Transcript of AE 1091 - Australian English vs British English | Reaction

G'day, you mob. Welcome to this episode today we are reacting to Australian English versus British English from the Joel and Lia channel, and I have a little challenge for these guys. Hopefully they'll see this video, but I have a challenge for them at the end. Anyway, let's get into it.

Right, so we've had a few comments, not that many, but a few people are saying that, is our English accent the same as Australian accent?

I get this question all the time. How does it differ? And I think a lot of the time they're referring to RP British pronunciation to Australian English. And the interesting thing here, before we get into this video a little further, is that British English, if that's an English, has so much more diversity in terms of accents and dialects.

Obviously, because it has been evolving over a lot more time in that one area. Australia sort of just has this general versus broad pronunciation today that's more associated with rural versus city as opposed to in Great Britain, in Ireland, Wales, Scotland, where it's a much more regional.

So, we thought we'd do video just to clear up the differences because they are quite similar, but also, they are very different. So, here are four differences that we've noticed from the Australian accent to the English accent. And this video is just an overview of these, it's not going into major detail. Please let us know if you would like that video in the comments below.

So, the first difference of an Australian accent to an English one is something called alveolar flapping, which sounds rude. Flap. Flapping. Flap of the tongue.

They say that it sounds rude because flap is a sort of vulgar term that can be used at times to refer to a woman's, you can work the rest out, or at least either side of a woman's, you can work the rest out. That's what he is referring to there. Anyway, let's keep going.

So, it's more of a similarity to American English than it is to British English because Australians tend to flap their T's and their D's. So, in words like "water" they'd say, "wa-der:". Instead of "butter", they'd say "bu-dder".

He's nailed this, he's absolutely nailed this. We do this much more frequently than we would ever say those T sounds clearly as a T, as a proper /T/ sound. So, if I was really articulating the word and enunciating because maybe someone didn't hear me and they were saying, what was he saying? I couldn't hear him. I'd say a water, a water, in the water, right? So, or butter, I need butter.

But generally I would never pronounce it that way. I would say wa-der: and bu-dder. The interesting thing here with those two words is that they both end with "er", and so in Australian pronunciation, you will pronounce this as the vowel sound /ɐ/, like in the word cup or stuck or duck.

It's the /ɐ/ short /ɐ/ sound at the end of the word. However, it's not always the case. It will be the schwa if it is within a phrase, right. If there is a sound that comes after that word. So, if I said, I need to see the water, because water is at the end of the phrase, I'd say "water" with the /ɐ/ vowel sound. If water was in the middle of the phrase, the water looks deep, the water looks deep, I would use the schwa. Interesting.

Received pronunciation, which I assume these guys have a variation of. They're probably not both from the exact same area in, I think it is the southeast of Britain where you find received pronunciation around London.

But generally with those word endings instead of /ɐ/, they would just use the schwa sound, so you'll hear "wa-tər and bu-ttər". I've butchered the British accent, so feel free to react to that, guys. Feel free to take me to task with my British pronunciation as well.

Butter, water, ladder... Anything with a D... Double D, double T. Basically. But they still have the non-rhoticity that we have. So, they don't say "wa-der:", American's say "wa-derrr".

So, what he's talking about there when he says non-rhoticity, Australian pronunciation is non-rhotic like recieved pronunciation in Britain, where we only pronounce the R sound as a /r/ sound if there is a vowel sound after the R. That can be that the R is at the front of a word or within a word where there's a vowel after it. Or it can be at the end of a word where there is a vowel in the next word.

So, a good example would be, I would say, I can see the "wa-der:" and I'm not saying the R at the end of the word "water". But if "water" is now in a sentence and say there is a vowel after it in the next word, "the water is deep."

I do say the R. "The water is, the water is". I use that R to link those two vowel sounds. That's what happens in Australian English and in received pronunciation in American English they will always say the R because it is rhotic.

They don't say "wa-der:", they say "wa-ter". Water.

