Lt James Cook

Ivor Evans

3 September 1901

There is no problem between Aussies and Kiwis. We do love to make jokes about each other to each other but that is all done in good fun. We actually love each other.

New Zealand English (NZE) is the dialect of the English language spoken and written by most English-speaking New Zealanders.

1788: The Australian accent, at least according to modern experts, began developing right after the arrival of European settlers and convicts. Convicts aboard the ships sent to Australia are believed to have spoken a variety of English accents, due to hailing from different areas of England.

Upper and upper middle class Australians are likelier to speak in a cultured Australian accent, our posh accent. There are a few regional variations, but that is mostly in vocabulary than in accent. South Australians though have a notably different accent to the rest of us though.

A new survey has quizzed Australian on their swearing habits, and found that when we do cuss, we don’t do it with the attempt to offend – it’s mostly an exclamation of stress, or for a joke. Men swear more than women – at sport and at work in particular.

Which Australians swear the most? The survey found that the average Australian drops an expletive around 7 times per day, and that 29% of South Australians swear more than 16 times per day, while 54% of Western Australian residents swear less than 5 times per day, and 18% claim they don’t swear at all!

Obviously, there is no definite answer to this question as it would be almost impossible to record the amount of profanity spoken in each and every country. But the ones that most likely swear the most is the USA, Russia, and Ireland.

Exclamatory phrases

• F*** me dead. Basically, this means, “Didn’t see that one coming!” or “Oh my!” As you may have realized, profanity is pretty universal in Oz, which is why this phrase is a common way of conveying surprise.
• GFY. An Australian version of “Go f*** yourself”, in acronym form.
• Fair suck of the sav.