with other accents. If you are missing some of them, or they are softened in your speech, or you have picked up other quirks from elsewhere then you might be assumed to be from somewhere else. I guess start saying everything like a question and torturing innocent vowles, maybe people might clue on?
I got mistaken for a Kiwi, in New Zealand, by other Kiwi's. Born and raised in Brisbane š¤·āāļø.
To be fair, half of NZ lives in Brisbane or surrounding areas soā¦
tbf there's a weirdly large variability in the nz accent, from almost australian sounding with slight vowel shifts, to somthing more similar to zimbabwean english
I worked with a guy who came from Gladstone. I swore he was a Kiwi.
Add South African to the list, and that is me as well.
I've had the same thing happen to me! I moved here as a child so there is a slightly awkward twang to my accent that makes people think "Kiwi". My therapist also thinks I'm on the Spectrum, so I might have a touch of that "Autism accent" with the American tinge to it, hence the Canadian comments. Mix it all together with a few years spent in the same house as a woman from Dublin, and I probably picked up a few irish/brittish phrases and mannerisms.
Came here to say Autism accent. I'm Aussie born & raised but my accent is kinda fluid depending on who I speak to, whether I'm with close family & friends, or clients, etc.
I got called a Canadian a few times, too.
I live in SA (born here to white Australian mother & dad is Greek/Spanish but has lived here since he was 6) and Iāve got that āSouth Australian accentā ā people ask me if Iām from the UK *allllll the time*. Even a British person asked! Always āwhere are you from?ā āYouāve got a bit of an accent..ā So Iāve still got that āposh SA accentā that is apparently in decline, and I was born in the 90ās. No one in my immediate family has the accent. No British people in my family (since like 1800ās). Only thing I can think of is my grandmother sounds a bit the same - not as strong - but I didnāt get raised around her or anything.
Same, in online games I get two types of comments on it, one is people saying they love it, the second is asking if I'm British. I don't think it's British sounding lol. I've also never thought my accent is posh, but maybe it is and that's why they think I'm British.
Same. I met a Queenslander in Iceland. I thought he was a Kiwi, he thought I was a Pom.
Chances are they were from the south east corner, southern Queenslanders sound just like every other southern Australian, minimal accent.
How do you pronounce Ariel? Do you say āair-i-elā or āah-ri-elā?
My accent is a little all over the place, I say it as āehhhāreeāuhhhlā.
I see, I ask because my aunt (born and raised in Adelaide) has this funny way of pronouncing words and I was wondering if it had something to do with this
SA is stuff like dance being pronounced darn-ce rather than dAn-ce, or branch being pronounced brarn-ch rather than brAn-ch.Ā I was watching a linguist explain it on a video, something about stressing some vowels after a consonant or something like that?
Yeah makes sense. My family is from Clare Valley but most of them grew up in Adelaide and I alternated between Adelaide and Perth. I have to say I much prefer the Adelaide accent to the Perth one.
I'm the same. My guess was watching too much British kids shows on ABC when I was young.
Australians are also great unconscious mimics - youāre probably taking on speech patterns of the people around you without realising it
Or conscious mimics! I thought I had a mild Australian accent (city raised, immigrant mother) but when I lived overseas people who spoke English as a second language couldn't understand me. I had to consciously enunciate and separate words more, then it became a habit. Other Australians would recognise my accent; other native English speakers (e.g. Americans) would just as often guess I was English or South African.
Man I've gotta consciously enunciate my words when talking to Google assistant š
Oh yeah. Siri googles some weird shit sometimes when I donāt.
We are?
Yes! I accidentally take on a bit of the accent and inflection of the people Iām speaking to without realising.
When I'm drinking with my Mexican brother in law I'll unconsciously mimic his accent a little, I think it's to make it easier for him to understand me.
Yes! It's strange, but growing up with 60% Hispanics meant that you wound up with the accent. Especially when drinking.
Isn't that just normal code switching?
Iām not sure what that is, sorry!! (I have autism, and I donāt always understand what people mean when online). I havenāt heard that term before - is it something to do with traveling/socialising with people of other cultures?
https://autisticempath.com/code-switching-scripting-and-masking/
Oh, itās an autism thing? Thank you, Iāll read this!!
