the international language (Sunday October 31st, 2004 - 08:20)

category: mmhuh?

Watching some news this morning I saw Mr Rupert Murdoch on the TV again regarding the move of News Corporation headquarters from our humble Adelaide over to big booming America. I noticed for the second time that his accent is a tad skewed, some words leaving his mouth as Australian, others American. He’s not the only one. I’ve noticed some young actors on the Panel who have worked on films in America have returned with more than a nice pay cheque.

When my kid brother (happy birthday!) says certain words he has an accent. When he was little he had picked up American-isms from cartoons however it was more pronounced before he started school – spending days chattering in class seems to have dimmed some of the slips.

Perhaps the demise of the localised accent is nigh (well, give it a hundred years or so), to be replaced by a global accent. Rural towns will uphold the old-style natter and will require translators when dealing with city-siders. Australia will have to announce that it has two official languages – “English” (65%) and Australian (35%).

I’m not one to talk (or I am the one as the case may be) – the other day on the phone I was told I sounded Irish! Erm.

Yesterday I spent several hours having a lovely wander around Bondi and the walk to Tamarama and back to check out Sculpture by the Sea – an outdoor exhibition with the majority of installations on cliff faces. The sun was shining and hundreds of people had the same idea.