Borrowed accent on Aust. TV

Press, 2 September 1977, Page 11

Borrowed accent on Aust. TV

NZPA Melbourne. About a third of the advertisements on Australian

television used a North American accent, a linguist said at the A.N.Z.A.A.S. congress. . Professor Roland Sussex, of the University of Melbourne’s ddpartment of Russian, said that about I a quarter of the advertise- | ments used a broad AusI tralain, or “ocker,” accent, | and fewer than half used educated Australian I speech. j He said this compared with 10 per cent of advertisements on English teleI vision using the North | American accent, about 15 per cent using regional | British accents, and about ■ 75 per cent using educated English. Professor Sussex said j Australia was still in the middle of a battle for identity. He said that until the j use of educated Australian I reached 60 to 70 per cent, ■ he did not think it could be said to have achieved I the level of prestige educated British English had reached. He said the increasing use of North American English had probably been brought about by a decline ' in British English. I Events in international politics, whereby Australia had become less and less involved with Britain and more and more involved with the Pacific and i America, had probably j helped. Professor Sussex ' said j I there had been a decline in the standards of | i educated English taught in I schools, and expected of I the media and top management.