Week 1

Lesson 1

Holiday Homework

Task 1

Now read (or you can listen to the podcast if you like) Irene Poinkin’s review of Bruce Moore’s “Speaking our Language: The Story of Australian English” at http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/linguafranca/speaking-our-language-the-story-of-australian/3181234#transcript

1. Where does Bruce Moore believe the Australian accent originated?

2. How does Moore account for the rise of a prescriptive approach to the Australian pronunciation? Reference received pronunciation and the development of a cultivated variety in your answer.

3. How does Moore explain the rise of a broad variety after the nineteenth century? What differing values did broad and cultivated express?

4. Explain the differences in pronunciation, citing one example to support.

5. How does Moore refute the idea of the Americanisation of Australian English?

Task 2

Create your own table (like that below) noting the features of Australian English using the reading and questions from pg 152-162.

The Prezi is a useful resource.

Features of Australian English

Grammatical Features of Australian EnglishMorphological Features the use of diminutives - words shortened to one syllable with an additional suffix added on e.g. breakfast becomes brekky believed to reflect Australian cultural values e.g. mateship, informality, egalitarianism More Australian pronoun use Objective

Task 3

Read the article “Pardon My F*?#$! French’ from The Age on 23/7/12, at http://www.smh.com.au/national/pardon-my-f-french-20120724-22n9l.html and consider the following:

Why does Green begin his article with the story about Linfox employee Craig Symes?
How is it possible that there can be “mixed messages given to employees about swearing” in the workplace? Does your experience in workplaces confirm or refute this?
How is context central to the debate about this particular issue?
Explain the research done by New Zealand’s Victoria University, and how it could be used to support ideas about how slang can be an important marker of group identity and membership.
What are some of the characteristics noted as typical of Australian speech by Linguists Burridge and Allan?
What is meant by “there is clearly something deeply primal about the way we swear and how it makes us feel?” Do you agree with this statement?
What are some of the signs of a “significant liberalisation’ occurring in our society? Use specific examples, and add two that are not included in this article.
What is your opinion on the “classic chicken and egg argument?” Justify your response.
Why are there still some words that are shocking, or maintain their taboo status, like c**t?
How is swearing linked to common perceptions about gender, according to Rosewarne?
What does Allan think about the changing nature of taboo? Does this reflect your own experience?

Definitions to know in this section of the course

Register: the degree of formality in a discourse. Register is language defined by use, that is, language that is appropriate in a specific situation, occupation or subject matter.

Varieties: A sub-set (a part of a larger whole) of a language that is common to groups of people sharing regional origins or social characteristics (sociolects). Variation is a natural part of language.

Dialect: is a variety of a language spoken by a group of people that is systematically different from other varieties in both structure and lexical features. All speakers of a language speak a dialect of the language.

Vernacular: Everyday language specific to a social group or region.

Ethnolect: a language variety that identifies speakers by their ethnicity.

Idiolect: the particular way an individual person speaks. It incorporates all aspects of language such as lexicon, accent, semantics, syntax and grammar.

Sociolect: a variety of language used by people of a particular socioeconomic or educational background. Often referred to as 'high[er] sociolect' or 'low[er] sociolect'.

Code switching: using more than one language, dialect or variety during a conversation.

Borrowing: words from one language are incorporated into another. Sometimes referred to as 'loan words'.

Speech communities: are groups of speakers who share linguistic norms. They involve speakers who share a common region, race, or ethnicity.

Regional variation

Regional variation relates to speech characteristics that are common to people from different localities. They can serve as markers of regional identity.

In Australia there is not a lot of regionally-based accent variation compared with most other world Englishes, however, there are lots of vocabulary differences.

2) Click on the following link and make note of a region based phrase or expression from each state and territory in Aus: https://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/resources/word/map/

Australian Linguistics Roadshow: words that divide the nationA potato scallop by any other name would taste as delicious. Or would it?

3. Make a list of the categories that participants were surveyed on and write down 2 different words within each category.

Eg. Fried potato = potato cake in Vic, potato scallop in NSW

Police On NSW_VIC Border Quiz Motorists... Fried Potatoes — The Betoota Advocate.pdf

The Betoota Advocate is an Australian satirical news website and digital media company that publishes articles on international, national, and local news. The site puts a comedic spin on current news topics and broader social observations.

Question:

What does the Batoota Advocate suggest about the way people feel about their own language varieties?

Lesson 2

3. Visit the two sites below and listen to the sample accents from different regions of Australia.

What differences do you note? What types of sounds is variation in accent most notable?

What does the overall similarity in accent suggest about regional variation in Australia?

Are Melburnians mangling the language?If you take a tram to work, you know what a hook turn is and you think AFL Grand Final day is better than Christmas, chances are you're from 'Malbourne'.

What variation does Dr Loake claim is appearing and in which speech communities?
What influence does she hint as a possible future influence on the Australian accent?

Listen to the sampe words and subtle differences in accent.

Create a short list of the differences you can hear, noting their location and describing the difference.

Regional accentsIn Australia there is not a lot of regionally-based accent variation compared with most other world Englishes, however, there are lots of vocabulary differences.

4. Read the two articles below.

Why doesn’t modern Australia have diverse regional accents?University of Melbourne experts discuss why the Australian-English accent doesn't have huge the regional variations other countries around the world do.

1) What does this article suggest about the way language is varied in Australia?

2) “When you listen to an Australian it’s much harder to identify what their regional origin might be, but we’re very good at picking out what we assume to be the social characteristics of a speaker.” - What does this suggest about the way Australians think about language?

Why hasn't Australia developed more diverse regional accents? Researchers are asking why there isn't more regional variation of the English-Australian accent, but in their quest they've also found an increasing multi-cultural influence.

What seems to be the main reason for Australia's seemingly uniform accent?
What values or judgements does the article suggest is attached to accent variation in Australian society?
What 'influences' does the article note on how and why accents may be adopted or avoided?

Why does the UK have more accents than Australia?If you think of your favourite British TV shows, one thing that stands out is the great variation in the way the actors sound. So why aren't Australians the same?

1) What does homogenous mean?

2) How did the Gold Rush influence language in Australia?

3) What influence 'might ' alcohol have had on Australian accents?

4) Explain the term 'accomodation' when it comes to linguistics and give an example of this.

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