Old news: Rethinking language change through Australian broadcast speech

Price, John W H

doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199922765.013.0030

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…The voices heard in the Australian media provide a useful indication of the acceptability and connotations of various accents and speaking styles at different points in our history. For example, Price (2012) gives an overview of the changing language used in twentieth century Australian news broadcasts. She notes that for the first half of the century 'BBC English' was the clear broadcast standard and it was only in the late 1960s that more authentically Australian accents and varieties gained traction in news and current affairs reporting (Price 2012: 342Á344).…”

Section: Studies Of Attitudes To Accent and Varieties Of Australian Ementioning

confidence: 99%

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

Willoughby

Starks

Taylor-Leech

2013

Australian Journal of Linguistics

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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.

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Section: Studies Of Attitudes To Accent and Varieties Of Australian Ementioning

confidence: 99%

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

Willoughby

Starks

Taylor-Leech

2013

Australian Journal of Linguistics

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“…Supporting this view, Sussex (2004, p. 12) describes stereotypical AusE speakers as "laconic, self-deprecating individuals, usually male, rather taciturn but prone to intermittent bursts of humorous, creative language". However, despite the body of work on stereotypes surrounding broad AusE, other research focusing on "general" AusE has found it to have become more acceptable over time (Price 2012), particularly for status and solidarity, and power and competence (Bayard et al 2001;Bradley and Bradley 2001).…”

Section: Folklinguistic Understandings Of Broad and General Australia...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Language Attitudes in Australia: Results from a Nationwide Survey

Diskin-Holdaway,

Escudero

2024

Languages

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Recent research on attitudes to Australian English (AusE) shows that there is a general increase in its acceptance, legitimacy, and endonormativity. However, a certain “cultural cringe” exists, particularly when “broad” AusE is seen as representative of the variety. A significant gap in the literature is how the perceptions and usage of AusE may change as the population becomes more diverse. This paper presents findings of an online survey of language attitudes towards AusE with 661 respondents across Australia, over a third of whom were born overseas. Overall, there is minimal evidence of a standard language ideology, with 80% of respondents reporting having an accent to some degree. Almost half of respondents report occasionally or frequently changing their accents due to context, interlocutor, or making themselves understood. When asked to rate AusE along six traits on a seven-point scale, the traits of educatedness, professionalism, and attractiveness were consistently centered on neutral. For friendliness and likeability, the majority skewed towards neutral and positive. For the trait of clarity, there was a greater range of responses, but overall, 50% of respondents found AusE to be somewhat, moderately, or really clear. These findings further our understanding of attitudes and ideologies in Australia’s increasingly diverse language ecology.

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“…intermittent bursts of humorous, creative language". However, despite the body of work on stereotypes surrounding broad AusE, other research focusing on 'general' AusE has found it to have become more acceptable over time (Price 2012), particularly for status and solidarity, and power and competence (Bayard et al 2001;Bradley & Bradley 2001).…”

mentioning

confidence: 98%

Language attitudes in Australia: Results from a nationwide survey

Diskin-Holdaway,

Escudero

2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Recent research on attitudes to Australian English (AusE) shows that there is a general increase in its acceptance, legitimacy, and endonormativity. However, a certain ‘cultural cringe’ exists, particularly when ‘broad’ AusE is seen as representative of the variety. A significant gap in the literature is how perceptions and usage of AusE may change as the population becomes more diverse. This paper presents findings of an online survey of language attitudes towards AusE with 661 respondents across Australia, over a third of whom were born overseas. Overall, there is minimal evidence of a standard language ideology, with 80% of respondents reporting having an accent to some degree. Almost half of respondents report occasionally or frequently changing their accents, due to context, interlocutor, or to make themselves understood. When asked to rate AusE along six traits on a seven-point scale, the traits of educatedness, professionalism and attractiveness consistently centre on neutral. For friendliness and likeability, the majority skews towards neutral and positive. Equal numbers find AusE either very/somewhat clear, or somewhat/not at all clear, indicating contradictory views as to whether the accent is clear or not. The findings further our understanding of attitudes and ideologies in Australia’s increasingly diverse language ecology.

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Old news: Rethinking language change through Australian broadcast speech

Cited by 4 publications

References 12 publications

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

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

Language Attitudes in Australia: Results from a Nationwide Survey

Language attitudes in Australia: Results from a nationwide survey

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