Americans would say "wa-derrr", too. They wouldn't say "wa-ter" or "wa-der:", say "wa-derrr".

So, they're not emphasising the R on the end of words. But how would we say it? "Wa-ter". Water. Water. "Bu-tter". Butter. Butter. Water.

That's a big thing for noticing the difference between received pronunciation and Australian English. You'll hear the T and the D pronounced in these words where when there's a vowel on either side in Australian English, it'll be a T-flap. Water, butter, ladder, later. Whereas for them it would be water, butter, ladder and later.

And it would only be in slang English that we might say water.

That's something interesting, too. So, she's talking about, I guess, slang English in Great Britain, where they would use the glottal stop there to say the T instead of the T-flap or just saying the T and the D as normal. So, she said, water. And she's stopping it in her throat.

So, the glottal stop is done by using the vocal cords in the throat to close the air and stop the air for a moment in the place of a T or a D. So, they might say- I think it would just be a T, actually. I don't think they would do it for D's, but they would say, water, water. Stopping it in the throat as opposed to water or water.

Yeah. Butter, water.

Butter.

But then that's even slightly different because that one with London where they say butter, that's a glottal stop. So, they're saying, "butt-uh". Butter. Which is different to the flap of the tongue where you say butter. Butter. It is different, isn't it? It's very different.

Something interesting to mention here quickly, too, is Australian English has the glottal stop. We would actually use it, and it's typically used when there is a T and then another consonant. So, a good example of this is the word "Batman". I would actually stop the T in my throat using a glottal stop instead of stopping it in my mouth, instead of muting it in my mouth. So, I would say Bat-man, Batman.

Another word might be butler, butler, I'm stopping it in my throat. I'm not going butler, butler, I'm saying butler, butler, batman. Glottal-T. So, we do use it. It's just not used the same way and in the same place as with received pronunciation from Great Britain.

Worth listening out for that flap. Yeah. What's the complex word? Alveolar. Doesn't that...

I think that refers to the part of the mouth that the tongue is flapping across. It's like up there, so if I were to try and describe that, water, water. It's hitting the same place that you would place the tongue to say the T or the D sound, right, that ridge behind the teeth that sort of curves up like that.

And then you've got the roof of the mouth, the tongue kind of flicks across that and just touches it briefly for an instant as opposed to completely stopping the air flow. Water, water. So, it flicks across that part. I think that's it.

...If you want the long word it's intervocalic alveolar flap.

Sounds like this guy knows his linguistics.

So, that's what you'll probably get if you're listening to an audio book about language. Yeah, which what does that mean to you? You don't need to know that. Means nothing. Just call it a flap. It's fine. Let's just all remember our flaps. Yeah...

She's making reference to something else there. Cheeky, Lia.

...We've talked a little bit about rhoticity, but mainly flap. So, linking on from the flap, which is number one, we're going to talk a little bit about rhoticity, which is number two. So, as we mentioned, Australians don't have the rhotic R, which means that at the end of words that end in "er", they'll just drop it.

It's not just "er", it's any word that ends with typically an R sound. So, it can be "er, ar, or, ir". It can even be "re". It can be- Trying to think of the other examples. There are quite a few different ways, in fact, future Pete when editing this, put them up on the side here.

And I've actually done a video on one simple tip to sound Australian where I talk about this. But yeah, so polar, centre or centre, water. What's another one? Jaguar. Any word where there's an R at the end or there should be an R sound if it was rhotic, like American English, we don't say it unless there's a vowel afterwards.

...And leave it open. Like we said with water, teacher, water, teacher, letter. Similar to British, but very different to American. And that is, like you said, it's very similar to British. And that's probably one of the reasons why people get confused between Australian English and British English is because we both sound non-rhotic. So, to the American's here, they're thinking, oh, you're just all part of the same thing.