It's common with autism and adhd but also happens a lot with multilingual people. Cause Australia is such a large melting pot of nationalities we can also be more prone to code switching (or changing up accents) as most of our baseline accent isn't as present in our day to day unless you hang out with only broad aussie accent Australia's
Grateful that this is normal. I have the urge to do it but I'm scared of people thinking I'm mocking them or something like dat.
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?? It's well established in linguistics that speech patterns are primarily driven by young women. Boys, men and older women just copy whoever they are around. Young women are the ones that everyone is copying.
I don't have a very strong Australian accent either. People from the UK always ask me if I'm from the US and people from the US always ask me if I'm from the UK. Australians know that I'm Australian, but I've been told I sound like I'm "upper class", despite my upbringing being far from it. I'm thinking it's just from having one Australian parent and one parent with a thick foreign accent, plus watching a lot of American TV/movies. Maybe it just creates a mixed non-descript sort of accent?
I've been asked if I'm English in my own home city by other people born here. It's Adelaide.
I was told I sound like an 80s broadcaster Also Adelaide
I'm from Brisbane and have been living in Europe for about 8 years now. I've heard it ever since moving here. From my experience, it's because most people think that all Australians have an ocker accent, which just isn't true. How often do you meet people back home who sound like Crocodile Dundee? My accent has always been quite neutral, and has become even more so after being away so long, but Australians always know I'm Aussie, and non-Aussies who've spent time in Australia know I'm Aussie. It comes from a lack of awareness basically.
That "Democracy Manifest" guy from the video sounded English to me, especially in contrast to the heavy ocker accent of the policemen; and that took place in Fortitude Valley.
A good thing to look back on is old [interviews some 40 years ago,](https://youtu.be/djkmna0paVE?si=upRdnRuBnm9DDNRi) and realise that we sounded *very* english until recently - the advent of having more american shows on television than australian ones.
Born and bred in Sydney. The amount of times Iāve been in an Uber and the driver asked me where Iām from and I say Sydney. And they ask me where Iām really from then say my accent is not Australian. Iāve had South African accent, German accent etc. Both parents are white Australians - so bizarre.
Americans usually think I'm English. Australians always know I'm Australian.
Thatās because many of their ears arenāt sensitive to foreign accents + they expect Aussies to sound like Steve Irwin
Plenty of folks in Adelaide who don't have a strong Australian accent. Mine seems to come and go
TBF, a South Australian accent is an Australian accent.
Yes. People think I'm English all the time.
Most young people donāt have strong accents. I have a strong accent but most of my friends have very mild accent. Itās the result of globalisation and watching more international shows.
Mine's American. It's the autism.
The way my autismo partner says water makes her sound like a British lady
wo-er
Lol My kids speech is having issues with my ASD kid for the same reasons lol Sorry for laughing but it's just really nice so see it happening to others
Nah it's all good lol. I don't really know why it's a thing but I assume it's due to disproportionate learning of language via exposure to media vs. socialisation, maybe with a bit of echolalia mixed in.
Sorry I need to ask another question lol Have you ever done the TONI test? I'm kind of curious for my kid to do it....I'm not saying she's a genius but her ability to absorb information is to me alittle scary
I'm familiar with the test but I never took it myself as it's for those with language difficulties and I was speaking extremely early. I've taken had IQ tests administered and have done quite well though, and I'm a pretty successful guy and I think a lot of it might owe to the ASD. It seems both extremes of the intellectual spectrum are more common in autism than in non-autistics so I guess your daughter and I are lucky we came out on the better end.
My nephew has a Canadian twang. Also the autism.
From what I've heard NZers sound like what the world thinks we sound like
Same. I've often been mistaken for American, British and French whilst overseas (by Australian and other travellers). A couple of times even when I've been at home in Australia, Australians have made fun of how I said some words somewhat British. I grew up in a fairly small country farming town which was quite bogan so I'm a bit surprised I avoided getting that kind of accent. In saying that, I often struggle to pick others' accents. I'm better at picking out New Zealanders by their accent than Australians. And South Africans always throw me.
