For the most part, when I converse with random Aussies now, I don’t get the question about where I’m from until we are well into our chat.  They have also almost all stopped suggesting “Canadian?”.  Though some still say that would have been their first guess.  In fact, when talking about my accent many people have called it a “soft accent”.  It was this “soft accent” they suggest, that made them question my origins in the first place.  I know I probably speak with a combination of lackadaisical Southern Californian and nasal New Yorker, peppered with an occasional dash of Aussie, but I’d say that the general portrait I paint with my word strokes is “American girl”.

Of course, maybe I only think my accent is so clear because it has been ringing in my own ears since I could speak.  It is certainly true that before I went to Oz, my knowledge of Australian accents didn’t go too far past G’day and crikey.  Now I can not only instantly tell the difference between a Kiwi and an Aussie (bloody big accent gap there) but I can also hear the subtle differences between certain regional accents. In fact, any accent quirks, slang or expressions are so common to me now, that I have completely forgotten to report them in my “How To Speak Australian” posts.  Though I still can’t mimic a Queenslander the way I could mimic someone from Queens.

So perhaps when people tell me that I have a “soft accent” it’s because I don’t sound like the mass media produced idea of “Amurkins”.  I am back in the states right now, and was just recently in Texas.  Now there is an accent thick with recognition.  I doubt the average Texan would be mistaken for a Canadian.  But the friendly “y’alls” are hardly representative of the entire country, just as not all Aussies go to the “dunny” (well they do, but they don’t all call it that).  Though while the Australians seem to prefer the “soft accent”, passing along that observation as if it’s a compliment, most Americans I know, love any accent that isn’t their own.  So, an occasional use of the word dunny would probably be seen as quite adorable.

Though there are still those Aussies who choose to make fun of my accent by repeating exactly what I said back to me in the worst mock of a yank they can muster.  It’s hard on the ears and brings out my NY attitude, not something I would recommend.   Personally, my ear for accents has been readjusted so many times now, that it takes a conscious effort to pick out the ones that seem out of place, unless they represent the extreme end of the accent scale.  But I won’t be mimicking, picking out or complimenting people on their “soft accents”, not only because I won’t even notice them, but also because I know that rather than being soft, that are simply average.  And I hope that in the years to come, wherever else in the world they may take me, I develop an even “softer” accent, spiced by the people and places I come in contact with.  In the meantime, I’ll get back to my reports on the quirks of Aussie language, in the hopes of sharing a little language flavor with those who cannot taste test in person.  But since I’m stateside for the moment.  I’ll end with a little . . .

Happy Holidays Y’all!