The interesting thing is I keep hearing- I can hear a much more regional dialect or accent with Lia than I can with Joel. I don't know their background, but I would say, for whatever reason, Joel has a very, very neutral British accent that I think the average person wouldn't be able to place besides saying, yeah, he's from England, he's British.

That's just one feature that we share with Australians. It's not... And as a Brit, do you feel that Australians sound closer to us than Americans? Because I do. Do you? Yeah, I think so. In my head, you've got British English speakers here and you've got American English speakers here, and Australians are in the middle.

...In the middle. No way. I reckon we're way closer to the Brits. Australian English came from British English, right. We were colonised by the Brits and there was an influx of cockney people, as well as other people from other areas around Great Britain and Scotland, and the next generation or two ended up developing their own pronunciation. And so, Australian English literally comes from Great Britain.

It has nothing to do with American English, that was sort of a separate branch. The other thing for me is the biggest thing that you'll notice with American English is just that rhotic R constantly at the ends of vowels. They will always say that R in words like bird and heard.

It's just this- It's this sound. It's this quality to the melody of American English that you will always notice. It's almost like they have something stuck in their mouth over their tongue because their tongue is constantly up like this, saying those R sounds. You know, like, "I went to the street the other day and I saw my friends drinking some water." You just get used to hearing those R's all the time.

But yeah, I'd say we're way closer to the Brits.

I think we share similar features...

Sorry, Americans for my horrible American accent.

Shame. Shame.

Shame. Shame.

Because the flapping is very- It's a very American feature. Yet the non-rhoticity is a very British feature, so I feel like they are in the middle. Yeah.

It's a fair call based on those two sounds in terms of there being one that's British, one that's American using the flat T or D that is very common with American English, comparing it to the non-rhoticity that is very common in RP. But I would say the vowel sounds in Australian English are much closer to the British vowel sounds in RP than they are to American vowel sounds, especially the diphthongs.

Right. And there's so many Australians in London as well. Yeah. ...It becomes so much- You just hear it all the time. We haven't actually given them an example of what it sounds like. Maybe we need to talk a bit...

Oh, here we go. Now we get to dissect some Aussie, potential Aussie accents.

So, what would you say, people? Aussie spies, right, there putting it on. So, this would be interesting. I wonder- Who do you reckon, guys? Who do you reckon is going to do better? Do you reckon Lia will smash this more than Joel or do you think Joel is going to smash it? Leave a comment below and let me know. And then- Well, let's find out.

...In Australian... In Australian. Joel watches a lot of Neighbours, so. I love Neighbours and I watch it all the time and- Well, I don't watch it so much anymore because I ran out of time, because it just it's 20 minutes a day and that's like so hard to keep up with. But if you think about it secretly, Joel, we have been watching one hour a day of Love Island. Love Island...

Man, Joel's just crushed it. I- If I had only heard that phrase from him talking about Neighbours, I would have thought he was Australian. Lia, on the other hand, is- It sounds to me very similar to how she sounded normally, but there were a few vowel sounds that she had changed that sounded closer to Australian English.

But they're kind of still, they sounded a little over the top slightly. But let's just have another listen again to Joel. That was intense.

Yeah, that's probably about right. And there's so many Australians in London as well, but it becomes so much- You just hear it all the time.

We haven't actually given them an example of what it sounds like. Maybe we need to talk a bit in an Australian... In Australian. Joel watches a lot of Neighbours, so. I love...

See, she's still saying, "a lot", so I'm not sure if she's going into the Australian accent because she's using the glottal stop there where I would use a T-flap. "A lot, a lot". She said, "a lot". But have a listen to Joel.

...Neighbours and I watch it all the time and...

He nailed the "I" in "time".

Well, I don't watch it so much anymore because I ran out of time, because it just it's 20 minutes a day.

He nailed "day" and it's these diphthongs, I think, that are really sticking out that are like, boom Australian.

And that's like, so hard to keep up with...

He nasalised the "I" in "like". So, it was almost like a "like, like" instead of like. So, again, that's something very common with Australian English, they're going to nasalise a lot of these vowels. And that's that spectrum between general Australian English, where it's not as nasalised.