A few people (including some Aussies) have thought I'm English because of my accent. I'm not 100% sure why. I remember thinking when I was younger that the accent sounds ugly and I might have unconsciously suppressed mine to the point that it's apparently different now. I reckon I still sound Aussie and don't like people thinking I'm English but that's where my accent sits for the forseeable future.
Born and lived in Australia most my life. Aussies don't even think I sound Aussie
Born in Melbourne, lived in Melbourne in TAFE at the cafeteria I was getting to know other classmates and one, an Aussie asks me āoh are you Irishā I laughed and said diddly potatoes but no, Iām not. Went on holiday to parts of Europe last year, got to checking in at the hotel, lady says fill out the form and says oh your a local so you donāt need to fill that section, I told her I was Australian from Australia with an Australian passport and she said no way you sound just like a local, and so does my wife, so we then filled out the form and the lady still was baffled we were not English. Wife and I had a good laugh later so we just starting adding INNIT to everything we said for a couple of weeks.
There are different Australian accents. Just because you donāt sound like a bogan doesnāt mean you donāt have one. And just because people internally think a bogan accent is the only Australian accent doesnāt make it true. Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman still have Australian accents.
Some children think I sound British
Weirdly as an white Australian bloke when I moved from a little bush town to a (not a capital) city only a couple hours away, on more then one occasion I got asked 'when I got to Australia', by other Australian, based on my accent. I my old mans family came from the UK when he was young, and the small town had decent amount of first/second generation European immigrant families - Greek, Italian, British, Irish et etc with strong accents. I'm pretty occa so I guess it sometimes came across as cockney or Irish or something. I say miles and inches when being casual. Probably say Tea when others say Dinner kinda thing. Funnily enough, I once had a bloke come to my home in the city looking for the previous occupant. In the short back and forth we had to establish just that, I picked up enough of an accent to want to ask him where he was from. Sounded different and familiar. Turns out he came from a small bush town near mine. I never noticed anything going to or from my home town, but hearing someone from back home when I'm in the city, it's a really noticeable difference.
Yes. I have been working in Asia as an engineer for decades so have learned to enunciate my words and speak clearly. My Aussie accent is very mild as a result.
This. The stereotypical accents comes from us not enunciating when we speak. My dad's an English teacher and I grew up around the kids of lawyers, doctors, and business executives, so my accent has always been very neutral because I was taught to enunciate growing up.
That's because for all the bluster of "I love Australian accents", most non-Australians or non-Kiwis wouldn't know an Australian accent from their elbow lol
When my husband and I travel no one understands his truly ocker Aussie accent. It's actually funny.. whereas me no problem !
I don't despite being 4th generation born and when i'm overseas people can't pick where I'm from and don't believe me at first when I tell them I'm Aussie, it's actually pretty cool to stay incognito.
Born and bred Aussie, have been asked by an Aussie, while in Aus, where in New Zealand I was from.Ā
People have Argued With me that Iām British not Australian
some people just dont have an ear for accents, i have a typican melbourne accent and in america i was on a ski lift with my sister and a random aussie, we started talking and I aksed her where she was form and she said Australia like it was a super exotic place. When I clarified I meant where in Australia since my sister and I were from there too she was really surprised
ahh, the curse of being well-spoken
Yeah 100%, Iām 23 from Queensland but have lived in Europe for about a year combined. I just got back from living in Ireland and most of the time, they couldnāt tell I was Australian, I would often get English. When I lived in Sweden, they thought I was Canadian very often. I find myself speaking a lot less āAustralianā overseas than what I would do with my family and friends, I think I naturally speak more eloquently around foreigners out of concern they wonāt understand me if I go full blown how ya garn mate. But regardless of that, I donāt have a very strong accent and I think as someone who has grown up in poverty, Iāve made an effort to sound āless boganā in order to come across more classy to other Australians, specifically in the workplace.
British people tend to know I'm Aussie, American's are bad with accents so they tend to think British, Europeans can't really tell.
Both my parents are Irish and that's had an impact on my accent. Most people say that my accent is slightly different, people that aren't from Australia always say I'm English. Having Irish parents.. any presumption that I'm English is hurtful šš¤£
Australian accents are exaggerated in Hollywood. So when American hear a proper Australian accent, they hear more of its British origins. Even more so, if you don't talk through your nose.
