Standard Australian English

Susan Butler is publisher of the Macquarie Dictionary. The following is adapted from a talk she gave to a colloquium on learning Standard Australian English at the Australian Linguistic Society conference (July 2010).

I would like to discuss what is meant by 'Standard Australian English', in particular in relation to aspects of lexicon, usage and pronunciation, which I will draw from the Macquarie Dictionary. The attempt to pin down the meaning will reveal that 'standard' is code for a prestige form of Australian English which is accepted in certain social situations. While the acceptance of the reality of Australian English is good, and the desire to produce students with complete competency in Australian English is also good, the use of 'standard' in this context creates unnecessary confusion.

Singlish and Strine
In Singapore it is very clear what people mean when talking about a standard and a non-standard form of English. This is the difference between Singapore English and Singlish. The confusion there is that Singaporeans equate Singaporean Standard English with British Standard English in much the same way that Australians equated Australian English with British English before Macquarie Dictionary was published.

It is harder to determine what is meant by Standard Australian English because the boundaries are not so sharp between the standard and the non-standard. The clearest boundary is between Australian English and Aboriginal English.

Educational goals
But if we put these distinctions to one side, what can we identify as a non-standard dialect of Australian English. Quite often it seems that it amounts to a set of quite specific errors which mark the speech or writing of the people who are deemed to be uneducated. There is a fair degree of snobbery in this assessment. The criteria for unacceptability shift from one generation to another and often come down to the particular likes and dislikes of the teacher in the classroom.

So what is meant by setting up Standard Australian English as an educational goal?
I think it comes back to the long-established and very worthy desire that teachers have to protect their students against solecism so that they pass the exam they want to pass, they get the job they want to have, they achieve the lifetime of honour and distinction which they want to achieve.

To this end they caution their students not to use brung or brang instead of brought, not to indulge in double negatives, and definitely not to use youse.

Non-standard examples in the Macquarie Dictionary
There are a number of items in the dictionary which are described as non-standard:
Ain't as in I ain't seen it.
Learn instead of teach.
Them instead of those as in Take them things away.
Hardly with a negative as in I can't hardly wait.
But at the end of a sentence. It's pretty hot but.

There are some things that will pass in speech but won�t do at all in writing, such as:
A lend instead of a loan.

Had've for had have
For example, if only they had've realised we were there, a form common in spoken English, is better written as If only they had realised we were there.
Us in constructions like Give us the book, or It will do for us kids.

Me as in You and me will do the dishes.
And, having railed against that, the teachers now have to cope with the hypercorrection – It will be good for you and I, or It is between you and I.

There are some modern additions to the list of solecisms. A good example is the way in which literally is incorrectly used.

Then there are pronunciations. We still don't like people to say fil-um instead of film.
The pronunciations which are in a state of flux are a worry. Is dic-tio-na-ry considered standard AE now or does it still have to be dic-tion-ry?

Similarly spellings in a state of flux are a nightmare.
We now allow alright and all right ? they are both alright.
But alot spelled as one word?

The use of the apostophe in plural forms – good luck to the teachers on that one.

There there is the category of words which are often confused – affect and effect, flaunt and flout. There is a long list of these.

And then there are the non-standard forms which become entrenched. Take verse as in Our team is versing your team this Saturday. It is nice to see a non-standard form dressed up in a fine array of formal inflections. And new derived forms like agreeance as in I'm in agreeance with you.

One oddity that I noticed as I looked at the material in the dictionary is the set of jocular non-standard forms. The more educated you are the more you are likely to say in an attempt at humour:
Don't be obstropolous.
That'll larn ya.
Give me that there book.
I don't know nuthin.
Eyetalian for Italian.

Which makes life difficult for our well-intentioned teachers.

Final thoughts
My final definition of Standard Australian English is, therefore, that it is the English that you produce when you avoid all the things that your teachers will mark as wrong, wrong, wrong. The list of those items is a mix of old and new and dependent on the pet hates of the particular teacher. Twas ever thus.

Click here to read the lead article in the previous edition of Australian Style (16.2).

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