Australian National Character and Australian English

郝米娜

Language and culture have very intimate relationship.From the perspective of sociolinguistics，language is the verbal expression of culture，for a culture's language contains everything its speakers can think about and every way they have of thinking about things.In other words，there are always cultural elements behind the language phenomenon.National character，the concept of which has been “a subject of debate and development since the eighteenth century” （Barker 18），is commonly regarded as part of a nations culture，and thus has close interactions with the nations language.

Relations between national character and language

To discuss the relations between national character and language，the concept of national character needs to be clarified first.As a matter of fact，there have been a great variety of opinions provided on what constitutes national character.Political institutions，religions and the national spirits or characteristics that are shared by the population have all been proposed to be parts of it.In this paper，national character is particularly referred to the national spirits or characteristics that are shared by generations after generations in a nation.

In this case，it is not difficult to understand the close relations between the national character of the people and their language，for language in use always reflects the value，beliefs，thoughts and traits of people，which are indeed the components of national character.Examples of Americans and British people would be provided to illustrate this point in detail.

The United States national character emphasizes individuality，independence and equality，all of which have been clearly displayed in the lexicon of the American English.The Americans hold the values of individuality and independence，hence a great number of words with self or ego as prefix，such as self-centered，self-advantage，self-made，self-fulfillment，egotism，ego centric，ego-ideal etc，which obviously give prominence to these values.The Americans believe in equality.Therefore，many idioms about this value enjoy popularity among people.Normally，not only in political institutions，but also in parks，in bars or even on the street，we might head someone saying “all men are created equal” casually or seriously.Besides，the Americans have the casual attitudes towards life，the fact of which is easy to be observed because the American English usually does not conform to the traditional rules of word-building and phonemics，but instead，sometimes it creates new words for the sake of conciseness.One example is found when trying to get the counterparts in American English for the words with “our” as postfix in British English.Clearly，the postfix of “our” has all been changed into “or” for the convenience，like color，humor，labor，neighbor etc.The words with “logue” as postfix in British English get the similar results，and they are mostly changed to have “log” as the latter part in American English，such as dialog，monolog，catalog etc.

As for Great Britain，its national character emphasizes conservatism as well as the sense of humor，and British English exhibits these values to the most.The British people are often careful and prudent to utilize their words and sentences，hardly displaying any emotions to strangers.Take the question often asked the football players by the reporters，“are you a good footballer”，for an example.Normally the answer would be “I am not bad”，or “well，I am very keen of football”，or “well，I will manage to be a good footballer”.Another example is given by overseeing how they ask for help.They would always begin with “would you please”，or “could you please”，or “would you mind”，or “may I”.The British people also have great sense of humor，which shows in the slang and proverb.For instance，“admit the soft impeachment” is used for the meanings of flatter，“cannot say boo to a goose” for coward，“turn up ones toes” for death，and “mop the floor with somebody” for beat someone etc.

Thus，it could be observed from the examples of both the United States and Great Britain that the features of national character are clearly displayed in the language.In Australia，it is the same case.

Australian National Character and Australian English

In Australia，when exploring the relations between national character and the nations language，the language under discussion is particular referred to Australian English.The reason is that in Australia unquestionably Australian English is the primary language.Though there are also Aboriginal languages and immigrants languages coexisting，yet they do not enjoy such influence and status as Australian English.On the part of the Aboriginal languages，today survive only “two third of the 250 separate Aboriginal languages spoken in Australia in 1788 and only 20 could have the chance to survive well in this century” （“Language in Australia” para5）.On the part of the immigrants whose number is small in the population，since their languages are merely used by themselves and their offspring，if the children can still speak their native languages，the influence of their languages is quite limited.

“Australian English has its own distinctive features in pronunciation，intonation，lexicon etc” （Delbridge ），though it shares many common characteristics with other varieties of English such as British，American，Canadian，South African，New Zealand English.It is a language that has particular traits of the nation itself.For the national character of Australia，the people in Australia believe in living their life to the fullest，well known for their characteristics of “fun loving，courageous，talented，humorous，adventurous，and patriotic” （“People in Australia” para1）.The lexicon exhibits Australian national character including the Australians sense of humor and casual attitudes towards life etc.

The sense of humor

In Australia，people have great sense of humor.They are used to joking with each other as the way of communication and express their friendliness.Correspondingly，a great number of idioms，phrases，slang in Australian English lexicon that have the humorous functions are often used in daily conversations.Through carefully examining some jargon and slang，Australians sense of humor could be gotten instantly.

The jargon of prisoners could provide the best example.The jargon has quite a long history，for since 1780s the first batch of the white settlers arrived on this land，this place were used as the dumping places for prisoners by Great Britain，and thus both prisoners and their jargon in the nation existed the minute the land were occupied by the settlers.In face of the harsh environment，the prisoners chose a way to ease their pain by self-sarcasm.With the sense of humor，they created the jargon and passed it to the people as a whole.They called themselves “canary” because when they landed，they wore the yellow clothes； they named their bread as “scrubbingbrush” because inside it includes a lot of rice bran； when someone was whipped as punishment，they would say that “he gets a red shirt” because of his bloody back； when working on treadmill，they laughed and said that they were taking “dancing academy”.Besides，they had particular names for the different sentences.For instance，they called a three month punishment as “sleep”，a six month punishment as “dream”，a twelve month punishment as “rest”，life imprisonment as “the lot” and garroting as “drop”.

