A History of English Language

The nineteenth century and after 301
Aspects of English Dialects in Ireland, 1, ed. Michael V.Barry (Belfast, 1981), pp. 118–41. See also
P.L.Henry, An Anglo-Irish Dialect of North Roscommon (Dublin, 1957).
so many new words were needed, and that there never will be again, for never did settlers
come, nor can they ever come again, upon Flora and Fauna so completely different from
anything seen by them before. An oak in America is still a Quercus, not as in Australia a
Casuarina. But with the whole tropical region intervening it was to be expected that in
the South Temperate Zone many things would be different, and such expectation was
amply fulfilled.” 16 Australian English uses many words that would not be understood in
England or America. Some of these are old words that have acquired new meanings by
being applied to new things. Thus the term robin is used for various birds not known in
Europe. The word jackass (shortened from laughing jackass) means a bird whose cry is
like a donkey’s bray. Other words have been borrowed from the aboriginal languages of
Australia and from Maori in New Zealand. Kangaroo and boomerang have become
general English, but wombat is still chiefly Australian because it is the name of an
Australian animal. 17 The Australian calls a rowdy street loafer a larrikan. A swagman is a
man traveling through the bush (back country) carrying a swag (tramp’s bundle). Where
an American talks of a ranch, the Australian speaks of a station and, like us, distinguishes
between a sheep station and a cattle station. A boundary rider is one who patrols an
estate and keeps the owner informed concerning every part of it. The English of Australia
not only is characterized by interesting differences of vocabulary but varies strikingly in
pronunciation from the received standard of England. The accent of the majority of
Australians has characteristics often associated with Cockney, especially in the quality of
the vowels and diphthongs that occur in the words say, so, beat, boot, high, and how. 18
Because an Australian’s pronunciation of hay may register on an American as high, or
basin as bison, these systematic differences have been the source of misunderstandings
between speakers of General Australian and speakers of other national varieties, though
not among speakers of General Australian themselves. Within Australia there are possible
difficulties in the different patterns of General Australian, the dialect of the great
majority, and Cultivated Australian, a minority accent that approaches the received
standard of England. 19 Social varieties such as these, and Broad Australian at the
uncultivated extreme of the scale, are the only significant dialectal differences in a
country where regional variations are negligible. The distinctive characteris-
16
E.E.Morris, Austral English: A Dictionary of Australasian Words, Phrases and Usages (London,
1898), p. xii.
17
Of course, this has not prevented kangaroo from gaining general currency.
18
For important differences with Cockney, see A.G.Mitchell, The Pronunciation of English in
Australia, rev. ed. with Arthur Delbridge (Sydney, 1965), pp. 7–8.
19
See A.G.Mitchell and Arthur Delbridge, The Speech of Australian Adolescents: A Survey
(Sydney, 1965), pp. 37, 83.