G'day, you mob. How's it going?
Welcome to this episode of Aussie English, number one place for anyone and everyone wanting to
learn Australian English.
Today, I have a special episode for you where we're going to learn the pronunciation of ten
different Aussie animals.
Let's get into it.
All right, so I often get asked, Pete, how do I say things like "koala", "kangaroo" and are there
nicknames for some of these animals?
So, I thought today we could go through ten different Australian animals, how to pronounce their
names and also talk a little bit about Australian English and its pronunciation
using the names of these animals.
Okay, so number one is 'kow-aa-luh'.
'kow-aa-luh'. Now, you may notice there the 'O' in the word
koala is actually a 'schwa' sound.
So, you're going to hear /ə/ /ə/ right, that neutral vowel sound in English
. Koala. So, it's not 'ko-alla' or 'ko-wala', it's
'kow-aa-luh'.
Koala. And that's because the emphasis is also on the first 'A' in the word and you'll hear a
'W' kind of sound, a small 'W' sound linking the 'schwa' sound to that 'A'.
'KOW-AA-luh'. 'KOW-AA-luh'.
Koala. So, at the moment, koalas are in a bit of trouble in
Australia, right.
After the bushfires that we just had in twenty-nineteen, twenty-twenty, koalas are having a bit of a
bad time, but hopefully they're going to come back from the brink.
Koala.
Number two. Number two will be one that you definitely know, kangaroo.
'Kang-guh-roo'. So, the emphasis is on the first syllable here,
'KANG-guh-roo'.
Kangaroo. And you'll notice that the second syllable is using a 'schwa' sound.
It's reduced, it's not emphasised.
So, it gets that 'schwa' vowel sound.
It's not 'kang-GAY-roo' or 'kang-GAA-roo'.
It's 'kang-GUH-roo.
Kangaroo. And then there's a sort of secondary emphasis on the word 'roo'.
Well, word 'roo'.
On the syllable 'roo'. The word "roo" is the nickname or the slang term for kangaroo.
Okay, so that's secondary emphasis.
'Kang-guh-ROO'.
'Kang-guh-ROO'. And then we can just say, roo, if we want to use the slang term for
kangaroo. Okay, kangaroo.
And you may hear the slang term skippy as well.
We used to have a TV show in Australia called 'Skippy'.
Skippy the Bush Kangaroo.
And it is sort of Australia's version of Lassie, where, you know, a young boy
had his little friendship with this kangaroo, and they would go around and solve problems and
crimes. It was a bit before my time, but it was a TV show that I definitely heard about when
I was growing up. Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo, Kangaroo and Roo.
All right. Number three, wombat.
'Wom-bat', so the first vowel sound is an ɒ vowel sound
like ɒ for the word "on" or the word "off",
right. ɒ 'wɒm' 'wɒm' 'wɒm' and then we
have the word "bæt".
Right, so not the animal that's flying.
.. I don't know why we called it a wombat, really.
I'd have to look into this, but wombat is what we call these little guys.
Really, they would be better named as, you know, ground koalas or maybe
tunnel koalas or something because they live in burrows in the ground 'wom-bat'.
Wombat. So, there's no 'schwa' here.
Both syllables kind of get equal emphasis.
`'Wom-bat'.
Wombat. Have you guys seen any wombats?
I don't think we have a slang term for them either.
Wombat. Is there a slang term for wombat?
I don't think there is. Make sure, though, that you say the 'W' sound as
'wuh'.
'Wuh'. I have Iranian and German students who quite often will pronounce this more
as a 'vuh', vombat kind of sound instead of a 'wuh'
. 'Wuh'. 'Wuh'. So, just make sure that the teeth don't touch that bottom lip as a 'V' sound
and instead it's all about the lips widening.
'Wom-bat'. Wombat.
Number four. Echidna.
/ əˈkɪdnɐ/.
So, there's no 'schwa' sound here either it's / əˈkɪdnɐ/
. Echidna.
But the emphasis is on the second syllable, / əˈkɪdnɐ/.
So, maybe he could use a 'schwa', maybe you could say, echidna.
If you really wanted. But I would probably say 'ee-kid-nuh'.
More like the vowel sound in the word "it", right, or "exist" at the very
start there. You could probably get away with using a 'schwa' sound if you wanted
'ee-kid-nuh'. Echidna. So, echidnas are covered in spines.
They also burrow.
And if they are attacked by a predator, they dig their little feet into the ground, push their
spikes out, and they are really hard to sort of flip over and get to,
you know, the soft, chewy centre.
Right. If these animals were trying to kill echidnas, they're going to have a bad time, usually.
'uh-kid-nuh' And you know what these guys eat?