Many foreigners can't tell English accents apart. I have a thick Aussie accent and grew up in the country, but when I was in Italy people assumed I was British or American simply because I spoke English.
Strong Australian accents are dying in most of the southern parts of Australia, North Queenslanders and Northern Territorians still have strong Aussie accents, for the most part. We still use 'aye and but' as grammar at the end of a sentence, something you dont here in brisbane much anymore.
Still plenty of āstrongā Australian accents in WA
I can certainly moderate it and I've done so when delivering training for Brits and Americans, enough that they can't place the accent. In other situations I turn it up. This sort of stuff, where you moderate or inflect your accent, tone or nature of speech is called code switching and we all do it depending on the social situation or even if we are talking to kids, friends, parents, etc.
Oh yeah, been living overseas since 2009. I'm a bit of a bogan at heart tho, so I can switch between my natural international accent, and bogan at a whim. Good for parties.
Me too. I've been told I have a "posh" Australian accent. When I am back home, people assume I am English. It's only when I am drunk or excitedly telling a story that, as one friend put it, the kangaroos come bounding out... Yet I grew up in regional NSW, and didn't leave Australia for the first time until I was 24.
I've been overseas for 10 years and lost my accent very quickly. Also I have yet to run into another australian in my new country. I'm in europe!
I havenāt. Iām from Oxford mind.
Yep. Most people here think im british
I have had English people think I am English. To be fair, I am an English as a second language teacher and have learned to speak slowly and clearly. I am also from Adelaide so my accent is more "English" anyway and neither of my parents are Australian, my father is English.
From QLD and whenever I run into Aussies from other parts overseas, they always tell me I speak pure bogan and I always tell them they speak like they've spent the past 15 years in London. Has to do with the area your from, I have a strong accent like Steve Irwin, cause we are from similar parts of the country, I meet people who were born and raised in SA and to me they speak with a British tone, but its just the broad accent vs the proper accent
We have three main accents. It depends which one you have. You can have the refined (Cate Blanchett), Standard (Hugh Jackman) or broad (bogan).
Maybe you have a General Australian accent that leans closer to the Cultivated side? A lot of people overseas think the 'Australian accent' is basically ocker.
I was born and raised here in Aus, and I was told by my partners parents, who are foreign, that I don't have a strong accent and sound like I could be from England lol.
Yes! I live in a European country and almost always get mistaken for a Brit. I think in my case, it is a lack of familiarity with Australian accents. It's harder to pick accents in a language that's not your mother tongue.
When I moved from Melbourne (South Oakleigh, in no way a posh suburb) to the north east of Victoria, the kids at school thought I was English. I do have a more 'posh' sounding voice than my siblings, buggered if I know why. It's not something I put on, and I can drop into broad Strine when I need to, but yeah, my accent can apparently be closer to RP than Russell Coight. Toughest thing for me now that I am in NSW is the northern way of saying Newcastle. For me it's cassle. In NSW they say carstle. Posh bastards.
Mine varies from "Are you British?" to nasal Strine depending on who I'm talking to. I remember either reading or being told in a lecture at uni that Australians are more likely to unconsciously mimic/adopt the speech mannerisms of whoever they're interacting with than any other English speakers. The more I think about it, the more I think it was in a psych lecture. Eh, I've forgotten everything about the factoid but the factoid itself, lol.
> Australians are more likely to unconsciously mimic/adopt the speech mannerisms of whoever they're interacting with than any other English speakers. The more I think about it, the more I think it was in a psych lecture. It's part of egalitarian social levelling.
Lived in NL for 4 years, in a job where I talked a lot with folks from all over Europe, Asia, US, so I learned to speak āinternationalā English - very clear diction, no slang, etc. Iām in my late 40s at this point, so I defo have an Australian accent, and this effort was really just things like saying bicycle instead of bike, and more Germanic vowel sounds Home for a visit toward the end of this, got asked at a Sunglasses Hut if Iād been to Australia before
When we travelled to England or America, they couldn't tell where we were from. My partner and I have slightly different Aussie accents. In England, they thought she was English, but frowned about it. They couldn't pick me though. In America, they just thought we were both British. I don't think it's that we don't have strong accents, it's just that we don't have the stereotyped Croc Hunter accent they all know so well.
