AustralianCultureandAustralianEnglish

1、Australian Culture and Australian EnglishAustralia geographical environment and brief historyAustralia is west Indian Ocean and East to the south Pacific coral sea and Tasman ocean, is the latest continent that have been discovered except Antarctica.Australia's National surface area near 770 mil

2、lion square kilometers,Equivalent to the British Isles 25 times and is almost India and Pakistan twice of the total area of the two countries. In the 2nd century BC, Greek mathematician Ptolus in his drawing of a world map calls it undiscovered continent.In the 1860's,Captain James Cook of Briti

3、sh navy was sent to Tahiti to do some astronomical observations. After the mission, Captain James Cook drove the ship “ Endeavour ”south bypass New Zealand.In April 1970, Captain Cook discovered the southeast corner's land of Australia where near the Erard,then they sailed north. After nine days

4、, Captain Cook landed the new land in the east. Because he found a wide variety of plants there, so he named this place as Botany Bay.Then they continued sail to south, and through the Torres Strait, and landed a small island about 3 kilometers away from the Cape York, and rise The British flag ther

5、e, Officially announced that the Britain have occupied the eastern part of the continent, and named the small island as "Occupy" island.The news that Captain Cook discovered the Australian has induced much interest inEngland. At that time, the British law is very strict, Steal some pieces

6、of bread will beimprisoned. In the 18th century 70's, theLondon prison was capacity crowd, even theriver Thames had full parked the prisoner ships.Before the 1776, the United States isan ideal place for exile prisoners, but then it had been liberated, the British prisonerscan not sent to there a

7、ny more. To reduce the river Thames crowded traffic conditionbecause of the Prisoners ship, The Britain government decided that the new continentwill serve as a prisoner's new penal colonyIn 1787，Arthur Phillip was appointed to be the first governor of the New Walescolony. In 1787 on May 13, Art

8、hur leaded a team composed of eleven ships fleet setoff from England. The ship totally have 1030 people (778 prisoners), after 8 monthsof the long voyage, they finally reached the Botany Bay in 1788 18th January and 321people died n the way. After eight days, the fleet sailed north several kilometer

9、s to theJackson port to establish colonies.This little piece of exile criminal colony has grownto become the Australia's largest citySydney.In 1788 January 26, ArthurPhillipOfficiallyannounced that the British haveoccupied the eastern Australia. And then January 26th was designated as AustraliaN

10、ational DayThe first settlers have reached Australia in 1793. Along with the increase of free migration, the British input prisoner to Australia has reached millions.The founding of The Australian federal was proclaimed in 1901 to January 1. The 6 colonies (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Sou

11、th Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania) have become the six states of the Australian federal. In 1911, underlined a place from South Australia as the Australian capital. And directly governed by the federal government just as the Western Australia.Australians and their languageThe population

12、of Australia is about 150 million, included 1.6 million aboriginals; take up 1.2% of the population of Australia. Most of the Australians are the descendants of Britain free immigration and prisoners. They live with the natives in a piece of land for a long time, and often conflicted. Since the latt

13、er half of the 19th century, more and more free migration some from other European Countries such as Italian Greek German Poland Russia, and there are also some Asian countries such as Japanese free migration and the Philippines labor,but the number is not very big. Chinese influx into the Australia

14、 began in the mid 19th century for the gold rush.A large number of Jewish immigrants to the Australia in the World War II. In 1956, after the Hungarian incident a lot of Hungary refugees enter Australia the war that Vietnam invades Cambodia lead a large number of Vietnam and Cambodia refugees to Aus

15、tralia. So in the population of 150 million Australians, there are about 30 to 40 million overseas immigration.Influx of a large number of immigrants helps Australia to have colorful cultural. In Australian, except for the Catholic and Christian, most of people believe in Judaism、 Islam and Buddhism

16、。Many towns of Australia set synagogues and mosques, and few2towns have Buddhist temples. The temples can make people remember Chinese in the Gold rush.English is the mother tongue of most Australia. It s brought from Great Britain by prisoners、adventurer and free immigrants，take root, bloom, and cr

17、eate a unique styleof English in Australian.The prisoners from all over Britain but most are from the southeast of England. By 1819, the prisoners that have been sent to Australian have one third from London prisons. So the Australian English is pretty close to the English of southeast England in ac

18、cent,but relatively have a flat rhythm and rising tone is more.This is particularly in Broad Australian AccentThe Broad Australian Accent has the following Characteristics:When pronunciation |ei|, the mouth opened larger, and parts of pronunciation lay back, so it often pronunciation | ai|.Such as：R