There can be a little bit to the broader Australian English where you're going to hear a lot more nasalisation in the way that they speak. It's almost like the level of the voice is moved up into the nose a little bit, so you're going to hear this a lot more in the nose than you're going to hear in the mouth like this. But have another listen.

...Because I ran out of time, because it just it's 20 minutes a day and that's like so hard to keep up with. But if you think about it secretly, Joel, we have been watching one hour a day of...

She said "day" there, but it sounded still a bit like RP, like British "a day, a day, a day" instead of "a day, a day".

...We have been watching one hour a day of Love Island. Love...

Love Island. Yeah, not bad. Not bad. Not bad, Lia.

...Island. Love Island is taking over our life. Like seriously...

She did well there, she did very well there. "Is taking over our life". And again, it's weird. It's like that diphthong "I" becomes more nasalised when it gets stressed. "It's taking over our life".

So, let's move on. So, that's just a little snippet of us trying out Australian...

It's not bad, not bad. I think Joel has definitely honed his skills in here. He has dialed in that pronunciation and Jesus, very impressive, man. I can't imagine being able to nail another accent like that.

...We're not experts. But this is just because there's so many Australians in London, we hear it quite a lot. Definitely. And you do, like every accent, you get extremes and non-extremes. You'll find some Australians have a very subtle accent, whereas others will be really harsh.

So, obviously this Australian accent we're doing can't represent the whole of the country. Our friend Trent from Trent and Luke lives over here in London, and I can't even hear it. No, just occasionally you'll hear an elongated vowel, and you'll go... Oh. ...He's Australian.

I'm trying to think of which vowels they'd be talking about. So, there are obviously short vowels and long vowels.

But I don't know RP vowels well enough to be able to tell you which ones he's referring to. It's our third point. The elongated vowel. Yeah, I guess we'll find out. Maybe if you just shut up, people watch the video you would know.

Obviously, like Joel said, it can be a little bit stereotypical to assume that every Australian says their words quiet.

Oh, quite extended. Something interesting that she just did right then. And I don't know if it was just mispronunciation or if it was how she pronounces the word "says". I would always say "says" using an /e/ vowel sound instead of "a" as you would say in "say". "I say, he says". So, it becomes that short /e/ vowel sound. But there are dialects in Britain where they will say, "says, he says".

I don't know which ones they are, but I've heard this a few times, and that is a very interesting thing that again gives away straight away, oh, they're from Britain. They're from a certain area in Britain that I'm even sure Brits would hear and be like, I know where you're from. So, that's something really interesting. Have another listen.

Australian says their words quite extended with the vowel sounds. And that's done by widening the mouth. But see, they don't talk like that.

Something Joel's just done there, though, is sort of start to sound a bit like a New Zealander with his E's. So, he's kind of made it a little more like, I don't know, there's something a little more- I felt New Zealander as soon as I heard that. Let's have another listen.

...Every Australian says their words quite extended with the vowels...

Yeah, that "yes" instead of "yes". So, maybe it's the /e/, he's using an /ɪ/ instead of an /e/ in the place of /e/, right. So, instead of "yes", he's saying, "yes". That's something that New Zealanders will do all the time. It is why we will hear them say sex when they're trying to say six and we will hear them say six when they're trying to say sex, they do this crazy reverse of the vowels. And they'll say seven instead of seven.

And that's done by widening the mouth. But see, they don't...

He did it again, for "see", it was a bit- "See". It was a bit strange.

...With the vowel sounds. And that's done by widening the mouth, but see, they don't talk like that. They're not slow and... No.

Some of us are. Some of us are. Speak for yourself.

They don't elongate it like that much, but they just- They extend it more than we would in our accent. Say you wanna say, "my life story". An Australian might say, "my life story".