Ants and termites, thousands of them, every single day they
eat thousands of ants and termites.
Echidnas. And again, I don't know if we have a slang term echidnas.
Echidnas, echidnas.
No, I don't think we do.
Number six. Dingo.
Dingo and that cliche, that cliche that Americans will always say
when they hear about dingoes in Australia.
That dingos got my baby.
Dingoes, native Australian dogs.
And this is a bit of a contentious issue, right.
They arrived in Australia some four thousand years ago with, I think the most
recent scientific evidence suggests that they came with a group of migrants from India
that came to Australia and brought these dogs over.
I think they found DNA now in indigenous people in Australia.
And so, they know that this migration of people from India happened at about the time that we
expect dingoes arrived in Australia.
And so, there's a contentious issue as to whether or not they're
native because they arrived relatively recently, but still
four thousand years ago, geologically speaking, isn't very long.
So, the word is dingo, /ˈdɪŋˌgəʉ/.
'DING-gow'. Now, the 'O' sound is one
that my students have a lot of trouble with.
Check out my video on the Australian 'O' sound.
'O'. 'O'.
The reason this is difficult is because it's a diphthong and instead of the American
'O' where it's further at the back of the mouth.
'O' in Australian English is much closer to the front of the mouth.
So, we start with 'a' and then the mouth closes.
It sort of goes, the chin comes up, the tongue comes up and it sounds like
'əʉ', right. So, we go 'əʉ'.
'O'.
'əʉ'.
'Ding-GOW'. 'Ding-GOW'.
Dingo. That dingos got my baby.
Number seven. Another one with the vowel sound 'əʉ'.
/ˌgəʉˈwænɐ/.
'Gow-a-nuh'.
Goannas are a type of native Australian lizard.
They're found also, I believe, throughout South East Asia.
So, they are from the genus Varanus.
We have something like sixty species of goannas in Australia.
You might see ones like the lacy, the lace monitor, the tree goanna that lives in trees and
is closely related to the Komodo dragon.
The Komodo dragon is actually a goanna.
It's not a dragon. Go figure.
It doesn't have wings, but there you go.
It is a goanna.
And we also have things like the perentie, which is, I think Australia's
second largest goanna.
It might be on par with the Lacey, but there you go.
'Gow-anuh'.
Goanna.
And you'll notice there. Where's the emphasis on the word goanna?
'Gow-a-nuh'. It's on the second syllable and like with the word koala.
How are we joining those first two vowel sounds in 'əʉ' and 'æ'
? /ˌgəʉˈwænɐ/. We're doing it with a 'W' sound.
'Gow-a-nuh'.
/ˌgəʉˈwænɐ/.
Gow-a-nuh'. So, there you go, goanna.
All right, number eight.
Man, this one.
Most foreigners learning Australian English tend to nail the pronunciation of this
one, they get it pretty good.
Americans tend to not.
That is because they don't use the 'yod'.
So, the 'yod' is that 'yuh' /j/ sound that often, in Australian English at least, and I think
British English too, depending on the dialect, comes before the 'u' sound.
So, you'll hear the 'yuh', 'yuh' sound in between
the consonant, or the vowel sound and the vowel sound 'u'.
Okay, so you're going to say 'eem-yoo' instead
of 'ee-moo', right.
It's not like the sound that a cow makes "moo moo".
It's 'myu'.
'mjʉː'.
'Myu'. That 'yod' is in there that, 'yuh' '/j/' 'yuh', 'yod'.
Think Yoda, right.
Green guy, big ears, Yoda.
'Yod'. '/j/'.
'Yuh'. 'Eem-yoo'.
Emu. Emu and where's the emphasis?
On the first syllable. 'EEM-yoo'.
'EEM-yoo'. Emus are dangerous, so these guys can run incredibly
quick. I think they can run up to sixty K's an hour.
Right. And they can also kick like anything.
So, if you corner these guys, if they feel endangered, they may give
you a bit of a beating with their feet.
Emu. Emu.
All right. Second last one.
Number nine, crocodile.
/ˈkɹɔkəˌɹɐɪl/ is a few interesting things going on here.
/ˈkɹɔkəˌɹɐɪl/, so that first vowel sound is 'ɔ', and then after
that it is a syllable that is reduced.
So, we have the schwa, /kɹɔkə/, 'kro-kuh',
'KRO-KUH-dail'.
We have the T-flap or D-flap that's occurring on the 'D' in the word
'kro-kuh-DAIL'. We won't say a hard 'D' there because there are vowels either side.
We will say the T or D flap.
Kro-kuh-dail.
Crocodile. So, this is where the tongue is coming up.
