Standard Australian English (SAE) has been described, in comparison to other world Englishes, as ‘a younger cousin’ (Kirkpatrick, 2007) due to its relatively late arrival as an English of the world.
Australian English, as a coverall for varieties spoken by Australians of British and European decent, was not always accepted as a standard or its own distinct dialect.
A lesser accolade, SAE has also often been considered the ‘poor relation’ of the family, even by some Australians themselves.
In 1920, the Director of Education (NSW) observed:
‘It is sad to reflect that other people are able to recognise Australians by their speech.’
This statement reflected a popular attitude toward SAE of the time and in some ways, there was good reason for this.
Australian English has been developing for more that 200 years, it is only relatively recently that Australian English has been regarded as an acceptable standard variety.
Concerns that Australian English was somehow inferior were voiced frequently and over a long period of time. Originally Australia was comprised of a number of British colonies, rather than one whole nation.
Many of the colonies’ early inhabitants were from the lower echelons of society from what is now the United Kingdom; convicts, seamen (not officers), wenches, the disparate etc.
It was not until 1940 that Australian English had its first champion, Arthur Mitchell, a linguist who had been studying in London arrived home and began to promote the notion that Australian English should be adopted as a national standard.
He argued that Australian pronunciation should not be regarded as a corrupt derivation but as an acceptable norm i.e. a standard variety of English.
His views received a hostile reception and it wasn’t until Mitchell the chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in 1952 that the ABC started to accept Australian English.