Australian voices

Language

Australian English

Australian English is the standard language spoken in Australia. It is the language used by people who are born and raised in this country and also by those who immigrate during childhood or early adolescence. In addition to English, over 300 languages are spoken in Australia and more than 60,000 people speak an Australian indigenous language (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2016).

Among native-born Australians, at least three categories of English exist: Standard Australian English, varieties of Aboriginal English, and various ethnocultural Australian English dialects. Australian English functions as a significant and extremely powerful symbol of national identity. It is one of the well-known World Englishes and is a mature dialect with its own internal norms and standards. All Australian English dialect types significantly reflect Australian identity but, in addition, reveal the cultural affiliation of the speaker, whether Australian, Lebanese, Greek, Indigenous, Vietnamese or the myriad of other cultural choices available to Australians in the 21st century. The label ‘Australian English’ should be considered a term that embraces all of these various dialectal types. Such a modification to the traditional concept of Australian English will help capture the linguistic landscape of the changing Australian culture.

Prominent Australian author, Tim Winton, in his 2009 Miles Franklin Award acceptance speech, acknowledged the important cultural value of embracing Australian stories and telling them with our own accent. "The cultural cringe died a long slow death while I was a kid. I was a beneficiary of a new optimism and confidence in Australia ... Australian writers began to be honoured at home and to be treated as equals abroad. I feel incredibly lucky to have come of age in a country that honours its own stories and accents." Listen to his speech here.