# What are some ways to make a character sound Australian?



## Tiarhlu (May 23, 2009)

I'm going to be writing a character that's from there, and I want to do my best to make him sound authentic without falling into stereotypes. I tend to not write out accents (unless it's something quick and simple like a "y'all.") What would be some common dialect differences between Australian English and American English? I figure word choice would be the best way to go about it.


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## ShÃ nwÃ ng (May 23, 2009)

Use Australian colloquial and jargon, it's going to take a bit of studying on your part. I can't point you to any source material. You'll also need to describe his voice in order to give the reader the impression that he's Australian, since you won't be writing it in his speech.


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## Poetigress (May 23, 2009)

What Bowtoid said -- it's going to be in word choice, phrasing, and slang. You'll definitely want to find someone from there to look over your story and see if it rings true. In the meantime, though, browsing the Australian slang here might give you some ideas...

http://www.koalanet.com.au/australian-slang.html

And if you need something a bit more scholarly to double-check a word, there's the Australian National Dictionary here:

http://203.166.81.53/and/


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## Tiarhlu (May 23, 2009)

Fantastic! That's exactly what I was looking for, but wasn't having too much luck earlier. I kept bumping into wikipedia but don't always trust what's there.



Poetigress said:


> What Bowtoid said -- it's going to be in word choice, phrasing, and slang. You'll definitely want to find someone from there to look over your story and see if it rings true. In the meantime, though, browsing the Australian slang here might give you some ideas...
> 
> http://www.koalanet.com.au/australian-slang.html
> 
> ...


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## mercnash (Jun 15, 2009)

Can I offer one more little bit of advice? Be sparing with the lingo when you use it, most of those words don't really get used by modern Australians, it really depends on the age and background of the character.


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## Murphy Z (Jun 16, 2009)

Maybe get a book or movie (not Crocodile Dundee) "made" in Australia that somewhat approximates your character. Just be careful because these are works of fiction.

Is the character a native species?


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## VÃ¶lf (Jun 17, 2009)

Word choice is a pretty obvious one, but good nonetheless. 

You could always try describing cultural things, habits, and even style of clothes can be cues to show a certain type of character


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## Tolgron (Jun 27, 2009)

Sometimes you don't even need to study anything to get an effect, dropping in a sentence as simple as "Oh yeah, I come from Sydney" would be enough to get people to put an Australian accent in on their own.


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## Tiarhlu (Jun 27, 2009)

Murphy Z said:


> Maybe get a book or movie (not Crocodile Dundee) "made" in Australia that somewhat approximates your character. Just be careful because these are works of fiction.
> 
> Is the character a native species?



I actually rented "Australia" and I lost interest. I'm having trouble finding movies that actually take place there. I tried searching (we have a netflix account) and I wasn't getting much. Something that takes place today is ideal. 

To the guy that posted above the post I quoted, yeah I'm trying to avoid a high saturation of jargon. I'm sprinkling some in there, and for now just hoping that I didn't choose something archaic.


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## Wulf (Jun 27, 2009)

Movies generally only potray tired old stereotypes. The best thing to do is to not try too hard. If you have to force it, if you have to artificially add things in to make your character sound more "Australian," chances are it is going to come off as clichÃ©d anyway.


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## Lamont (Jun 28, 2009)

Tiarhlu said:


> I actually rented "Australia" and I lost interest.



I laughed. 

Hmm. I've never payed much attention to our accents and jargon that we use. And I can't help you much on the recent Australian movies because most of them are crap anyway and don't even get advertised. 

From the top of my head, you could try watch a movie like 'Strictly Ballroom' or something like that. 'The Castle' is another film you might want to look at to help you. Comedy does help with things like these if they are from Australia.

Or better yet, you could try go on youtube and look up some Australian stuff such as segments from shows or something. 'Rove' is a weekly talk show here. Try search that up and maybe you might find something you can use. If you want to find something up to date, then looking at recent Australian media will help.

Sorry I can't give you anything first-hand unless I want to laugh at myself.  But if you want to go there, research the terms 'Bogan' and 'Yobbo'. In terms of how we write: Australians spell things differently like 'mum' instead of 'mom' or 'colour' instead of 'color'.

I hope I could be of some help.


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## Tiarhlu (Jun 28, 2009)

So y'all do say "mum?" I wasn't sure if that was just a British thing or not. I always get it confused.



Lamont said:


> I laughed.
> 
> Hmm. I've never payed much attention to our accents and jargon that we use. And I can't help you much on the recent Australian movies because most of them are crap anyway and don't even get advertised.
> 
> ...


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## NerdyMunk (Jun 28, 2009)

I don't know, mate.


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