She went a little over the top with "[st]or[y]" I think there though, it became a bit of a diphthong, so it sort of changed its quality. Whereas for us, it's just a long vowel like, "story, story. My life story, my life story, my life story."

They extend it more than we would in our accent. Say we wanna say, "my life story". An Australian might say, my life story."

Yeah, she's overdoing it. I think she's making it more like a diphthong.

So... I think already that sounds a bit extended. It does, doesn't it. "My life story. My life story." And when you do...

It's so funny, though, too. It feels like it shifted way to the broad accents when they do that, not just the neutral one, which I think is probably the more difficult accent to nail. Because all the stuff that you see from people in movies and a lot of these stereotypes, they always have the broadest accents, right.

There's that video with the guy being interviewed on the news, talking about being in his jocks and he's like, really got a broad accent, we using "mate" and everything like that with this nasal stuff. And everyone seems to love it.

And he goes, don't be a hero, mate. And I said, I'm not trying to be a hero, but the police are coming.

But I think, interestingly enough, I reckon the general accent is harder to nail.

...Say your vowels so extended the words become...

"Extended, extended". We wouldn't say "extended". Think that's RP leaking in there again, too. "Extended", we would say "extended".

...Clearer and they land on people. Yeah. Australians are great public speakers, I think. The words really land... Yeah. ...On people. I love it. I read an article recently...

It's so interesting hearing this from, I think these guys, Joel and Lia, are both actors or actresses. So, they have learnt about pronunciation from a completely different space than I have, where I've learnt about Australian pronunciation from books and courses and learning the IPA and trying to really break down how I say things and learn about the symbols and the variations.

It's really interesting when you learn or you hear about how actors and actresses learn to do different accents, because I don't think they bother with any of the kind of jargon, linguistics, IPA side of things, and it's much more done on experiential feel of things, right. It's much more, you know, where would you place this in your mouth? And how does it feel? And two ways of achieving the same thing, very interesting.

...It was saying that Australian accents grate on them. I don't think it does at all. I think it's a really nice, soothing accent. And like you said, I think I automatically listen more when it's an Australian speaking because...

Some really interesting stuff, especially for Australians, is when we watch American TV shows and there's one actor or actress that's Australian. Lost was the perfect example of this where the young blonde girl was Australian.

Did you ever sleepwalk before? No. I don't think so. How would I know?

And it's such a trope when you hear the Australian accent as an Australian amongst Americans, you see and hear all the Americans and your kind of like, okay, that's the norm, that's what's normal. And you hear the Australian and you're like, oh, Jesus, like, oh my god. Oh, this person sounds like a yobbo like, ugh uh, the accent is so strong. So, it's really funny that we have that experience.

I mean, Australians watching this let me know in the comments below. Have you had that experience where when you're watching a TV show or a movie, you see an Australian come in when everyone else is British or American and you're like, uh, this is just standing out like a sore thumb?

Yeah, they do- They land it more. And yeah... Exactly. ...I like it. As well as elongating the vowel sounds Australians tend to have quite a sing-songy rhythm to the way they speak. Yeah. And they tend to end on a rising intonation. So, I think it's called...

Upspeak...

...I can't remember, it's from my linguistic days at university. Something like Australian rising intonation. I think it's called ARI; I might be getting it wrong. Anyway, Australians tend to have constant rising intonation, even when they're not asking questions...

That was New Zealander "questions, sort of questions, questions, questions".

...Though like they'll always talk like this when they're not even asking questions, and like that is very overdone stereotype. Yeah. But that's the sort of thing they'll do.

It's annoying, even for us. If you hear someone doing that all the fricking time, you're just like, oh my God. And it's usually done really badly when people are listing things. So, if someone told you about their day where they had been and they said, "so, I went to the beach and then I went and saw my friends and then I got something to eat."

And then they'll go up, up, up... And then the last thing, they'll come down. So, it would be like, "and then I got something to eat and then I went home". And it is- It gets really annoying even for Australians hearing this all the time. But yes, we do kind of do this subconsciously more than other English dialects.

