Australian accent
I wonder how they developed their accent. It takes getting used to.
shareI think it evolved from the accents of the English convicts and guards who made up the bulk of our early settlers - they weren't exactly the refined type.
shareHey, speak for yourself, lol! But you're mostly right, though. Here in South Australia, we are not descended from convicts but from free settlers. It probably helps explain why South Australians tend to sound a little more English than those from the east coast.
But sit in any criminal court in Australia, and you'll hear some very broad and difficult-to-understand accents. 'Killing Time' centres around people from the 'criminal class' - uneducated, with a poor grasp of, or interest in, eloquent and articulate speech. Just as with the 'criminal class' you'll find in the UK and USA. I've watched enough episodes of 'COPS' to be grateful for the subtitles!
*Those without a sense of humour are at the mercy of the rest of us*
I'd heard that about South Australians. I'm first-generation myself, and I wonder if in another generation there'll be a few Western Australians who sound a bit South-Africany (like I apparently do). As it is, you wouldn't believe how much trouble some people have had beleiving I was born here!
It's interesting, though, that Andrew Fraser doesn't sound a little more cultured himself (either in the show or in real life). You'd expect that he'd have had more of a middle-class background than the people he represented, but I suppose his clients would have felt more comfortable with a lawyer who talked a bit more at their level than like Bob Carr or Christopher Pyne.