Australian English Language Analysis

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Australian English is evolving into a more globalised form of English as the language is consistently changing due to external pressures. Australian English is seeing the adaptation of Americanisms as common American English lexemes permeate our forms of expression, while ‘Netspeak’ has become a common concept in the language of Australian youth. Semantic variations are evident as electronically-mediated communication impacts the semantics of lexemes as many broaden in meaning; likewise, the introduction of several ethnolects become apparent as migrants attempt to incorporate personal identity into Australian English. Australian English is seeing the defining move towards the general Australian accent which can be correlated to the loss of …show more content…

“Given the global presence of the USA as a cultural and political superpower, it would be surprising if there weren’t some sort of linguistic steamrolling going on” (Jean Mulder and Kate Burridge)[1] . Features of American English are apparent, such as the discourse particle ‘like’ which proves to be a highly versatile lexeme as it functions to be a pause filler, to substitute for ‘approximately’ and to reduce conviction, however, when overused it is perceived that the speaker is less articulate. The use of American lexemes ‘buddy’ and ‘man’, which act as substitutes to the typically used ‘mate’, is not a decline in Australian English, but rather an expansion of lexical items. Netspeak is said to be a deterioration of language as it brings a new informality to speech as parts of lexemes are omitted for the ease of the internet; for example, ‘tomorrow’ can be seen as the neologism ‘tomoz’ and ‘what’s up’ is seen as ‘sup’. The integration of these lexemes into spoken English can be said to be decreasing the standard of spoken English, as speech strays from customary formality. Similarly, acronyms that have formed from the net such as ‘ttyl’ for ‘talk to you later’ and ‘LOL’ for ‘laugh out loud’ are also spoken, blurring the line of Netspeak and standard spoken English. The incorporation of such lexemes into Australian English can be seen as a deterioration in the standard of spoken English, however, when used in an informal circumstances or on the Internet, it has no negative on the

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