Farremog - yes your right, but one thing about Captain Cook, he didn't realise that Fraser Island, was in fact an island.

Thanks for that, Melnq8.

A subtle point of Australese, we wouldn't use "righto" in that sense exactly. It's used to signify "heard, understood" or "heard, will do" - e.g. "Put the garbage out, will you?" - "Righto". More or less the same as "Yeah, OK", but not an invariable alternative to "right".

Tricky things, these idioms.

The double 'o' in Coogee (NSW) is pronounced as in 'should'/ 'hood'. Any sandgropers, extant or lapsed, out there who can give us the drum on Coogee (WA)? Is it 'Koo' as in 'Stark'?

Okey-doke Neil.

Rhyming "castle" with "hassle" is common in Queensland as well as Victoria. My father, a Queenslander, always pronounced Castle Hill (both Townsville's and Sydney's) that way.

Re Newcastle. It's an English place name. And the original Newcastle is pronounced newcassle as in hassle with equal stress on both syllables. Locals pronounce it new-cassel with the stress on the second syllable.

The city in NE England has a mini version of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I always thought it was the prototype (built by the same engineers) but now know it was the other way around.

O.k., I have to chime in. I have been following this thread and loving the discussion, but it has raised a question to my American ears. Can anyone advise...is my hearing an "R" after British words that end in "a" just like the Japanese "l"? I always hear an r sound, like in Pride and Prejudice the name Eliza sounds like E-lie-zer to me. I would love to know if that is "the way" to pronounce words, or if it is just a pronounciation difference. Now, if anyone would like info on how to pronounce Snoqualmie, Hoquiam, and Sequim, I'd be happy to oblige. (Those are all near Seattle, Washington)

fiesty1, when you say "British words" I assume you mean English pronunciation - and given that there are so many English accents, what's called "RP" or Received Pronunciation, sometimes referred to as BBC English.

If you say "British" you're introducing Scots, Welsh and Irish accents in addition to Yorkshire, Cockney, Somerset and the many other varieties of English-English, and that's a much bigger can of worms.

There'd be some English people who wouldn't be too thrilled about an Australian pontificating about their speech, but a word like "Eliza" is pronounced much the same way in England and Australia, and I don't hear anything other than a clear "a" at the end, "El-eye-zah".

Actually I would have thought that it's American English, at least most American English, that tends to stress the "r" in words where we, and most English people, would tend to suppress them. So it's Melb'n and not MelbouRne, e.g.

Maybe I've misread your question, though.

fiesty -

I hear you - my American ears hear the same R instead of the A. I consistently hear it amongst Australians and the English. In fact, an English acquaintance of mine always refers to his friend 'Fiona' as 'Fioner' - so much so that I've inadvertently called her Fioner once or twice. Maybe I'm just hearing an R that really isn't there?

Speaking of which, does anyone here happen to know where Ian Wright
from the Lonely Planet Globe Trekker series hails from? I'm guessing it's from somewhere in the UK, but not sure where exactly. He never pronounces the letter 't' when it's in the middle of a word; he'll say things like 'li'el' instead of 'little' and "'buh er fly' instead of 'butterfly'.

My American ears never tire of Ian's accent and pronunciation.

Melnq - Ian Wright is from Sussex, East Anglia. His is a working class accent which you hear a lot in SE England, although his seems particularly strong and perhaps exaggerated. As well as the missing "t's" mid-word, you often hear "th" pronounced as "f", as in "Heafrow" for the airport and "souf" for "south".

Ian Wright's a tad too energetic for me, far prefer the milder English travel presenter, Michael Palin who's every word is decipherable. But, then he's more my age.

Thanks Pat.

Come to think of it Melnq, the first 'h' is often dropped, so "Heathrow" really comes out as "Eefrow".

Not where I come from.

Pat if you think everyone in the UK drops the "H" then you are not well informed. Of course, you would know best. You always know best.

But in the interests of accuracy, the dropped "H" is just a feature of a tiny section of the population.

Now you can tell me, Pat, seeing as you are such an expert, what section of the population would that be?

Thanks Neil for the info...I didn't realize "British" included all the other accents and dialect. I always think of it as "England English" and "American English" and then you have Irish, Scottish and so on. But then again, I know how many different accents "American English" has! Visiting the South or the East Coast can be a very cultural experience for me. Melnq8...that is exactly what I am talking about! I am glad it is not just my ears. I did think it was interesting because I had noticed that I do emphasize the R's more that are IN words in American, but I seemed to hear R's that aren't there in English. Oh wow, that is confusing! (Am I totally muddled Neil?) I do find this very interesting, the study of accents is quite fascinating..and the percieved pronounciation as well-which I am seeing is a much bigger factor than I thought.

I see we've moved on a bit - I've been away, skirting Newcastle as it happens (I trust 'skirting' doesn't have other connotations in that context).

Afterall - apropos 'Newcastle' etc -you realise of course that experts are thick on the ground here in Australia (and even under the ground in a mining city like Newcastle) an' I gotta tell ya that the consensus is that if the Poms are going to pinch all our place names they should at least have the decency to pronounce 'em 'proper', ie the way we do.

Feisty1 - yes, please, give us the low down on Snoqualmie etc - perhaps you, longhorn and co. might start up a dedicated thread on the US forum?

The 'r' for an 'a' at the end of a word - I'm inclined to think our American friends may have something there - perhaps it's our tendency (well, mine anyway) to mumble and speak in a monotone - whereas cultured schoolmasterly/ schoolmarm types might say something like 'feeOWN-uh'.

Apologies for the name slip fiesty1 and more so if you're a feisty one.

I am a bit feisty, but unfortunately...the spelling was already taken, so I had to reverse the ei to get the idea across... Anyway...while living in Seattle, we always got a kick out of hearing people try to wrap their mouths around some of the town names.

Snoqualmie: Snow-kwalm-me

Sequim: skwim (like swim, but
insert a k, only one syllable)

Hoquiam- Ho-kwi-um

farrermog...can you throw some light on Woolloomooloo...is this as phonetic as it looks? The length of some of the names is what throws me!

Clive James's stomping ground Kogarah is pronounced cog g (as in girl) rah.

Thanks fiesty1.

Woolloomooloo - having grown up in Sydney I say something like 'Woola[as in sheep] - m'loo', but Neil and others may have more refined renditions.

farrermog, I grew up not far from Sydney and I didn't know there was any other way to say it. Woola-m'loo sounds right to me.