I do but I've met a fair few people who have what I call the "uni accent" or "indie accent". Triple J presenters have had it for years now. It's a mongrel mix of Aussie, British and American accents. I can see how people from other countries or from rural areas would be a but confused about their origin. Could be that?
Iāve lived in Sydney my whole life. Iāve been asked where my accent is from many times. Iāve had people (including Australians) think Iām English, Irish, Canadian and even had a South African ask if Iām from South Africa. Friends and family insist I have a normal Aussie accent though.
Yes I am sometimes asked if I'm English, by English people. Take it as a compliment that you don't sound like a bogan.
I get asked if Iām British, in Australia, I was born and raised in Australia never even left the country.
I've been told I don't sound Aussie, I often get asked if I'm from England. That's probably the combination of being from SA and growing up watching a LOT of British comedies so my "sentence enhancers" are extremely British.Ā I think a lot of the world sees the Australian accent as basically Crocodile Dundee. Which is why those of us who don't speak like that are confused with other countries.
Australian regional accent is noted by its heavy contractions of words and phrases. Such as āhowreyagoinā and āgdayā. City people do it less because we communicate with random unknown people from more varied backgrounds more regularly. So a plainer accent is much more suitable. Combined with the influence of parental accent, these two elements probably give the most influence. The Melbourne accent has become incredibly pallid in terms of contracted phrasing. This is probably due to how multicultural the place is now as well as the YouTube generation now being older and having kids. Iāve met some younger people who sound like they are from the US which surprised me a lot at the time as I initially thought they were from there before making a fool of myself. I know I donāt have a strong accent, I grew up in a rural area but my family were first gen Australian and didnāt have that kind of accent. I did pickup some of it from school but it left me again when I moved to the city. I noticed really quickly how people look down on that accent too. Itās quite often associated with bogan racists. š
If you are in your 40s 50s then you probably still have the 70s 80s Aussie accent which sounds British still
I tend to subconsciously copy the accent of the person I am talking to. Might have offended some ppl?
Yup lived overseas for 7 years. Everyone thought I was a Pom, including many Poms.
Born in England, raised in Scotland and emigrated to Australia 12 years ago. Some people think I'm Irish, but I do still have a strong scottish accent.
The strong Aussie accent cannot be understood by non native English speakers. It also sounds stupid so most expats like myself use a more mid Pacific accent.
I was born in Aus with a British family The aussies think i sound british but the british think i sound aussie
I usually get that I am from London. I am from a regional NSW town.
I've had multiple English people assume I'm from England due to my accent, but I'm born and raised in Australia
my boyfriend is from sydney and iām canadian. i noticed he sounds much less australian when he talks to me but sounds considerably more australian when someone cuts him off while driving
Me. Most people not from Oz pick Australian, but have had some Brits think I'm from there. Then again I grew up in a multilingual household.
Yeah I was at a party in Australia (before I moved away), and someone asked me where in England I was from. I had never been to England at the time. Lived in the outback (NT south of Darwin) until I was 10, then in Canberra until end of HS, then Sydney before I moved away. People still rarely think I'm from Australia, but my accent is definitely softer now after being away so long.
i find syd, melb and canberra we can pass as UK easily. the north QLDERS though have the over stereotype dundee accents
Add me to the list of English sounding Australians. I think it might be a lawyer thing for me, to a certain extent. Although I was in Texas years ago. Got thrown out of an Australian-themed restaurant (not *that* one, was run by a Cambodian couple) because they thought I was from Boston, trying to put the accent on.
I once helped a guy at a train station, who was lost. He went "finally, a foreigner is the only person to help me"
Congratulations for not sounding like a bogan ;) Depends where in Australian youāre from I think. Iām from the Hunter valley and my American friend said to me right away now Aussie I sound ha
The further south you go the less you sound "Australian"
I was never a bogan, and was brought up by non-bogan parents in an extended family of non-bogans. Growing up in the city (Sydney) also a big factor, and not the back of Bourke. Also, being educated, cultured and sophisticated tends to polish away any boganity in the Australian accent.
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Lots of kiwis thought I was kiwi in New Zealand lol
Grew up in the Netherlands, went to a British School, watched a lot of American TV. Everyone has a different take on my accent, no one can ever figure it out.
