Australian university: Aussie accent is result of generations of heavy drinking

[KamaAina]

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Australian-university-study-says-Aussie-accent-6598671.php

Are you unable to understand your Australian colleague's thick accent at work? Do you lose interest in rugby matches because you can't comprehend the commentary? Is this you?

Australia knows your struggle, but as one Victoria University in Melbourne theory suggests, the country can no longer claim that their distinct vocal pattern is the product of dialects blending together. Rather, the researchers claim, the country's natives have thick accents because they keep getting drunk and hanging out all the time.

Communications lecturer Dean Frenkel, the presenter of this theory, says that Aussies use just 2/3 of the muscles that influence articulation capacity, often dropping consonants crucial to words often used, like for example, the "l" in "Australia," the "t" in "important," or the "s" in "yes."...

"Our forefathers regularly got drunk together and through their frequent interactions unknowingly added an alcoholic slur to our national speech patterns," he says "...Aussie-speak developed in the early days of colonial settlement from a cocktail of English, Irish, Aboriginal and German – before another mystery influence was slipped into the mix."

Bonzer, mate!

[BlueJazz]

1. Noyce to hera that, Mate!

[malthaussen]

2. The University of Woolloomooloo, presumably.

-- Mal