How do you speak Australian?

Answer 1

If you have not lived in Australia since you were a very young child, you will not develop an Australian accent. you can try to imitate but all you will do is end up sounding like a displaced Englishman or a New Zealander.

Hollywood's normal "Australian" accent is more like Cockney, and Meryl Streep's effort in Evil Angels was a cross between Cockney and South African. Even the superb Anthony Hopkins in "Fastest Indian" couldn't manage a good New Zealand accent, which, given Bert Munro was born around 1900, should have been an accent very close to Australian (Hopkins was criticised in NZ, but the NZ accent has diverted from the Australian markedly only since WWII).

The Australian accent has been scientifically proven to be one of the most difficult accents in the world to accurately reproduce (seriously). There are also regional differences.

The Australian accent is also nothing like that portrayed by people pretending to be Australians on US television shows. It is not a "cockney" accent with the emphasis on the "oi" sound that it is propounded to be. Where Americans emphasise the "r" in words such as "teacher" and "neighbour", in the Australian accent it is more of a "schwa" (an unstressed, neutral, toneless vowel sound) so it comes out as "teacha" or "neighba" (unstressed).

The lack of stress on the "R" in many words shows that Australian English is non-rhotic. Most (but not all) US varieties are rhotic, that is the "R" is stressed, especially at the end of words. The NZ accent is non-rhotic, apart from a variety found in the south of the South Island, which is heavily influenced by Scots speakers. NZ had a higher proportion of Scots immigrants than any case than Australia and this may explain some of the differences (ditto Canada vs USA). it is interesting to note that the original accent of the UK was predominantly rhotic, and that it is the UK that has departed from its origins, rather than Anericans who have altered their accent.

Answer 2

Some may believe the Australian accent can be traced to Cockney origins, but this has been disputed by linguists and historians. True linguists have disputed the presence of any cockney in native-born Australian speech, but they can identify origins of Irish brogue and Scottish influence. The Australian accent developed from the rich mixture of dialects which came with the convicts, marines and officera of the First Fleet. Being so isolated from England, speech patterns developed quite independently.

Answer 3

Unless one has been born in Australia, it is impossible to replicate speaking convincingly like an Australian. The Australian language is a derivation of many different accents found throughout the United Kingdom. Like all cultures do over time, the Australian culture developed a unique accent, especially with being separated from its parent country through time and distance. The Australian accent has been scientifically proven to be one of the most difficult accents in the world to accurately reproduce (seriously). There are also regional differences. Foreigners who backpack through Australia find the quick drawl of casual Australian speech hard to understand.

The Australian accent is nothing like that portrayed by people pretending to be Australians on US television shows. It is not a "cockney" accent with the emphasis on the "oi" sound that it is propounded to be. Where Americans emphasise the "r" in words such as "teacher" or "neighbour", in the Australian accent it is more of a "schwa" (an unstressed, neutral, toneless vowel sound) so it comes out as "teacha" (unstressed) or "neighba".