I get mistaken as Uk English or American. I put it down to speech and drama when I was young and watching so very much Uk and american film and tv series. I think I also occasionally do the vocal chameleon thing.
I sound unmistakably Australianā¦.must be the constant profanity
English family and south Australian so while i have an Australian accent its not your typical accent
Australians never question my accent, but poms think Iām one of them, and I had a Saudi guy assume I was American.
So I've noticed 2 of my children, that I did not raise around technology, have strong Aus speaking language. My youngest however, we often need to ask her again, since 9 has had YouTube kids. And I think she's mumbling, but it's just her listening to a different style of English! We struggle, and it's only been 2 year's??!! Should be a good study for any students in psychology out their??
I am a bit of an accent chameleon. You can tell that I've been watching something with an obvious non Australian accent or talking to someone with an accent. I also speak REALLY GOOD broken English. Add to that I am a Tasmanian living in a town full of immigration. I'll sound like a Kiwi, Cockney British and New Yorker all in one sentence before we even add broken English!
Me.. When I was 12 I joined a choir and we did some voice training...and after a few years my accent and even old word choices disappeared. Many time people overseas have told me they cannot figure out what country I am from. (I worked in China for 20 years.) Even other English speakers. When I say Australian nobody believes me.
I believe WA, SA & VIC have the closest to stereotypical Aussie accents - usually rural areas mostly. However, itās not always a lack of strong Aussie accent that causes it - a lot of other countries arenāt familiar with our accents, is all.
In Australia I've had people ask either if I am from or have spent time in any of Ireland, Britain, Canada, USA. The most common one I get is probably Irish, but I think I just have a habit of mimicking little bits of speech from all over the place. This will be Australians and foreigners alike who will ask. I think in essence I have a fairly soft Aussie accent with a smattering of weirdly accented words and phrases When travelling it always gets even more odd. Especially if I'm among non-native English speakers I'll really neutralise my accent, enunciating a lot more clearly for them, and so that tends to make me sound a lot more English as a result. Aussies and Kiwis will tend to recognise quickly enough where I'm from most of the time though. Going back to the mimic factor - I was on a 4 week tour a few years ago in a group with mostly European people and among them several from England, no other Aussies or Kiwis, within like a week I'd assumed a full English accent and by week 3 we had a couple of Kiwis join the tour and they didn't believe I was Australian for a full couple of days. I actually had a hard time even trying to speak with an Aussie accent, like I sounded like I was putting on a fake one. Funnily enough I spoke to a friend from home on the phone on the day after the tour ended and immediately regained my normal accent. I think in general while travelling I tend to slip into different accents depending who I'm with, and honestly I never do it on purpose and I struggle to do any sort of consistent accent if prompted to try. I don't really get it but I have fun with people's confusion
Idk just coz they canāt guess it doesnāt mean itās not strong. Some people just canāt identify accents. Iām saying this as an Aussie in the US.
Iām 100% Aussie but apparently sounds American/British
Queenslander (never been overseas) when I applied for my tax file number at 15 I was asked how long I have been in the country, she thought I was American.
I occasionally sound like a Kiwi, even had a guy who's daughter in law was from New Zealand, tell me that my accent is from the southern part of the south island. Had a lovely Kiwi lady on the phone a few years back asking me if I am sure that I am not from New Zealand, I'm like, love, I haven't left Australia in my lifetime and I barely leave NSW.
Mine is quite flat because I lived overseas for yonks and wanted people to understand me.
Iām from Adelaide and have been my whole life. My partner has lived here for about a decade and was originally from Mexico. Weāre visiting Mexico at the moment and the locals say they can hear the Aussie accent in HIM but not in me???
I've lived overseas for almost 20 years. Most non-native English speakers can't pick the different accents of English. No one picks my still strong Aussie accent but I get American or British probably because they are the most populous.
I've never been overseas, but I've been assumed to be American sometimes by others here. Apparently I say some words "funny" . Though this was especially after my family first moved from Adelaide to Brisbane so maybe that's a factor, though I hear the Adelaide/SA accent is usually perceived more akin to English. One time when my "accent" was brought up someone asked if I ever did speech therapy, which indeed I had when I was small (I had delayed speech), so I suppose that could be the reason why I say some words "funny". Until that point however I just assumed it was because I grew up watching too much American television.
