Article: Australia’s drawl began with boozy colonials

Australians’ distinctive accent has its origins in the “drunken slurring” of the heavy-drinking early settlers, according to a communication expert from the country.

In an impassioned call for Australian schools to teach verbal expression and delivery, Dean Frenkel, a public speaking and communication lecturer at Victoria University in Melbourne, said “drunken Aussie-speak” was first established generations ago but has continued to be passed on to children by sober parents. “The Australian alphabet cocktail was spiked by alcohol,” he wrote in The Age.