Generally，the Australian people have the habit of giving nicknames to almost everything，which shows their great sense of humor.They not only nickname people such as the politicians，but also animals and plants.They name the Africans as “Yarpie”，Sydney Morning Herald as “granny”，dentist as “fang farrier”，and some politicians as “Pie-eater”.Moreover，they particularly like to joke with their intimate friends，calling them like “peanut”，“crow” and “bluey”.

As for the slang，it provides a great many evidences to the sense of humor of Australian people，with both its phrases and sentences.When coming to phrases，“no biscuit in the tin” is adopted for the meanings of having no energy anymore，“thingo” for what his name is，“get lost” for leaving，“fair dinkum for indeed，“within cooee” for nearby，“nick off” for leaving in a sneaky way，“full as goog” for drunkenness，“ride the high horse” for having power，“no flies on him” for prudence.As for sentences，the examples are like：“my bloody oath！” for I agree，“I haven t' a brass razoos” for I have no money，“he is a real bushy” for he is unreasonable，“he lives at woop-woop” for he lives far away，“She is buying a fridge on the never never” for she is buying a fridge on installments，“they brought him down a pet or two” for they hurt his self-respect，“dont bung it on” for dont be exaggerated，“youve got Buckleys hope” for you have no hope，“dont sling off at him” for dont laugh at him.For the words that have rhyme in slang，the sense of humor is expressed most incisively and vividly.For example，“cobber-dobber” refers to betrayer，“cop-shop” to police station，“walkie-chalkie” to the guards of the parking lot，“grouse-mouse” to beautiful girls，fuzzy-wuzry to the warriors of Sudan.In all，the words，phrases and sentences of slang all display the sense of humor of the Australians.

Casual attitude towards life

In Australia，people usually call themselves Aussie，and call their country OZ.They love to express themselves in most concise way，which shows their easiness and casual and carefree attitude towards life.The conciseness of their language is clearly displayed through how they handle the words.

The Australians love to truncate words and only use part of a word for the whole.For example，they use “dile” for crocodile，“roo” for kangaroo，mu for emu，pine for porcupine，“uni” for university，“Vic” for Victoria，“New South” for New South Wales，“cock” for poppycock，“nana” for banana，“Abo” for Aborigine，“la” for lavatory，“advert” for advertisement，“Brit” for British，“kanga” for kangaroo，“vac” for vacation etc.They also shorten the words that have already been shortened before.For instance，they shorten this afternoon into “this after”，then “this afto”，“this arvo”，“sarvo”，and at last “sarve”.They change communist into “commo”，and then “com”.They use “on the susso” for on the sustenance，and then change it into “on the suss”.They love to use “-ie” and “y” as postfix to exchange for the later part of the words.For example，they use “Aussie” for both Australia and Australian，“Barbie” for barbecue，“baddie” for a bad person，“bickie” for a biscuit，“blowie” for a blowfly，“bookie” for bookmarker，“brekkie” for breakfast，“brickie” for bricklayer，“Brizzi” for Brisbane，“chocky” for chocolate，Chrissie for Christmas，“footy” or “footie” for Australian football，“greenie” for environmentalist，“hubby” for husband，“kiddie” for child，“lippy” for a lip stick，“polly” for politician，“sickie” for a day off sick from work，“sportie” for sportswear，“swaggie” for swagman，“telly” for television，“tinny” or “tinnie” for lucky，“veggie” for vegetable.Similarly，“-o” is also used in this way.For example，they use “agro” for aggressive，ambo for an ambulance office，“arvo” for afternoon，“bizzo” for business，“doco” for a documentary film，“evo” for evening，“garbo” for garbage-collector，“journo” for journalist，“lezzo” for lesbian，“lingo” for language，“milko” for milkman，mo for moustache，“rego” for registration，“smoko” for smoking break.Thus，the fact that the Australians love to use initialism and concise words reflects the casual attitudes towards life，and shows this trait of national character most directly.

The vulgarity of Australian English is quite obvious to observe，and it also shows the casual attitudes towards life.In the daily conversation，the four-letter words like “dame”，“fuck”，“shit”，“hell”，“dash” etc often appear to function as enhancing the tone of the speaker and adding some sense of humor.“You bastard” mostly is not the word of cursing people，but refers to an intimate friend.Likewise，“you poor bastard” only has the meanings of sympathy in it.“Bloody” has lost its original meaning，only used to give emphasis to words，such as “bloody cruel，bloody beautiful”，or to sentences，such as “where have you bloody been？”，“I know what I bloody want.” They use “whinger” to refer to those who like to complaints for nothing，“wowser” for humorless person，“wanker” for self-indulgent persons.

Conclusion

Language and culture are inseparable，and they cannot exist without each other.Language is the carrier of culture，indicating culture elements constantly.As part of culture，national character is directly showed in language.For the case in Australia，the relations between Australian national character and Australian English is under scrutiny，and reaches the conclusion that with its lexicon，slang，jargon etc，Australian English shows the national character including the sense of humor as well as the casual attitudes towards life.

Reference：

[1]Barker，Ernest.National Character and the Factors in its Formation.London，1927.

[2]Delbridge，Arthur.The Macquarie dictionary.NSW：Macquarie Library，1981.

[3]杜學增.澳大利亚语言与文化.外语教学与研究出版社，2000.

[4]“Language in Australia.” 2010-7-3.http：//www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/australia.html.

[5]“People in Australia.”2010-7-3.http：//www.mapsofworld.com/australia/people-in-australia.html.

[6]Wang Jue.“The cultural Characteristics of Australian Lexicon.” The School Newpaper for Hubei University，2008.