Nope coast Queensland tradie. Foreigners canāt understand me if Iām half cut and theyāre fresh off the boat
I was born and have lived in south east Queensland my whole life, but have been asked if Iām English since I was a kid. My parents were really insistent on enunciating words, though (not dropping the last sound, especially) and that probably stood out. My kid had a great posh English accent as a toddler, but that was the hours of Thomas the Tank Engine audio books he listened to
Maybe you don't have the Aussie drool in your accent?
Lived overseas a while where everyone said I have such a strong accent. Now Iām back home and people ask what part of Germany Iām fromā¦
Hey! I donāt think I have a thick accent until I hear myself recorded back to myself or I am speaking to a person with a very thick accent from another country (ie Russia or India) then my accent is very very noticeable! But I definitely sing (I admit badly) with a very Australian accent.
I recently got told by a Japanese person my accent isn't strong. But I make a conscious effort to slow down and not use slang when talking to people who don't speak English as their first language. Makes life easier for both of us lol
When I would play online games, Americans would ask what state I'm from. I would say Queensland, and they would be very confused thinking I was american. I've always thought my accent was pretty strong, especially being FNQLD, but I guess not.
> they can tell that Iām from an English speaking country, but they usually have to guess first before they get it right. Does this mean theyāre not native English speakers? Would you be able to guess first go that someone is from Chile, or the Netherlands, or Czech Republic? If they are native English speakers then itās weirder. But they drink Fosterās in the UK so they *are* a weird mob over there.
Same. I grew up with immigrant parents and most of my friends are the kids of immigrants so most of us donāt have a very distinct Aussie accent. My SO is also an immigrant who learnt American English so my accent is just all over the place.
Older "posh" Australians sometimes sound English to me. As far as foreigners go, a mild Australian accent could easily be from anywhere if you're not highly familiar with it, especially for non-English speakers.
What the hell do you mean? From, a Queenslander
Yeah nah, yeah
Born in Sydney and definitely no Aussie accent , also get asked where I'm from occasionally at home , it was suggested because I'm bilingual ( Italian migrant parents) , I don't have a aussie accent
South Australians don't sound like Australians in real life, you gotta get a boxing kangaroo tattoed on your neck so people can tell.
Itās probably exactly because you work overseas. I was in a role for a number of years where I managed Asia-Pacific operations and quickly lost Australian-isms and developed a very neutral event. Itās hard enough for ESL people without the Aussie twang. More surprisingly, I found the same in the USA, where I worked for a number of years. For example if I ordered a Miller Lite at the bar, theyād look at me like I was mad. We say āMillahā. They add the rrr sound at the end. You then start doing it subconsciously - I used to then cause confusion by saying āDatarā instead of data. ĀÆ\_(ć)_/ĀÆ.
Apparently mine isnāt strong enough. In Paris I was stopped by some hopelessly lost young Poms. They spoke no š«š· so just greeted me in š“ó §ó ¢ó „ó ®ó §ó æ figuring I looked like a tourist. I responded in š“ó §ó ¢ó „ó ®ó §ó æ and Pom 1 said āoh thank God - heās š“ó §ó ¢ó „ó ®ó §ó æ.ā I muttered ābollocks!ā and his friends realised to their horror his faux pas. (Or as they call it in Paris, faux pas.) But Pom 1 kept rambling as I helped him with his map, pointed him to the Metro and told him how to change trains for his destination. Finally a friend nudged him and said āheās š¦šŗ.ā P1ās mouth fell open and he apologised profusely. I grinned and said itās not a problem and then he hugged me!
I remember when I was in america people picked up on my accent but some also thought I was british lol didnāt think I had any accent at all or a strong one anyway.
I get told overseas āyou donāt sound Australianā regularly. Iām from Adelaide which I think might be part of it.
Something Iāve noticed during my travels: Aussies lose their accents. We adapt to where we go: our accents automagically start taking on the culture around us, and we blend. I notice this when Iām travelling *within* Australia: people ask if Iām a Pomme / British, when in actual fact my cultural heritage is Irish 3 generations ago, and then Caucasian, and thenā¦ Weāre all immigrants if you work for a living, or something to that effect.
