How is the language of young Australians changing to reflect our evolving identity as a nation?

ENGLISH LANGUAGE: ESSAY

MAX LI

How is the language of young Australians changing to reflect our evolving identity as a nation?

The language of young Australians is changing rapidly to reflect the evolving Australian national identity. It is being influenced by American culture (through its pervasive media) and altered by technological communication; its expressions lost and gained and the changing perception of taboo words and political correctness all attribute to show the way that the language of young Australians is evolving to fabricate our national identity.

American culture is increasingly affecting the way young Australians use language. The dominance of the US entertainment industry, be it film, television, music or media, the ubiquity of the American culture has seen the creeping-in of the American accent and dialects into Australian English. From the wide array of Americanisms to the myriad of pronunciation and spelling disparities, these American influences have greatly affected the language of Australian youths in almost all the subsystems of language; it is a good reflection on how much the American culture has infiltrated and influenced Australian national identity. One area that American English has started to increasingly change in the language of young Australians is pronunciation and accent. Many Australians are now sometimes at a loss as to knowing the correct pronunciations of certain words, with examples like ‘Address’ and ‘Address’, Territory and “Terri-tree”, “Labratory” and ‘Labora-tree’, and ‘Libary’ and “Libe-ree”. This has lead to a mish-mash of different phonologies of both American and Australian/British pronunciations – a clear sign of a still-evolving linguistic national identity, as Australians have yet to decide whether to sever our phonological ties with Britain and embrace American influence or not. The influence of our American allies has also introduced many morphological changes and our constantly-evolving culture and identity has risen to face the change. A great example is actually from an Australian political party, which, in anticipation of the possible domination of American English across the globe, decided to spell their party name Labor, as opposed to the British and Standard Australian English spelling of Labour. Other common examples include the American use of ‘z’ versus the Australian/British ‘s’ in words like Americanization (Americanisation), fertilizer (fertiliser); or the use of ‘f’ in place of ‘ph’, in words like sulfate (sulphate); and many other spelling discrepancies like color and colour, theater and theatre, meter and metre (the unit of measurement). Lexical change and additions (many of which an Australian equivalent exists) brought about by American culture are quite substantial, including the common use of dude instead of mate, what’s up (wassup, ‘sup) instead of G’day or ketchup instead of tomato sauce; these have all helped to, in a way, to slightly diminish the traditional Australian identity. But this is not to say that Australian individuality is diminishing, simply the traditional perception of Australian national identity. It is quite likely, in fact, that young Australians will strike a balance between the traditional Australian lexicon and the imported American vocabulary in order to create a unique compound lexicon – one distinctly Australian: a true representation of Australian national identity.

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However, the lexical evolution in Standard Australian English has not only come from American media and the American entertainment industry, for technological advancements, particularly the Internet and mobile phones, have spread many new lexemes (particularly acronyms) and changed syntax. This has all contributed to the slow linguistic evolution being experienced by young Australians. Many new terms now commonly used by young Australians originate from the Internet or other technological sources and the popularity and closer integration into the modern Australian lifestyle has seen many youths adopt the language of the Internet and the shorthand used in SMS messages in everyday life. This can include the omni-present ‘lol’, ‘omg’, ‘ttyl’ and ‘asl’ acronyms of instant messaging (some of which have made their way into conversation-language) or the ‘m8’ for mate, ‘l8a’ for later and ‘b4’ for before used commonly by young Australians in TXT messages. The syntax of these new variations in communication has also changed. Due to the fast-paced world of the Internet, whether it be informal e-mailing, instant messaging, forum-posting or blogging – speed is crucial. Thus, many details in grammar are thrown out the door – with the abusive use of the apostrophe (though more often absence), the concerning lack of colons, semicolons and dashes (even hyphens), Australian youths are seemingly able to use to syntactically-opposing languages at the same time. It is quite apparent that, as the world of technology undergoes change, young Australians will help their language evolve to reflect our national identity.

Young Australians are experiencing a change in the traditional Australian lexicon – a loss (and some creation) of Australian expressions, idioms and euphemisms (and even dysphemisms) is occurring, a change which can directly impact on our evolving national identity. Many young Australians no longer use (or are even familiar with) many rich and expressive expressions of Australian culture that the older generation regularly utilise in exchanges. Idioms and expressions like “Beyond the black stump” and “You’ve got Buckley’s” have become unknown to many young Australians (instead they grow up using phrases like “out in the middle of nowhere” or “You’ve got no chance in Hell”, respectively). However, Australian expressions are not just on the decline in the youth population. New expressions are also being coined, (though many are much ruder) like “as much chance as pushing shit uphill with a rubber fork” or “face like a festered pickle” have also added character to Australian English and accelerated linguistic evolution, particularly when used in preference to older expressions by the young. This great transformation in the penchant of expression-use by the youths of Australia will define our linguistic identity in the future and reflects clearly our evolving national identity.

The national identity of Australia has also developed strangely when dealing with taboo and correctness, especially with the young. Many youths no longer find many profanities as rude or taboo as the older generations, in particular with words like “F---”, “shit” and “dick”, as well as using God’s name in vain without any hesitation. In fact, many of the aforementioned words are actually used as interjections (“Shit! No way!”), intensifiers (“This is so f---ing great!” or “Abso-bloody-lutely!”) and even discourse particles (“Shit, like… aww, what’s the word?”). However, these youths are also being raised in an age of political correctness, where it is as though the government is censoring the use of certain words, replacing them with “better-sounding” ones (perhaps in an attempt to create a better national image and to minimise possibly offensive language). In fact, many young Australians do not even realise that their lexicon has been altered by their government. "In 2006, the Political Correctness movement continued to gain momentum to the effect that many were unaware of the extent that it had inserted itself into ordinary English-language conversations,” says Paul JJ Payack, President of The Global Language Monitor. Thus, instead of ‘short’, one should say ‘vertically challenged’; and ‘fat’, ‘generously proportioned’. So, in a time where it is only correct to say ‘marker board’ (and not ‘white-’ or ‘blackboard’), Australian youths are having their language changed deliberately; but it is a good indication for the way our national identity is changing.

It is quite apparent that the language of young Australians has changed in many ways to reflect our identity as a nation. The influences of American culture and Americanisms, brought on by their media, have modified several subsystems of Australian English among youths. Lexical and syntactic elements introduced and altered by technological means of communication (chiefly led by the Internet) has also changed how young Australians converse through technological media. Also, the shift in the usage of Australian expressions has also brought about a new sense character and the changed perception of taboo and profane words has helped to evolve national identity further. Finally, with the expansion of the Political Correctness movement, the vocabulary of many young Australians are being altered to help change the national image and minimise prejudice, a very clear reflection on our evolving national identity.