Accents down under question
 

We just watched the Tom Selleck movie Quigly down under. In it the actors in this movie which was set to be about 1865 to 1875 judging by the fire arms which they took care to portray accuracy of advancement were speaking with a contemporary sounding aussie accent.

I am wondering how quickly the Aussie dialect of English would have developed? Would they just have sounded English, Scottish or Irish at that point?

That's an interesting question. Didn't most of the colonization consist of people directly from Britain? It will be interesting to here what layback has to say about this.

GREAT MOVIE! I remember watching it with my daughter when she was about 10 or so. Tom Selleck makes a great cowboy. Before some of the more recent Westerns, I read that he was one of the few left in Hollywood that really knew how to make a Western.

There is what I think is a GREAT back story to the Quigly Down Under movie. Although I don't even own a horse, I grew up closely tied to my Grand Dad's cattle ranch and sort of grew up on horseback, so I consider myself a bit of a horseman, so this story is one of my favorites:

Upon arriving in Australia for the shooting of the movie, they offered up a number of horses for Selleck, a horseman himself. The wranglers were selecting horses for him based on how well they thought that the horse would react to all the lights and cameras and hustle bustle. Selleck didn't bond with any of them, PLUS, they were all average size horses. With Selleck being something like 6'6" or whatever it is, he looked really funny on these average sized horses.

He finally went through the stables with a couple of the wranglers and picked a horse himself. It was over 16 hands with what Selleck thought to be a good disposition. The other wranglers had not fared well with the horse, so they had not offered it up before. When Selleck rode the horse, they had an instant bond. The horse was always rock steady in the presence of all the pandamonium of filming and very athletic.

After just a few days on the horse, Selleck had bonded with the horse to such an extent that he began asking the wranglers how much it would cost for him to buy the horse. They kept refusing to answer the question and told him that they refused to discuss it until after shooting of the movie was finished. In the process Selleck became close friends with the wranglers and in his free time, hung around with them instead of the film cast and crew.

After shooting was finished, they had a huge party to celebrate. Selleck pinned down the wranglers at dinner and reminded them of their promise to discuss selling him the horse. Their response was "well about that, we have bad news and good news." Selleck was all ears and pressed them for their answer. The spokesman for the group said: "The bad news is that the horse is not for sale." Selleck was beside himself and asked "then what could possibly be the good news?" The wrangler said "The good news is that we are giving him to you."

Giving a horse to another horseman because the two have bonded is probably the greatest complement and gesture of friendship that could ever be offered.

As of about five years ago when I read this story in Western Horseman, probably the only time I ever bought a copy, the horse was still alive and although no longer ridden and out to pasture, was Toms friend and most treasured pride & joy.

I have to admit that I tear up a little bit every time I have the opportunity to relate this story.

That is a good story.

Thanks Larry.

The original question is a good one. I've wondered about it too with applicability to the US as well. Indeed I'd say of any former colony that now has distinctive accents. The same applies to New Zealand and South Africa too. Canada as well no doubt.

- Peter.

Well, the Aussie accent is close enough to that of the British, that there are many people that can't really tell the difference. I worked with an Australian fellow many years ago, and heard several people make comments about his "English" accent. In fact before being around him alot, I couldn't tell the difference myself.

The other question is how accents are formed?

No idea. Here in central CT we have no accent, everyone else does. :D

Looks like an "Australian accent" was recognized as early as 1820. The formation of regional accents/dialects is an interesting study. The U.S. obviously has many of it's own, which developed in rough historical parallel to the Australian dialect.

history & accent change | Australian Voices

That's an intetresting question. When I listen to American TV most of the time I really can't hear anything that sounds different than what I hear around my own area. If I'm watching NASCAR then I hear a southern accent.
I notice than I don't hear much of an accent when talking to someone in CA but I can hear it a bit when talking to someone from MI or OH. Overall though, I'd say a Canadian accent is similar to an American one erxcept for those living on the east coast of Canada. A Newfoundland accent being more British than anything else - perhaps Irish.

Now if we're talking about Swamp People or Honey Boo Boo, you need captions to understand any of it, although I don't find the swampers that difficult to understand. At anyrate, they're far more intellegent than the Boo Boo crowd.

I find the ontario accent noticalbly different though minnesota and wisconsin are sometimes similar, eh?

It all aboot the pronunciation.;)

You hoser.

When I visited England in 70 I had a very difficult time understanding the local people. Words chopped short it seemed like.

I even have trouble understanding British actors.

But I don't have that problem with Aussies. Their accent is more laid back and casual.

Except of course, amongst the Aussies and Brits themselves. Actually The only accents I think are very similar across countries are Aussia and New Zealand, and US and Canada (broadly speaking that is). Of course there are regional differences within countries that completely change the picture.

Watching alot of history I'm often struck by the difference in sound of the commentators in newsreels etc from say the WWII period and how different they sound to todays folk. This is noticable amongst all the british commonwealth sources I see but I'm most struck by the sound of Americans from that peiod. They sound conisderably more "reigned in" I guess would be the term than contemporary American accents.

When I worked in a newspaper back in South Africa my colleagues in the computer department were almost exclusivly Indian. Let's just say it took some time to be able to understand them wihtout asking them to repeat. We had a night editor who was a Scott. His accent was strong at the best of times but he had a fondness for the botlle and as the night wore on it became almost impossible to understand him. So I was often in the ludicrous position of having my Indian colleagues ask me to translate whatevert the hell this guy was saying for them.

When we visited England a couple of years ago we had little difficulty understanding the locals around London and the south of England, but the further north we went my wife in particular (who is American) had increasing difficulty in understanding the inhabbitants.

We didnt cross the border but I'm sure Scotland itself would have been interesting from a linguistic standpoint.

- Peter.

fascinating conversation, and a grand horse story

Yes, it should go without saying that an Aussie would recognize a Brit accent within about two syllables and vice versa.

In reading your post pj, it made me think of something. Probably to most people not from the South or Southwest US, someone from Georgia might sound the same as someone from Texas. Being a Texan, I immediately recognize someone from Georgia as having a distinctly different accent. All my life I've noticed accents in movies with such descrepancies. They will be trying to portray a Texan with a Georgian accent. I expect for people from any part of the country except the South or Southwest, they never know the difference.

I expect that to MANY people, someone from the UK, South Africa or Australia all sound pretty much the same.

Higgins - Why can't the english learn to speak - YouTube

been awhile since I've seen this.