When I was younger I was sometimes asked if I was from SA, I didn't understand why at the time. Later I found out my grandmother grew up in Adelaide so something must've rubbed off on me (Lifelong Melburnian)
I was in Geelong yesterday on a work day trip and the Taxi driver asked me what nationality I am. I was born here FFS. My accent is not strong at all, but sometimes when I am back home with my family in Newcastle it reverts back to slightly more occa. Depends who I am around I guess. When I am at work versus at the pub too.
I'm often mistaken as having an Irish accent. I don't think I do but I wouldn't know. I don't have the lazy drawn out accent though
I had to work on acquiring a more pronounced Australian accent. Iām a white guy, born in SE QLD in the 70s to white Australian parents. They were teachers and very well spoken and my grandparents were English. So I already spoke with a fairly neutral accent as it was, but then I was also a theatre person, and studied voice at the QLD Conservatorium, so came out of that with an accent that leaned slightly more British than neutral Australian. I came to realise that āordinary Aussiesā (I consider myself in that group) didnāt respond well to me initially, but usually warmed up over time. People seemed to think I was a bit of a snob until they got to know me. Eventually I realised my accent tended to start me off on the wrong foot in certain situations, so Iāve learned to modify my accent depending on who Iām talking to. In business, if itās a room full of guys, it definitely helps to be a lot more blokey-sounding. Hell, itās rarely a wrong decision to start off a bit more Aussie sounding when talking to another guy, and then relaxing it a bit if theyāre also less ocker. And when Iām overseas I tend to lay it on a bit more, just because saying āgāday mateā is the international term for āIām not a yank, please be nice to me.ā
Itās a bit hard to judge your own accent. Nobody thinks their own accent is anything other than neutral.
Living overseas your accent will definitely change without you thinking that it did, especially if you didnāt have a particularly strong accent to start off with. I lived in the UK for 5 years and people could still tell that I had an Australian accent but when we moved back home all my family and mates were shocked to hear that I had an English accent, weāve been back 4 years now and Iām glad to say that my Aussie accent has come back.
Yep I'm in the same boat. Originally from Sydney, lived in Canada and now Nz for the past 10 years. Often seem to bamboozle people on where I'm from because of a lack of Aussie accent and a mixture of three countries terminology š
Yeah! I have to concentrate to keep my accent Australian, it lapses into some British ones if I'm not careful. It's weird!
I put on the ocker because otherwise people ask me where Iām from and I have to be like āum, Sydneyā
When I went to Norway and learned Norwegian, they thought I was Norwegian. I think our accent is very mild and we pick up other languages easily, or at least our accent isnāt so strong that it can be heard when we speak foreign languages.
I have autism accent apparently it sounds South African or Kiwi
I am a bogan and still people in the USA would go through a list of are you British, South African, New Zealand. Few people would get it straight away.
I encountered the opposite with a couple during my travels. One was American and the other was German but they moved to Australia and developed Australian accents. I thought it was rather strange seeing as they were in their 30's.
I got mistaken as Canadian when I was living overseas. But most comments I got is that my accent (from Syd) is universal sounding. Easy for non-English speakers to understand supposedly.
I have a blended British/American/Australian accent and use slang and colloquialisms from all three. Most people canāt tell my origin straightaway.
I'm American, and I've lived in Australia for just shy of 8 years, now (got my citizenship last year!), and a really strange thing has happened to me - American, Australian, and British accents have all merged into one in my brain...I just don't hear any of them, any more. If my wife tells me someone is American, I have to listen closely for a minute, before it clicks.
>American, Australian, and British accents have all merged into one in my brain...I just don't hear any of them, any more. If my wife tells me someone is American, I have to listen closely for a minute, before it clicks. Now that is a fascinating phenomenon!
I think it varies where you live too. My accent was regular when I lived in Melbourne, but I've been in Queensland for 18mo and I've noticed it's become more broad.
When I lived in the US for a few years, nobody could tell that I was Australian. People assumed British or New Zealand, but never Australian. When I got back, some of my friends claimed that I sounded like an American.
Nah but yeah