Aussie Intonation Elements Shared with Other Accents

Though accents all have their own intonation, they typically have a lot in common with other accents, enough that we can categorize them together.

Australian Accent Intonation for Actors

For an actor learning an Aussie accent, it's good to start with the Placement and the Intonation. That's actually important for any accent... but it's imperative here to keep you from drifting from an Australian accent to a Cockney accent.

The intonation element has what I like to call a drag quality to it, along with an element of uptalk at the end of most phrases. (The uptalk is something that is happening more and more over the years, and it didn't used to be such a featured element of the accent.)

As always, I encourage actors to physicalize their intonation - which you can see in the video above.

That intonation is quite different from Cockney, all the more helpful since the various vowel and consonant sounds are so similar!

Other Accents with Drag Intonation

This same drag intonation is present in Austrian accents, as well as many Caribbean accents. It can be surprising that such different accents from different part of the world can be so similar.

You'll also hear this in Dublin accents and in accents of Northern Ireland, which you might guess would have some similarities. 

But the fact that it's also a minor element in London Estuary accents, and the American accents from New York Bronx & Jewish speakers, all the way to the speech of many Southern California accents.

How to Learn Accents

Sometimes actors don't necessarily make the connection that various accents have similar shared elements, or perhaps they don't learn it until they accidentally shift from one to another without meaning to.

That all sounds like bad news... But there's a difference between making a mistake and recognizing what you can learn from that mistake.

I actually find it's very helpful for actors learning accents to do the "wrong" thing on purpose. Owning that mistake, and even downright exaggerating it may allow you to fully recognize what you're doing, and then make the shift towards what you're actually trying to work out. It's really only wrong if you don't learn from it.

Making those kinds of connections for actors is a big part of what I'm focused on when I'm teaching and accents class that is teaching accents overall, rather than only being focused on one accent. It's becoming a bigger part of my work on this website as well.

So as you learn one accent, remember that you're actually learning principles that apply to other accents at the same time. It's part of why accent learning tends to become easier over time.

Keep at it!