I was at a succulent garden the other day; it was probably the best day of my life. Some of these plants incredible, you know what I mean? Some of these plants...

And that is perhaps what the article you read was referring to when it said that the accent grates on them a little bit. Yeah. And... Cos, we tend to end on a minor note.

I've noticed this though, too, in American TV shows, especially with teenage girls. Not that I watch a (BEEP) load of American TV shows with lots of teenage girls.

Liar.

But those movies that come out like Clueless and- I can't even name them. I watched them years ago. But the girls tend to do it there as well. And I wonder, too, if there's a gender difference in Australia where that up-talk or that question intonation is much more associated with women than it is with men. Because it's interesting how those differences can arise.

I don't think we ... Always ... Go down. Oh my God. Then they go, oh my God. Yeah, oh my God. Like, it goes up and it's quite sing-songy. Yeah, it's quite up and down, like Welsh.

I don't know, I didn't notice. Is it sing-songy for you guys? I've never really noticed any sing-songyness in Australian English, to be honest.

...They go up and down when they're talking like this, and they're really colourful with what they're saying. Just sort of draw a graph of where the vocal tones are going. Yeah. Yeah! ...And down. Yeah. And one of the final things...

Now, I'm gonna have to go away and like record myself speaking or watch one of these videos again and be like, how am I talking, you know? Take some notes.

...To note is the abbreviations that they use are different to the abbreviations that we use in British English.

Now, this is my favourite thing that...

I think what he's talking about here is shortened words, so slang words.

...I actually was not aware of until we were just planning this video five minutes ago. I can't believe you haven't heard it, but that's probably because I watch Australian soaps and stuff. Yes.

He's talking about soap opera TV shows like dramas.

But so instead of saying this afternoon, they'd- They might say that, but they'll also say this arvo. So, they abbreviate "this afternoon" to "this arvo". A-R-V-O. Sounds so posh, can just imagine a Brit saying, "this arvo".

Really? I would never, ever, ever associate those kinds of slang words, and their usages with- I mean, usage with poshness. That is not something I can imagine ever associating with it, because most posh people in Australia wouldn't use those kinds of slang terms.

Yeah, it's what's such a rather like, Sloane Square posh people... Exactly. It's so funny. Yeah. But they'd be like, "what are you doing this arvo?" And then also, I've not heard this one, but I saw it online, "bizzo" instead of "business".

I wouldn't use this, but I've heard of it. I've heard of it. Arvo on the other hand, everyone uses, every single Australian. Don't make a liar out of me, guys.

"It's none of your bizzo." I have never heard anyone in Neighbours use the word "bizzo" for business.

Bizzo.

Independent bizzo woman. (inaudible) So, Trent, if you're watching this, can you let us know whether you actually say "bizzo"? I'm going to ask our Australian friends how true that is, and...

I would know instantly what you meant if you said, "it's none of your bizzo". But I would never say that. It sounds a bit, uh, I don't know. I would just say business.

...It's like, oh yeah, only lame people would say that.

Not lame, it's just not common.

But also, you know this one. It's not a "barbecue", they'd say, "barbie". Oh yeah. Shrimp on the barbie, that's the classic. The classic Australian stereotype. Where they say "barbie" instead of "barbecue".

There are loads of these that almost are just words. They're not- We don't even see them as slang. We just know them as words, right. So, things like barbie, sunnies, boardies, wettie, all these things that are kind of items where we just become so used to using that one word, it doesn't feel like we're actually using slang, it's just what it's called.

Barbie. I can't say that without thinking of Barbie dolls...

Yes, that sounds like American... All right, guys. And I have a little challenge for Joel and Lia if they ever watch this. I would love to see their best impersonation of the following phrase. "I swung by the servo this arvo to grab some prawns to chuck on the barbie." Okay. So, that's my little challenge, guys. If you want to learn more Australian English, check this video out and I'll see you next time. Bye.