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  • Writer's pictureCaitlin May

Australian English vs American English


Useful quotes from the article:


'For all the fears that it is being displaced by American speech... Australian English is changing and thriving.' - Dr Amanda Laugesen, Director of the Australian National University’s Australian National Dictionary Centre


'During the Olympics, non-Indigenous commentators have been using the Aboriginal Australasian expression for excellent, "deadly"... There are some sensitivities around this, some Indigenous people are uncomfortable about white Australians appropriating these words.' - Dr Amanda Laugesen, Director of the Australian National University’s Australian National Dictionary Centre


'Many of the old words and phrases that [are] dying out, such as "cobber", "cooee" and "stone the crows", conjure up the image of a white colonial man... The fact is that the faces of Australia have changed ... And the slang that is coming in from second-generation migrants, like "habib" and "bro", are the linguistic equivalent of saying this is what it is now to be Australian.' - Professor Rob Pensalfini, associate professor at the University of Queensland, specialising in Indigenous languages




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