University Will Try To Take The Strain Out Of Strine
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday August 22, 2007
IF KATH and Kim's "look at moye" jars the ears, Macquarie University may have the answer for its academics and students.
The university is about to provide voice-coaching in an attempt to improve pronunciation and achieve "accent reduction".The organisers say staff and students have requested the course, designed to help academics acquire what the promotional material calls a "cultivated Australian accent". The director of learning and teaching at the university's division of economic and financial studies, Leigh Wood, said many students and staff were not native English speakers and had difficulty with some accents. Dr Wood said the aim was not necessarily to produce an ABC newsreader's accent but to be understood as easily as possible. "We are committed to communicating at optimum levels between all staff and students." The course brochure promises that participants will hear improvement over the eight weeks.The artistic director of the Actors Centre Australia, Dean Carey, said it was possible to train people to develop neutral-sounding voices. "But what's the point?" Mr Carey said."If someone who has a thick accent, Australian or otherwise, who came to our school, we'd say: 'Keep that." But you could learn a more neutral accent to improve the range of acting opportunities."But what exactly is a 'cultivated' Australian accent?"A speech pathologist, Cecilia Pemberton, said accent training was typically aimed at those from non-English-speaking backgrounds who had a good command of the language but had difficulty being understood because of their accents.Australian English accents have been a matter of debate since shortly after the arrival of the First Fleet of English soldiers and convicts. Many of the latter were Irish. It has long been a conundrum that the citizens of colonies as far apart as Hobart, Sydney and Perth developed such remarkably similar accents even though there was limited contact between them and settlers had different backgrounds. The peculiarities and cadences of the accent were explored in quirky poetry of The Songs of the Sentimental Bloke by C.J. Dennis at the turn of the 20th century and gently mocked in the highly popular "dictionary" Let Stalk Strine by Afferbeck Lauderin the 1960s. The struggle to pitch an authentic Australia voice on television - a medium swamped by British and American accents - has continued with shows such as Home and Away and Neighbours.
© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald