Учебное пособие для специальностей «Переводческое дело» и«Иностранный язык: два иностранных языка»
§ 2. Vocabulary peculiarities and factors influencing language development
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2. Vocabulary peculiarities and factors influencing language development The first of the Australian gold rushes, in the 1850s, brought about a much larger wave of immigration which influenced the language significantly. During the 1850s, when the UK was suffering economic hardships, about two per cent of its population emigrated to the Colony of Victoria and the Colony of New South Wales. It is worth mentioning that almost until the 30ies of the 19th c. the „white‟ history of Australia left practically no written records. In the hectic years of the gold rush Australia drew prospectors from California to the hills of New South Wales, who brought with them a slew of Americanisms to be added to the Australian lexicon. The influence made by the gold rushers was indeed significant: the Australian variant of English was considerably Americanized. The changes in the language included introduction of new words, spellings, terms, and usages typical for North American English. The imported words included some lexical units which are often considered to be typically Australian, though they are not; e.g.: dirt (gold-bearing sand) and digger (gold hunter). Bonzer , which was once a common Australian slang word meaning "superb", "great", or "beautiful", is thought to have been a corrupted version of the American mining term bonanza , which means a rich vein of gold or silver and is itself a borrowed word from Spanish. The invasion of American vocabulary marked the beginning of a tension in Australia between the use of British English and American English. Yet, it is impossible to say that there was a certain regulation or tendency as to what variant (British or American) is more preferable for using and loaning vocabulary from. So, for instance, Australians today get water from a tap not a faucet , as the British do, but tend to ride in elevators as well as lifts . Their cars run on petrol not gas , but they drive on freeways not motorways . The influx of the US military personnel during World War II brought further American influence; though most words were short-lived and only okay , you guys , and gee have persisted. Since the 1950s the American influence on language in Australia has mostly come from pop culture, mass media (books, magazines, television programs), computer software and the Internet. Australian English is rich in abbreviations and shortenings: garbo is the „garbage collector‟, cozzie and prezzie are „swimming costume‟ and „present‟, and smoko is „tea-break‟. Australians have their own set-expressions based on metaphors and similes: as lonely as a country dunny, as bald as bandicoot, look like a consumptive kangaroo , etc. It has been estimated that there exist more than 10,000 lexical items of the specifically Australian English origin. Among many general words there are footpath (pavement), paddock (a field of any size) and weekender (holiday cottage). Well- known slang items include beaut (beautiful), biggie (big one), dinkum (genuine, true), sheila (girl) and pommy (an English immigrant) 155 Australian English is most similar to New Zealand English, due to their similar history and geographical proximity, e.g.both use the expression different to (also encountered in British English, but not American) as well as different from . Many words of Irish origin are widely used in Australia, some of which are also common elsewhere where the Irish diaspora reside, e.g.: bum for "backside" (Irish bun ), tucker for "food", "provisions" (Irish tacar ), etc. Australia adopted decimal currency in 1966 and the metric system in the 1970s. This, too has affected Australian English in a way. жүктеу/скачать 1,38 Mb. Достарыңызбен бөлісу:
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