Credit: iStockphoto
SYDNEY: An Aussie university is probing one of the most prominent features of Australian life: the national habit of shortening words, and whether it makes us sound friendly, intelligent or more casual.
From "barbie" (barbeque) to "arvo" (afternoon) and "rellies" (relatives), University of Tasmania (or Uni of Tassie) researchers are hoping to find out what lies behind the widespread abbreviations.
"What we'd like to find out is how people feel when they're listening to someone using those kinds of shortenings, compared to someone who's not," said Nenagh Kemp.
Aussies are egalitarians
"It might tell us more about whether people think it makes you sound more friendly or more intelligent or more casual, and also differences."
Kemp said while abbreviations were present in all forms of English, they were more common in Australia, where tradesmen are "tradies", firemen are "firies", ambulance workers are "ambos" and service stations are "servos".
She believes that the shortenings are a way of conveying a sense of informality in a country known for its egalitarian ethos.
Lack of pretention in short words
"I think it does set up a feeling of companionship or casualness and friendliness," she said.
"You might use that to say, 'hey, I'm on the same level as you. I'm not being too pretentious.'"
Kemp said young people had their own set of abbreviations, while she has also observed gradual globalisation of short forms.
Abbreviations change with the generations
"Young people are more likely to come up with abbreviations for the technology they're using, such as 'mobes' for the mobile phone and 'lappy' for their laptop (computer)," said Kemp.
"Many of the (abbreviations) that older Australians use are not used so much by younger Australians, who might be adopting more American diminutives," she added.
"I think that the more TV shows and the more movies, when everything's becoming more globalised, the Australianness of many of them might diminish."
Kemp and her colleague Jo Underwood will play recordings of people using abbreviations to volunteers and gauge their response, with their study due for completion in October.
utas
just to let you know the uni of tas's official title is UTAS.
UTAS
When branding choices made by institutions make it unclear for readers what is being discussed, we ignore them. Hence, BP is British Petroleum and WWF is World Wide Fund For Nature. We have an international audience, and the need for clarity rules.
Wilson da Silva, Editor-in-Chief
True Blue
Are "friendly, intelligent or more casual" the only options? Doesn't seem very scientific. You'd at least need to include half-witted, anal-retentive or anti-intellectual.
Do we sound more intelligent?
I just moved to an american run international school last year so the majority of students are american and cause i'm an aussie who still has an accent all attention drew onto me so i reckon that our habit of shortening words, drawing from experience is that people tend to think we sound more friendly and casual though my humanities teacher thought i sounded sophisticated? btw i am a teenager
p.s.
i forgot to mention but even though "young people" shorten words we still use the full spelling of words when chatting online on facebook or whatever and we use whole words when we talk to eachother note, grammar and correct spelling is becoming sexy again quote from a facebook group :)
IMHO as a Brit to my ears I
IMHO as a Brit to my ears I have to say the Aussie way of speaking does sound less intellectual. The word shortening conveys laziness rather than casualness, particularly as it's often just adding an "o" to the end of the word rather than properly shortening or abbreviating it. Also this way of speaking is heard on the television & radio & written in newspapers much more frequently than in the UK where more formal language is still used for these situations. And then there is the use of words like "bloody", "bugger" etc that are commonly heard everywhere (incl from politician's mouths') - these are seen as swears in the UK (albeit mild ones). All just MHO tho. Often I hear Brits referred to as sounding like they have something stuck their posteriors & worse!
IMHO...MHO
Firstly, I agree with your final point. Australians may think people from the UK sound "like they have something stuck their posteriors" and Australians may sound lazy to citizens of the UK. It all has to do with perspective. The below however is "my humble opinion" of the rest of your post.
I was at first confused by your use of obscure internet acronyms such as "IMHO" and "MHO". After a breif search I found out what you were saying but then was perplexed that an individual who uses internat acronyms would suggest that shortening a word in speech "conveys laziness".
I also wish to ask, what would you consider "properly shortening or abbreviating a word" if reducing it to it's first syllable and then adding a vowel does not constitute a proper way?
ditto to the above
('Ditto' sounds pretty Australian, don't you think?) Think we have to be clear about vocabulary and accents. If IMHO is talking about accents, I regard a number of British accents as less 'intellectual' than others. With the beauty of so many British tv shows gracing our sets, (in which I have heard many more 'fu*ks' than I would like) I believe Aussies are much more aware of the existence of British accents other than the received "Prince Charles'-type. We do have the well-spoken newsreaders, as well as the 'ocker' Paul Hogans. British tv is using more voice-overs with definite accents than it used to 20years ago - for what reason? I wonder if the scientific research into Australian English is looking just at those subjective opinions on laziness, intellect and casual behaviour. I'd like to know more about the size & demographic of the volunteer survey group before accepting any 'research' results. In this article they mention the effects of globalisation (or American tv) on language, but I've yet to hear teens around here talk about mobes & lappys/ies. And another boring remark about teens leading the way in language....
Those internet acronyms are
Those internet acronyms are not at all obscure - in fact, I would say they were invented very early in the internet's history out of necessity by internet users for quickness in posting comments such as this on internet fora.
Using acronyms in written text has nothing to do with whether anyone is writing about laziness in speech. I do think shortening speech conveys laziness, but this is not the same as saying the person shortening the speech is lazy or they are being consciously lazy in their speech - they may simply be adhering to a cultural mannerism. As to why it appears to convey laziness - this is due to the fact most words take less than a second to speak so shortening them & adding an extra syllable does not actually acheive any significant benefit. Shortening or abbreviating does not generally include adding an extra syllable (which is what adding an "o" to the end of words does), eg shortening to television to "tele" pronounced "telly".
In Britian certain accents are regarded as more common/downmarket etc than others. In the war the news was read by newsreaders with strong regional accents in an attempt to impede the enemies' understanding. For some years now it has become trendy to use regional accents in television & radio; the most well-known example being the use of a strong Geordie accent for the voice-over in Big Brother. It used to be thought the traditional posh "cut glass" English accent was the most desirable accent as this accent was held by the upper class, those who were educated at public school, university, etc Gradually class divides have become less clear & positions such as newsreader, television broadcaster, etc have become open to not just those from privileged backgrounds. The early broadcasters on British television used to wear dinner jacket & black bowtie to appear on television, even quizmasters & of course televisions would only be owned by those with a lot of money. All has changed now & variation in the typical broadcaster's accent has correspondingly changed, to the extent it can be said there is no longer a typical broadcast accent.
More Intelligent
I do think shortening of words and phrases can make a person seem more intelligent. Assuming it's done well i.e. your lister can still understand what you mean, it comes across as a desire to get to the heart of the matter quicker. Clarity and simplicity signify intelligence to me far more than long-windedness.