Australian English
Like all forms of English, Australian English has its own character. Non-native speakers of English who are unaccustomed to Australian English may take a while to become attuned to the way in which Australians speak.
With regard to tone, Australian speech is quite nasal, with flattened vowels. It is not as articulated as many other forms of English.
Australians use a lot of colloquial terms (slang). We also have a strong tendency to create a peculiarly Australian, diminutive word form during informal speech. This means that words are shortened and then a vowel is added to the end of the word---usually an ‘i’ or an ‘o’. Although the diminutives would rarely be used in a formal written context, when diminutives are written, the ‘i’ is usually written as ‘ie’ or ‘y’.
Some diminutive examples that you may hear include, ‘barbecue’---‘barbie’; ‘breakfast’---‘brekky’; ‘this afternoon’---‘s’arvo’; and 'Chrissy'---'Christmas'.
Examples of slang Australian are ‘to give it a burl’---‘to try something’; ‘to feel crook’---‘to feel sick’; ‘hard yakka’---‘hard work’; and ‘ridgey-didge’ or ‘dinky-di’---‘to be genuine’ (sometimes means to be genuinely Australian).
It might sound confusing, but it won’t take long to become used to it.
You will also notice that we may spell some words differently to other English speaking countries. For example, the Australian spelling of ‘jail’ is ‘gaol’, although it is pronounced the same way. The Macquarie Dictionary is considered the standard reference for Australian language---both spoken and written.
If you have Windows Media Player and would like the opportunity to accustom yourself the Australian way of speaking, there is a series of audio recordings available from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) website on a variety of Australian topics. Transcripts of the audio recordings are also available for download.
A useful list of resources on Australian medical terminology is available from DoctorConnect's Training and education section.
There are also a number of Australian slang glossaries and other sources to be found online. Here are a few that may assist you.
Macquarie Dictionary Book of Slang
Online Aussie English for the Beginner
This resource is on the National Museum of Australia’s website. It provides a fun online quiz and other information that explains some common Australian words and phrases and allows you to hear them spoken. You can also download a PDF document here of a vocabulary of Australian English, which was written by the Australian National Dictionary Centre.
English Bites
This is located on the ABC’s website. English Bites is an informative and entertaining way to improve your knowledge of the English language. Featuring a new story each weekday English Bites provides a detailed review of language, terms and usage. The site provides video of the program (Real Player or Windows Media player formats), as well as transcriptions with vocabulary explanations and a short multiple choice quiz for each story to help you see if you have understood.
Australian Word Map
This is another site produced by the ABC in collaboration with Macquarie Dictionary. It allows you to search for regional Australian words and slang.