LL-L: "Language varieties" LOWLANDS-L, 02.MAY.2000 (05) [E]

[Ian James Parsley]

All,

I would agree with what Ron has said there, having lived in London and with
family in Australia myself.

However, it is beyond dispute that the Australian accent was strongly
influenced by Cockney, or at least southern English. I think the best
example of this is simply that my mum's brother left Belfast for Cape Town
in 1970, and my dad's brother left London for Sydney in 1967. My mum's
brother has generally maintained his NI accent (with the exception of the
<a> in words such as 'rabies', which he pronounces as any Capetonian), and
her sister-in-law has maintained it absolutely, still with no trace of South
African at all. My dad's brother, on the other hand, has an utterly
Australian accent, his sister-in-law has a hybrid.

This is similar to a point I made some time ago that Scots who live in
Northern Ireland for a while will most likely change to the local accent,
because the change is not a great one and the change is so minimal that when
it occurs gradually the speaker him/herself doesn't notice. The same would
appear to apply with London-to-Australia, whereas it certainly does not with
NI-to-South Africa.

Best,
-------------------------------
Ian James Parsley
http://www.gcty.com/parsleyij
0772 0951736
"JOY - Jesus, Others, You"