What's up with Australian vowels?

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qldtravelguru

dont think it is quite nay-eye maybe no-oh

actually more than vowels our converstations tend to end each statement/ sentace with an in crease in pitch and slightly gutteral sounding vowels.

being an aussie i find it hard to understand where you are coming from but check out the pitch increase next time you hear one of us speak... naturally we dont even know we are doing it.

Elizabeth

Australian vowels, they're fine thanks.
We still have 5, same as everyone else.
I don't know who you've been listening to, I've never heard Aussies pronounce "no" that way.
And, for goodness sake, please don't say we sound like the Poms.

Suzieq

i always get confused when I hear americans say "aaron"

It always sounds like erin to me??/

cheeky_beth_62

Really? Wow!! I don't know why you say that - maybe your ears need to be cleaned out!

At least we don't growl like angry dogs when we articulate the letter 'R"!!

See ya buddy!

homer28b

Every person on this planet has an accent that sounds funny to someone else. Where are you from?

waddamulli

nothing is up with australian vowels they are not vowels

they are slang words - we all use them and people from around the world like the way we aussies speak

cause its different and unusual - but hey funny too

alright bud................. cheers

cookies and cream

whats up with american vowels...(if ur american)

Â§illyneÂ§Â§

The only thing I can think of that would sound like "nay-eye-oh" would be "anyhow"

(pronounced "enn-eee-ow")

aviatenavigatecommunicate

I'm Australian and I've never heard any other Australian pronounce 'no', a single-syllable word, with three syllables.
Our accent is most similar to the New Zealand accent and the South East British accent, yet definietly not identical to either of those.

While Australian accents are known abroad to have long vowel sounds (for example when we say 'strewth') you will find that these pronunciations were ingrained in foreign culture - particularly American perceptions of Australia - with movies like Crocodile Dundee with actor Paul Hogan. May I just say that while there are some in the general population who sound somewhat like him; the vast majority do not.

The character in that movie was created when the Australian cultural identity was becomming increasingly more popular in American pop culture, and unfortunately, dear old Mick Dundee inadvertently cemented the idea that all Australian men were akubra-wearing, knife weilding, oversized-reptile-slaying bushmen. Slap that in with a bit of cheesey-sounding local slang and you further that stereotype.

Let me say that this is not at all the accent.

Another feature of the Australian accent is that it doesn't have regional variations. In Australia, someone from Perth has the same accent as someone from Sydney, and someone from Brisbane has the same accent as someone from Melbourne. This is not the case in England or the USA where a Londonner sounds different from a Novocastrian or a New Yorker sounds remarkably different from a Texan

However that does not mean to say that there aren't different accents in Australia - there are. But they are not regional - they are socio-demographical; and even this is not an adequate way of categorising Australian accents. As a very general; and not very reliable rule of thumb; your cultural background; and to a lesser degree; your economic status create your accent. However, just by listening to someone, you would not be able to say "Oh, right! You're rich and you're poor". To do so would not only be quite rude, but as I said before, the rule is not very reliable.

Linguists generally accept that there are three different types of Australian accents.

Broad Australian Accent - the archetype. People like Paul Hogan and Steve Irwin spoke with this accent. It is most familiar with non-Australian English speakers around the world for its recognisable use in identifying Australian characters in non-Australian television shows and movies.

General Australian Accent - spoken by the majority of Australians. Nicole Kidman and Cate Blanchett speak with this accent

Cultivated Australian Accent - Similar tones to the British received pronunciation. Judy Davis speaks with this accent.

So I hope this clears up some of your confusion about the Australian accent.

We don't pronounce 'no' with three syllables, we pronounce it with one. We would laugh at someone who pronounced it "nay-eye-oh".

You've probably heard some non-Australian do a poor attempt at imitating it for you, or you've listened to a deliberate over-exaggeration of the Broad Accent, which is not that reflective of the the most widely spoken accent in the first place.

Hope this helps

papillion123

Ugh, that's only some. Here in Canberra we don't... that's more Melbourne and SA.

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