It's lightly touching the roof of the mouth as it flicks backwards or forwards.
Crocodile. 'Kro-kuh-dail'.
Crocodile. And the 'I' sound is a diphthong as well in Australian
English, 'I'.
'I'.
Crocodile. Crocodile.
The last thing to mention here is because that 'L' comes at the end of the word and there's no vowel
sound after it.
Crocodile. We can also say it is the dark 'L' where it's more in the
lips going, 'oo', instead of the tongue going, 'oh'.
So, you might hear people say 'kro-kuh-DIAL'.
'Kro-kuh-DIAL'.
'Kro-kuh-DAIL'.
'Kro-kuh-DAIL'. As opposed to 'kro-kuh-DIAL'.
'Kro-kuh-DIAL'.
'Kro-kuh-DAIL'.
Crocodile. And I think there are two emphases taking place there.
First syllable and the last syllable.
'Kro-kuh-dail'.
May even be the main emphasis on the last syllable.
Crocodile.
Crocodile. The slang term for crocodile is croc
. Croc. Woah, there's a big croc over there.
Steve Irwin made this famous back in the early 2000s.
Love Crocs.
Crocs rule. Crikey, Crocs.
Crocodile. The very last one is a relative of the emu, another
massive Australian bird that is flightless and it looks somewhat like a dinosaur,
definitely more so than the emu, the cassowary.
The 'ka-suh-wuh-ree'.
'/ˈkasəwəɹi/'.
So, these guys have this kind of horn that grows on the top of their head and they also have a
razor-sharp claw on their feet, kind of like a velociraptor.
Where they're actually very dangerous, in comparison to emus these guys are more dangerous
or so, I believe.
And their found in the rainforests of far north Queensland.
Cassowary.
'Ka-suh-wuh-ree'.
/ˈkasəwəɹi/. So, the first syllable is where the emphasis is.
It's that 'a' sound like "cat".
'Cass', 'kas'.
And then we have 'əwə'.
Two 'schwas'. At least that's how I'm pronouncing it.
'Ka-suh-wuh'. 'Ka-suh-wuh'.
And then an 'E' sound at the end.
'/ˈkasəwəɹi/'. Cassowary.
So, anyway guys that's it.
I hope this has helped. I hope it's helped you with your Australian pronunciation, as well as learn
a bit of biology and learn a bit about Australian animals.
I'd love to know from you in the comments below which of these animals is your favourite animal?
Which of these animals do you like the most?
You know what?
I just realised I missed one.
I'm looking at the list here.
We went wombat, echidna.
I forgot number four.
Goddammit, Pete. Number four was platypus.
'Pla-tuh-puhs'. Forgive me their guys, had a bit of a brain fart.
Platypus.
Platypus. How could I forget a platypus?
Platypuses, platypusi, platypi /ˈplaɾəˌpɐɪ/.
Think platypi is the correct plural there.
Platypi are some of Australia's most charismatic and interesting and curious animals.
In fact, the story goes that when the first platypus was
caught and stuffed and sent back to Great Britain, after Australia had been
colonised, the people who received that platypus in the museum thought it was a fake.
They thought that someone had taken the bill from a duck and sewn it onto the
body of an otter and potentially put some, you know, turtle
flippers on this animal.
And were like, clearly, this is not really a real animal.
But they found out that the platypus is actually a real animal. These get nicknamed platties,
sometimes platties.
'/ˈplaɾəˌpʊs/', platypus.
So, the emphases are on the first and last syllables.
'Platt-uh-puss'.
Platypus, and what's happening to the T.
T-flap. Two vowels, either side of it, the T isn't on an emphasised syllable.
It becomes a T-flap.
'Pla-tuh-puhs'.
Platypus. And I believe and again, this could be probably argued,
the plural of platypus, like octopus is
platypi or octopi. But I'd say it's 50/50 chances I got that wrong and someone's going to
correct me in the comments.
I should look that up beforehand.
Anyway, guys, that is it for today.
I hope you enjoyed it. Make sure to check out my pronunciation course.
Just go to www.aussieenglish.com.au/courses.
The link will be up the top here or in the description below.
But if you're working on your Australian pronunciation, if you are trying to sound more like an
Aussie because you are, you know, setting up shop in Australia and you want to just fit
in, you want to get a job, you just, yeah, you want to embrace Australian life.
Then make sure you check out that course as you'll get a lot out of it.
And you'll also learn a lot about Australian culture, history, everything like that, as well as
pronunciation. Anyway, I'm Pete.
This is Aussie English. Thank you for joining me.
Don't forget to like, share and subscribe and I'll see you next time.
Peace.