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Gosh you're pedantic aren't you? About the same era. Other than the commonwealth, much of the US was actually settled after 1830 during the Great Westward March. Chicago was only founded in the 1840s, for instance. Melbourne boomed in the 1850s and was already one of the biggest cities in the world by 1900.
Not quite the same. America west of the Appalachians may have been settled at around the same time as Australia, but it was settled first not by people from Europe but by Americans from further east. Yes, in sum immigrants from Europe have been the majority of settlers but the first settlers and those that set the institutions, architecture, culture were Americans whose families had North America for generations. The US broke off culturally from the UK much earlier. Much of the East Coast settled not much after the time of Shakespeare. New England was settled from about 1620 to 1670 and then and few newcomesrs till 1830 or so. Newer European cultural changes reached the US less while the US had its own changes. The lack of good communication back then made the time difference even more relevant. Both of these also explain the larger accent difference of North America vs the UK compared to Australia vs the UK.
Not quite the same. America west of the Appalachians may have been settled at around the same time as Australia, but it was settled first not by people from Europe but by Americans from further east.
Well, the Midwest and Southwest had French and Spanish settlers before American ones, didn't they?
Though, then again, it doesn't seem like demographically they were a large influence on the population before later American settlement arrived. Otherwise, their descendents would be more numerous today. For instance, how come one rarely hears about any French ancestry in the Midwest from the earliest settler days (most French ancestry in Americans seems to be either Louisiana, Cajun, or French-Canadian immigrants to Maine). Or how come descendents of the Spanish settlers that predated the Anglo ones aren't as common (compared to later Mexican and Latin American immigration) in the country.
Both of these also explain the larger accent difference of North America vs the UK compared to Australia vs the UK.
To my ears it sounds like the North America and Australian accents simply leveraged off different UK regional accent groupings. There are definitely strong Ulster Scott and western/northern English undertones to the North American accent, whereas Australia has more echoes of south east England and southern Irish Catholic.
But then there are a lot of middle of the road Americans and Australians who sound different only in the degree of rhoticity.
Last edited by Richard1098; 01-31-2014 at 08:22 PM..
I heard a segment on Triple J one time about an Arab Australian woman who was in a restaurant in England and overheard some english people who when they heard her accent say something to the effect of "these bloody convicts should go back to where they came from" and that made her cry.
So Australians can be the victim of racism too, especially from poms.
I heard a segment on Triple J one time about an Arab Australian woman who was in a restaurant in England and overheard some english people who when they heard her accent say something to the effect of "these bloody convicts should go back to where they came from" and that made her cry.
So Australians can be the victim of racism too, especially from poms.
I've heard a few people I've worked with tell of similar experiences, some of which were a lot more overt.
I found this interesting. There is definitely a BBC/British slant to this, but it points out an interesting trend, and there is an insightful observation and comment at the end, even if the author seems to miss it's significance: BBC News - The decline of the Australian in the UK
Last edited by Richard1098; 01-31-2014 at 08:53 PM..
I heard a segment on Triple J one time about an Arab Australian woman who was in a restaurant in England and overheard some english people who when they heard her accent say something to the effect of "these bloody convicts should go back to where they came from" and that made her cry.
So Australians can be the victim of racism too, especially from poms.
The woman should've said, 'well technically, convicts came from Britain, you pommy idiot.' lol
I asked you before and I'd like to know what your definition of multicultural is? Because I appear to be discussing this topic with someone that has a different definition than I do.
Most Americans barely think about the UK, nor do they have allegiance to it. Cultural links involve sharing some books, music and movies in common but day to day habits. Religion-wise the US isn't particularly similar to the UK. Far more evangelical Protestantism, more Catholicism, also Protestanism influenced from other countries. Lutheranism is one of the largest denominations in Pennsylvania, while it isn't really found in the British Isles.
The idea that Americans feel in even slightly British or think much about the UK is silly.
Moving from an old settler state to a new land creates similar patterns. Very style of towns, more open to immigration, and a number of other things. I suspect most Americans imagine Australians to be a bit more like themselves, while envision (wrongly or correctly) the UK as more of an "old, traditional place".
America seems to be in a different league than Australia and the UK, who are more like each other, while Australia is slightly similar to the US, it is culturally very British and this can be seen in the accent, drinking, pub and fighting culture, we have lots of instances of people being knocked out at popular night spots in Sydney. Australia and the UK are also largely atheistic countries whereas the US is more religious, I'm not too sure about Canada though? Tea isn't widely available in the US as it is in the UK/Australia because Americans drink coffee mostly as well as North America not sharing the tall poppy abuse culture of the UK/Australia.
I never said it did matter. I was just giving you an idea of the size of Perth as you were saying it was a big city.
I think it is a big city, even if Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are bigger.
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