Is the Cultural Cringe Alive and Kicking? Adolescent Mythscapes of Australian English in Queensland and Victoria

Abstract

Although there is a growing literature on grammatical, lexical and phonological aspects of Australian English, there are comparatively few studies of attitudes towards this variety of English. What literature there is tends to be either anecdotal or based on media language or on findings from experimental, subjective reaction tests where samples of speech are matched against those produced by speakers of other varieties of English. This study aims to add to existing research through an examination of responses of Australian adolescents to the following question: 'When you think about ''Australian English'', tell me the first three things that come into your mind'. The findings fall into three broad overlapping categories: (i) comments about language features; (ii) comments about attitudes towards those features; and (iii) comments about culture. All three categories contain responses which suggest that young Australians associate Australian English with rural and informal lifestyles. Those who provide attitudinal judgments either describe the variety in neutral terms or give it evaluations typical of those reported for broad and vernacular varieties of English. Of particular interest is the frequency with which categories overlap and intersect, and the mythscapes they construct of Australian language and identity.

What their friends say about the way they talk: the metalanguage of pre-adolescent and adolescent Australians

“…(Years 7/8) In examples 33 and 35 (and also example 13), it is likely that the friend making the comment is conflating a more educated Australian accent with a stereotypical upper-class British accent. The regularity with which our comments draw a connection between sounding British and educated/sophisticated language use suggests that this is a widely held stereotype for Australians and that the strong perception that Australian English is broad and non-standard (see Willoughby et al, 2013) may mean that more cultivated varieties and formal speech that does not fit this stereotype are frequently misidentified as British or simply as foreign.…”

“…Section 2 comprised six questions about the students' own and others' language ideologies. Two of these questions (Questions 1 and 2) focused on ideologies relating to the participants' own speech while others focused on immigrant language and ideologies relating to the Australian linguistic landscape (see Willoughby, Starks, & Taylor-Leech, 2013). Each of these questions asked for a closed-answer response which could be followed by further commentary.…”

Young people's perspectives on the mobility of Australian English accents

“…The ‘here and now’ questions in the second section of the questionnaire asked the students to consider what people said about the ways they spoke, whether they thought immigrants should be required to ‘speak like Australians’ and the first three things that came to mind when they thought about Australian English – all issues that we have written about elsewhere (Willoughby et al. , , Starks & Willoughby ). The particular item that serves as the focus of this paper was: ‘If you moved to another country, how important would it be for you to keep your Australian accent?’ Participants were asked to circle one of three choices: …”

“…While some Australians regard AusE as a source of pride, for others it is a source of embarrassment (Bradley & Bradley ; Leitner ; Ozolins ; Willoughby et al. ); thus, AusE is indexed by some to the centre and by others to the periphery.…”

“…Accent judgements made by Australians often show complexity and contradictions when taken en masse. While some Australians regard AusE as a source of pride, 1 for others it is a source of embarrassment 2 (Bradley & Bradley 2001;Leitner 2004b;Ozolins 1993;Willoughby et al 2013); thus, AusE is indexed by some to the centre and by others to the periphery.…”