Australian English: 'basically' sounds like 'bicycly" (?)

[GeneD]

While watching this video, I noticed that the guy starring there pronounces some words in a very interesting manner. For example, 'basically' sounds to me as 'bicycly', 'race' as 'rice' and so on. He's from Australia. Is this a standard Australian pronunciation, or some dialect? And is there in Australian English something like British RP - the pronunciation that can be very different from the 'live' pronunciation of people from different regions and social classes?

And a slightly off-topic question:
Do Australians get offended or annoyed when their country is jokingly called 'Ozz' and the people 'Ozzies'?

 

[Raymott]

There's a perception that Australian 'race' is pronounced as 'rice'.
This is from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_English

Diaphoneme	Lexical set	Cultivated	General	Broad

/eɪ/

FACE

[ɛɪ]

[ɐ̟ɪ]

[ɐ̟ːɪ, a̠ːɪ]

Not all Australians speak the same; there are cultivated, general, and broad variants.

Foreign Patient: How am I doctor?
Broad-speaking Aussie doctor: "You going home today!" [heard as "to die"].

2. No, we use it ourselves, but it's generally spelled "Aussie", and Oz (not Ozzie or Ozz), but pronounced with a soft, voiced 's'. The occasional American usage with a hard 's' as in Ossie is wrong.

 

[GeneD]

I've read this article, and my impression is that the cultivated variation, which is the closest of all to the British RP, isn't widely used, if used at all. Is it so?

The other two variations (broad and general) seem to reflect the social status of the speaker. The general variation is the standard AusE, and it is used mostly by people of a higher social status, while the broad one is spoken chiefly by those from the rural area and from the lower social class of the urban area, who collectively might be called "working class". As a rule; not always. Right?

[edit]
There's an interesting definition of 'Ocker' (i.e. the speaker of the broad variety) in Wikipedia: The term "ocker" is used both as a noun and adjective for an Australian who speaks and acts in a rough and uncultivated manner, using a broad Australian accent (or Strine). The typical ocker is "usually found in a blue singlet and rubber thongs with a tinnie in his hand propping up a bar".

I think it's this description that made me arrive at the conclusion I was talking about above. I don't really know though whether the conclusion is right. When I imagine anyone in rubber thongs (it's flip-flops, right?) they don't seem to be particularly hardworking to me; I would even go further and suggest that they don't work at all. Surfing and scuba diving don't count unless it's a job. :-D

 

[Tdol]

That seems a surprisingly subjective and rather judgemental definition for Wikipedia. I'm not an expert, and have only spent a week in Australia, but I would have classified Julia Gillard as a Strine speaker, and I guess she doesn't meet the description, but she does seem to have a very strong accent to my BrE ears, though her manners are cultivated.

 

[Raymott]

Yes, Gene, what you say is generally true. But you can be cultivated and have a broad accent. Julia Gillard has a very broad accent; I'll leave it up to others to decide how socially cultivated she is. She was our Prime Minister, but you shouldn't read too much into that in these times.

Yes, that's a good definition of ocker, often called yobbo or bogan. Many of this type would agree with it. I guess it's the Australian equivalent of a redneck (with regional differences).
Statistically, the three language classes would loosely fit the socioeconomic groups, but there's variation, since there's a lot of movement across the 'classes' in Australia, and 'classes' are not strict or codified as they are in some societies.

 

[GeneD]

Thank for the explanation, Raymott. I think I've got what the situation with the accents in Australia (in general) is. But there is a question though that intrigues me intensely. If I've understood you correctly, the cultivated accent is alive. I'm curious, however, about how well it is. For instance, which accent is used in academic circles?

The couple of articles I've read (this one and those in Wikipedia) didn't say much about the well-being of the variety, and, for some reason, I've got the impression that the Australian RP (if I can call the cultivated accent that) is gradually declining. Is it?

 

[GeneD]

Out of curiousity, may I ask you a question about your username, Raymott? ( I hope it's not too intrusive.) It sounds similar to Raymond, but it also can be Ray Mott (i.e. a given name and surname)... I'm always being torn apart by the two possibilities when I see it.

 

[Raymott]

1. Which accent is used in academic circles? Any of them. Anyone can go to university. The accents are more of a spectrum. (No, you can't call it Australian RP - no one calls it that.)

2. It's just a username.