Australian English - Influences

Influences

The first of the Australian gold rushes, in the 1850s, began a large wave of immigration, with approximately two per cent of the population of the United Kingdom emigrating to the colonies of New South Wales and Victoria. According to linguist Bruce Moore, "the major input of the various sounds that went into constructing the Australian accent was from south-east England."

Some elements of Aboriginal languages have been adopted by Australian English—mainly as names for places, flora and fauna (for example dingo) and local culture. Many such are localised, and do not form part of general Australian use, while others, such as kangaroo, boomerang, budgerigar, wallaby and so on have become international. Other examples are cooee and hard yakka. The former is used as a high-pitched call, for attracting attention, (pronounced /kʉː.iː/) which travels long distances. Cooee is also a notional distance: if he's within cooee, we'll spot him. Hard yakka means hard work and is derived from yakka, from the Jagera/Yagara language once spoken in the Brisbane region.

Also from there is the word bung, from the Sydney pidgin English (and ultimately from the Sydney Aboriginal language), meaning "dead", with some extension to "broken" or "useless". Many towns or suburbs of Australia have also been influenced or named after Aboriginal words. The most well known example is the capital, Canberra named after a local language word meaning "meeting place".

Among the changes starting in the 19th-century gold rushes was the introduction of words, spellings, terms and usages from North American English. The words imported included some later considered to be typically Australian, such as bonzer. This continued with the influx of American military personnel in World War II as well as film; seen in the enduring persistence of okay, you guys and gee. The American influence through film has led to the localised adoption of terms such as bronco for the native brumby meaning wild horse, and cowboy for the native drover and stockman for a cattle or sheep herder, though such words are still overtly felt to be "Americanisms".

Where British and American vocabulary differs, Australians sometimes favour an Australian usage, as with footpath (for US sidewalk, UK pavement) or capsicum (for US bell pepper, UK sweet pepper). In other instances, it either shares a term with American English, as with truck (UK: lorry) or eggplant (UK: aubergine), or sometimes with British English, as with mobile phone (US: cell phone) or bonnet (US: hood).