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The questionable Australian accent

March 4th 2011 02:49
: Vyoos news
let stalk strine

VYOOS EDITORIAL
In the news this week was a story which rated the Australian accent the world's fifth sexist. It's a safe bet there were no Aussies on the voting panel. I know no fellow Australians with particular affection for our accent. We call it Strine, which sums up the nasal twang which characterises our speech.


World's fifth-sexiest? Sexiness, it seems, is in the ear of the beholder.

It brought to mind a magazine article I read last week which quoted an Englishman describing the Australian accent as one which turns all statements into questions.

As anyone who has been in the country recently will know, this is now the accepted way of speaking in Australia. You can hear politicians, academics, TV show hosts and every 20-something in the land putting an upward inflexion on just about every sentence. I have no doubt that chief executive officers, civil celebrants, nuns, kangaroos, koalas and dingoes have adopted the habit.

It's a habit I am in a unique position to hate.

My position is that I left Australia 20 years ago, when Aussies did not speak this way, to live overseas. Sometime between then and four years ago when I returned, most spoken Aussie statements became questions. It's a major upheaval in Ocker culture. I'm still dealing with the shock. It's just not my lingo any more.

At least I have always been able to seek consolation in the written form of the language. It has always been my favourite form, perhaps because it is more difficult to corrupt.


Enter David Meagher, Editor of wish magazine, a hugely glossy insert in The Australian newspaper and so cool it doesn't use a capital letter in its name. Or is that retro-cool? Surely the gimmick has been around so long it's cliched.

Anyway, Mr Meagher has on Page 14 of today's issue a column in his name which starts: "There is something about London that seems to allow creativity to flourish. Maybe it's the weather that keeps people indoors with their thinking caps on? Or maybe it's something more ingrained in the city's culture?"

Did you spot the Aussie accent in Meagher's writing? Yes, the question marks on the second and third sentences - sentences which aren't questions.

It's spreading. It's another cane toad.

Stop it. Despite what they say overseas, it's not sexy.


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How much should fans care?

June 19th 2009 04:28
joanna trollope

Is it possible to be a fan without reacting personally sometimes to things our favourite singers or actors or writers do?

Joanna Trollope has been entrenched in my top five list of favourite writers for many years. Probably more years years than either of us care to remember. It just so happened this morning, however, that my usual sense of contentment that the English language was in such fine hands was jarred by a picture of Trollope on the inside cover of one of her novels.

It is a portrait, carefully staged and offering a professional rather than a personal look at the subject. The picture is used in several of her books, so Trollope obviously likes this particular image of her. I don't.

That is what jarred me from my usually unrestrained state of admiration for Joanna Trollope. The thought had been swimming in my subconscious for years, but this morning it finally surfaced in full-blown realisation: I don't like that picture.

Of course, I thought immediately, this is a ridiculous reaction, and an utterly subjective one. I know almost nothing about Trollope personally, so on what basis can I possibly justify having any opinion about a picture of her, especially one she apparently approves of?

And then I thought how odious it must be for well-known people to be confronted with irrational, unreasonable reactions such as this. Surely somebody who doesn't know you has no right to have a personal opinion of you.

Having delivered this lecture to myself, one half of me felt primly stern and smug and the other half felt suitably chastised.

And then a new thought arrived.

I am too reserved (or arrogant) by nature to be an unreserved fan of living beings, but I make a few exceptions and this is one. I feel strongly that the world would be a darker, poorer place without the contemporary novels of Joanna Trollope. There, I have finally admitted it in a public forum. I'm a fan.

Being a fan, it seems to me, is about engaging. Does not a fan, by definition, have a right to care? Does it not come with the territory? I may have no personal knowledge of the subject, and I may have no need or even inclination to gather any such first-hand knowledge, but that does not stop me as a fan from personally engaging. If I didn't, in fact, I wouldn't be a fan at all. I would be a critic or a mere observer.

So, Joanna, with all respect, I reverse my verdict that my reaction, no matter how subjective, is invalid. I do not like that picture.

If we ever meet, can I still have your autograph?



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Huh?

August 25th 2008 04:54
orwell

George Orwell: 'Never use a long word where a short one will do.'

I just came across, in the course of my day's work, the fact that an article published in 2001 in a teachers' journal carried the heading, 'Communal constructivist theory: information and communications technology pedagogy and internationalisation of the curriculum.'

My first reaction was this: I need a new job.

The article was written by teachers for other teachers. Heaven help us. If any of these people get within two time zones of my daughter's primary school English class, I'm charging them with assault.

Thank you for listening. I feel much better. I'll go back to work now.
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Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert, who said, 'Language is a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity.'

Jeanne Dininni's Writer's Notes blog has a post on writing motivation which you can read here and it motivated me to write the following. It proved one of the most fun things to write in a long time, so thanks Jeanne!

[ Click here to read more ]
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