19、aise pronounced into riseDay pronounced into dieTape pronounced into typeBasin pronounced into bisonIn an open type pronunciation, some Phonemes are replaced by some other phonemes.Such as: u? ?Poor pu? p ? Moor mu? m?ju? ju:?Cure kju? kju:?Pure pju? pju:? ?: ou ?Aucton ?:k?n?k?nRosterroust?r?st? i

20、?Boxesb?ksiz b?ks?zArtista:tista:t?st3Befriendn bifrend b?frendOpen type accent in pronunciation characteristics make Australian English become a unique English dialect,but not all Australians speak take so strong accent.In Australia only 30% of people spoke with strong open type accent, People used

21、 to contact this accent with early prisoners and their children's pronunciation, look it as a nonstandard Australian, Now in general, people think speak this kind of Macao language are usually workers and farmers who did not receive a formal education.About 20 percent of the Australian people sp

22、eak with the cultivated Australian accent. This cultivated Australian accent is very close to the Standard English, Different is the cultivated Australian accent vowels parts slightly sink down.About 50% of the Australian people speak relatively Standard English, it s not thick as open type accent,

23、but still have obvious Australian accent,This accent is called General Australian Accent. As Country is becoming flourishing prosperity, Education expanding and the cultural degree is increasing day by day, more and more Australians speak the General Australian AccentThe three accents above represen

24、t three sociadialects in certain degree. What person with what accent depends on the following factors:1. Personal social status Have material proof that people who speak with cultivated Australian accent are most born in rich family educated person, and the city residentsand women in the majority2.

25、 Personal experienceFor example, the Former Australian prime minister hawkreceived education in Oxford University, he speaks with a strong open type accent. This could possible with his long responsible for Australian union job, and get along with broad worker masses long-term.3. Individual environm

26、entIn an Australian family parents often speak with theirchildren with different accents, the child is susceptible to peers influence, often used with peers as spoken English, but not as the other family members4. Personal interests If a person like watching ballet, in order to improve his oral Engl

27、ish accent, he will gravitated to the cultivated Australian accentBut Australia is not like other English-speaking countries have regional dialects. From the Eastern Sydney to the Western Perth from the northern Darwin to the4southern Hobart, People's pronunciation has no obvious regional variat

28、ions。This phenomenon is rare in the worldAustralian culture on the effect of languageH.goodenough illuminates the close relation between language and culture on his book (Cultural human and linguistics): A national historical conditions, geography, environment psychology and cultural tradition have

29、significant influence on the development of language. These factors on the Australian English seemed particularly important.Australia individually in one place, so it differents from other English-speaking countries in many aspects.Free immigrants and prisoners migrated to Australia across from Brit

30、ain and the class; they use different regions dialects and sociadialectsNow. they were cohabiting in one place and they need to exchange their thoughts .This makes all sorts of regions dialects and sociadialects originally in Britain had little contact mix used together, as time passes formed the un

31、ique Australian English. We can say that the two hundred years history of Australia is also the history of the Australian English form anddevelopment. In the following, we simple discuss about the early British immigration and prisoners system, native culture gold rush and the American English infil

32、tration sinfluence on Australia EnglishThe early British immigration and prisoners system influs ence onAustralia EnglishA writer in his one article called (Australian English and it sthe origin) said: many words that reflect the jungle life of the Australian English are from Britain's dialect.

33、200 years ago, when British prisoners first came to Australian mainland, what they have seen are piecesof the vast untapped green place. Because they have left their hometown, the English word they used before also left the original environment. In the new environment, their meanings have changed;so

34、me words are endowed with new meanings. For example:1. Bush Originally refers to shrubs and dwarf tree with many branches and leaves in Australian English it means uncultivated land. From bush extended out that:Bushfire: wildfires5Bushman:settlersBushranger:Woodsman. Most refers to mountain thief su

35、ch as the hanged Nida Kelly in Melbourne prisonBushsinglet: waistcoatBushtelegraph: rumors or refersBushwhackedexhaustedBushwalker: people like walking in the forestBushwalking: walking to the forestTo the bush:Leave the city and go to the countryside2. wattle in Britain it refers framework consisti

36、ng of stakes interwoven with branches to form a fence but in Australia English it means a kind of cinnamomum tree. Its branches and leaves can be used as the fence wall of plaitIts. flowers was elected asthe Australia national flower. So Australia was also called“ The Land of Wattle”PinchOriginally

37、refers squeeze tightly between the fingers but now it extended to“ steal ”Swagman swag is the Miner s (or the woodcutter) backpack. Swagmanrefers to thebackpack travelingor gadabout people. Butthose people are always pickingup others things in passing, so this word now extended toThis word“comesthie

