13.4. Australian English

AuE began to diverge from BE soon after the foundation of the colony of New South Wales in 1788. Br convicts sent there, including Cockneys from L, came mostly from large cities. They were joined by free settlers, military personnel & administrators, often with families. A large part of the convicts was Ir. Other convicts from non-E speaking areas of GB: Welsh & Scots. The dominant E input was Cockney, South-East England.

The 1^st Au gold rush in the 1850s, a much larger wave of immigration, which significantly influenced AuE. Americanisation of the language – introduction of Ws, spellings, terms, usages from North AmE. The Ws imported included Ws later considered typically Au: dirt, digger. Bonzer, which was once a common Au slang W great, superb / beautiful, is a corruption of the Am mining term bonanza, a rich vein of gold / silver, a LW from Spanish. The influx of Am military personnel in WW2: okay, you guys, gee.

Since the 1950s Am influence via pop culture, mass media & the web. Some Ws (freeway, truck) have naturalised so completely that few Australians recognise their origin. Some AmE & BrE variants exist side-by-side (freeway & motorway), regional, social & ethnic variation within Australia defines W usage.

AuE is most similar to NZE due to their similar history & geographical proximity.

Ws of Ir origin. Some are common elsewhere in the Ir diaspora: bum for backside, tucker for food, provisions (Ir tacar). 1-2 native E Ws have changed meaning under Ir influence: paddock for field (Ir páirc).

Au adopted decimal currency in 1966, the metric system in the 1970s. Australians have measured temperatures in Celsius since 1972, road signs were metricated in 1974, goods have been measured in litres & kilograms since that time.

Australians consider many terms to be unique to their country: outback (a remote, sparsely-populated area); bush (either native forests / country areas in general). Many Ws used frequently by country Australians are / were also used in all / part of England, with variations in meaning: a creek in Australia & North America is any stream / small river, in England it is a small watercourse flowing into the sea; paddock is the Au W for a field, in England it is a small enclosure for livestock; wooded areas in Australia are bush / scrub, as in North America, in England they are commonly used only in proper names (Shepherd’s Bush, Wormwood Scrubs).

Elements of Aboriginal languages incorporated into AuE: names for places, flora & fauna (dingo, kangaroo). Other examples: cooee, a high-pitched call which travels long distances & used to attract attention, also a notional distance: If he’s within cooee, we’ll spot him. Hard yakka is hard work derived from yakka, from the Yagara / Jagara language once spoken in the Brisbane region. From there also comes bung meaning broken. A failed piece of equipment is on the bung / gone bung. Bung is also used to describe an individual who is pretending to be hurt; he is said to be bunging it on.

Au spelling is almost the same as Br one, with a few exceptions (program is more common than programme). As in BE, both -ise & -ize are accepted. Because of a backlash to the perceived americanisation of AuE, there is a trend to reinsert the u in Ws such as harbour. The town of Victor Harbor has the Victor Harbour Railway Station. Though the spelling jail prevails, gaol is still used in official contexts. In academia, the usage of E variants is generally accepted.