38、f ”.from an old Australia folk song. Below is the first paragraph lyric of this folk song:Waltzing MatildaOnce a jolly swagman camped by a billabong,Under the shade of a coolibah tree.And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boied.“ You ll come waltzing Matida with meThe billabong in the

39、lyric means stream (Originated from native language); coolibah means a kind of eucalypt (Originated from native language); billy means cans (that use for watering).waltzing Matilda means the shaking baggage in the back.Tucker originally refers to the ornament that aroundthe woman s the neck or shoul

40、derin 17 and 18th century, but in Australia English it extended to“ food ” . So tuckermeans travelers food bags. Tucker box meanslunchbox.Bring a plate in the Early Australia, the life was very hard, Food was extremely lack, even the governor before he held a banquet he could not forget to add aword

41、: ”Bring a plate, please!” Here the plate is not means Empty plate, but means the platewith food. So that means” bring food, please” . This custom has continued to this day.Australian often held parties ,People who attend the parties often take food, then put them on the table and share together.Som

42、etimes in the party invitations it would write “ b.y.o(Bring” Your Own).Now some restaurant signs will also write wordsit “meansb.y.o allow” guests to6bring their own wine. Of course, these restaurants which allow customers to bring drink are cheaper than those which don't allow the guests to ta

43、ke drinks.Bloody Original intention is bleeding， but in Australia English it always used to strengthen the tone,Can be understood as “ damn” , “ veryFor”example,. I told thisbloody foreigner that if he didn t move his bloody car, he d bloody well get a puncon his bloody nose.When the prisoners were

44、exiled in Australia, they always hope that one day they could return to their hometown. They always put Britain as their hometown. This kind of intense feeling of homesickness expressed not only in languages, but alsoshowed in other art forms such as painting, music and dancing. Hometown created and

45、 performed by Sydney ballet is a powerful example.The prisoner lived a hard life in Australia which is a natural big prison, they have received cruel abuse. For instance, In a Sarah island that in the west Tasmania prison, there is not much the prisoners imprisoned, but average 500 people were whipp

46、ed by the jailor. In that case, complaint can only get more serious punishment. Sad and despair can only lead the death. So they gradually learned to use humor tactful language to vent their pain,they use a kind of special optimism to make themselves to adapt to the new environment.The prisoners cal

47、led themselves as canary because when they landed they were all wearing yellow prison garment.The prison that held them was called logs, because those prison were all Wood building; the coarse bread they eat was called scrubbing brush, because the bread contains a lot of husks and chaff; the back th

48、at have been flipped just like wear a red shirt; escaped prisoner was called pinchgut;the treadmill that to punish the prisoners to step on was call dancing academy.The humorous language that the prisoners used was the protests and charges to their suffering. Speak humorously gradually became the tr

49、adition of Australians. In their view, each side of the Australian life can use the humorous language to express, so all the ruthless reality can wear optimistic mask.（ 1） banana bender means Queensland peopleQueensland. abounds in banana and banana is bent. The people plant bananas called banana be

50、nder. This word gradually extended to Queensland people.（ 2） An egg-shell blond means bald man.This kind of people's heads brightly like egg shell, and the color of egg shell just a bit like Australians golden hair.（ 3） A Pitt Street farmer Pitt Street is the biggest commercial street in Sydney.

51、 A Pitt Street farmer refers to those people who have farmland in rural but make7business in the city.（ 4） A Yank Tank Yank is the abbreviation of Yanee, a Yank Tank is one kind of large car which produce by American.（ 5） Widow maker refers to the dried up Tree and branches.The Native culture s infl

52、uence on Australia EnglishNative is Australia's original inhabitants. They have dark skin and curly hair,living by hunting and gathering wild fruit. It said their ancestors migrated from South Asia in the very early days in search of new hunting area and fishing area. After via Indonesia they fi

53、nally reached Australian mainland. When Europeans settled in Australian mainland, this land already has 3 million natives. At that time, native tribal throughout the continent, they or inhabited in the coastal areas which of comparative abundant rainfall,especially in the south and east, or disperse

54、 in relatively dry inland.After the English settlers came to Australia, they occupied most fertile land along the coast, expelled those natives to the desolate barren inland, and large numbers of aboriginal people were killed. Now most natives live in inland desert and northern tropical where with bad weather and sparsely populated areas.Many people still have a primitive tribe life, they always at a serious disadvantage ineducation, health, employment and living level. Now the population of native