Astrayan | Bermudian | Canadian | Irish-English | Southern Hemisphere | USA | Various Other
Subsection: Broad Vs General | Dialects of Astrayan | Features | History | Indigenous Astrayan | Lexicon | Samples
Astrayan (Strine) – An English Sub-Language
In 1942, during the second world war, joint Australian-American operations in the south Pacific ran into a major problem. American radio signals intelligence officers began flagging Australian radio signals as “incomprehensible”. These men were well experienced at intercepting Japanese signals and codes, and understanding their meaning, yet the signals they were picking up from their own allied Aussie soldiers were leaving them entirely baffled. The words they were transcribing from the radio transmissions were clearly Australian English words, enunciated with unique Australian vowels but the meaning and context of those words totally defeated them. The truth was that they did not understand what on earth the Australian radio operators were talking about in their radio transmissions. This was very concerning to American commanders given that this was supposed to be a joint American-Australian operation. They were working alongside Australians soldiers but they didn’t understand them. The Aussies were doing nothing wrong. They were not speaking Russian or Pitjantjatjara amongst themselves. They were simply speaking Australian (a kind of English), as they did at home. We will call this sublanguage call it Astrayan.
One famous Astrayan message went as follows:
Any native born Aussie will tell you straight up that this means “Tell a man called Bluey (who likely has red hair) that he’s sick with a flu or (some stomach complaint). He’s getting very angry and if the authorities don’t send him some beer, he’ll go crazy before morning break time”
The American’s however got none of this! They just didn’t comprehend the Aussie slang. In another incident, an American officer attended a 40 minute Aussie briefing and came away claiming that he understood a mere 12% of what the Aussies had discussed. The situation became so concerning to the American commanders that they commissioned 4 intelligence officers the task of compiling a report on the Astrayan language. This 67-page report was distributed amongst American military personnel but it did nothing to rectify the situation. There were in fact several instances in which Australians had to intervene and “translate” to prevent American commanders from making terrible mistakes after they had totally misunderstood what an Astrayan message meant. The Astrayan language continued to elude their understanding. In fact, one American report recommended that a native Australian be present to interpret all pivotal Australian communications.
This kind of misunderstanding was not limited to one or two instances. It was a regular experience for any non-Australian who had little prior connection to the Astrayan tongue.
In 1964, English novellist Monica Dickens visited Australia to promote her latest book. An interesting outcome of this visit was the recognition of a unique language, Strine (which we call Astrayan). This is the real language of many Australians – a sub-language of the English language.
The story goes that during one of her promotional appearances, an Australian woman picked up Monica’s book and handed it to her, wanting to know its price. Monica misunderstood the woman’s request, thinking that the woman had merely said her name. She then proceeded to autograph the book ‘To Emma Chisit……….’ . The reason for the confusion was Monica’s inexperience with the Australian dialect. She had misinterpreted ‘How much is it?’ as ‘Emma Chisit’.
Naturally the newspapers at the time had a field day with this. Editorial columns were full of contributions as people latched onto the new language of Australia, nicknamed Strine after a basilectal pronunciation of ‘Australian’ as [strain]. Here we call it Astrayan as we actually say it – [əˈstraejən]. Variations on this are Astryan, Stryan and Strine.
……..and so Astrayan emerged as the broad language of Australia. NOTE: Please read the disclaimer at the bottom on the Astrayan lexicon page if you have any complaints or criticisms regarding this page.
Some Strine Weblinks
Internet Resources: Australian English (Linguistic Description)
1. Macquarie University – Australian Voices
https://www.mq.edu.au/faculty-of-medicine-health-and-human-sciences/departments-and-schools/department-of-linguistics/australian-voices
A cornerstone resource for Australian English phonetics and sociophonetic variation. Contains audio recordings across regions and social groups, with analytical commentary on vowel realisation, prosody, and accent continua (Broad–General–Cultivated).
2. International Dialects of English Archive (IDEA)
https://www.dialectsarchive.com/australia
Primary-source recordings of Australian English speakers with metadata (age, region, background). Useful for empirical phonological analysis and comparative dialectology.
3. Australian National University – Australian English resources
https://cass.anu.edu.au/research/australian-english
Research-oriented material covering history, phonology, and lexicon. Often links to academic papers and corpora dealing with diachronic development and regional variation.
4. La Trobe University – Australian English Linguistics
https://www.latrobe.edu.au/linguistics/research/australian-english
Focuses on contemporary linguistic research, especially sociolinguistic variation, contact phenomena, and discourse features in Australian English.
5. University of Sydney – Speech & Phonetics Lab
https://www.sydney.edu.au/arts/schools/school-of-literatures-art-and-media/our-research/centres-institutes-groups/speech-acoustics-lab.html
Technical phonetics resource base, including acoustic studies of Australian English vowels, consonants, and intonation patterns.
6. British Library – Sounds Familiar? (Australia section)
https://www.bl.uk/british-accents-and-dialects/articles/accents-and-dialects-of-australia
Concise but academically grounded overview of Australian English phonology and dialect typology, with audio exemplars and commentary.
7. University of Melbourne – Australian English Phonetics
https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/school-of-languages-and-linguistics/research/projects/australian-english
Research outputs on phonological systems, including vowel shifts, prosodic features, and ongoing sound change in urban Australian speech.
8. Cambridge University Press – Varieties of English (AusE overview)
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/varieties-of-english/australian-english
Scholarly overview covering phonology, grammar, and lexis within a World Englishes framework—useful as a structured descriptive baseline.
🗣️ Internet Resources: Strine / Broad Australian English (Phonology & Informal Structure)
1. Let Stalk Strine (archival excerpts & analysis)
https://archive.org/details/letstalkstrine
The foundational stylised representation of Strine. While humorous, it encodes real phonological processes: vowel reduction, elision, assimilation, and connected speech phenomena.
2. Nose Tone Unturned (follow-up analyses)
https://archive.org/details/nosetoneunturned
Extends the Strine system, illustrating morphophonemic compression and prosodic rhythm—useful for analysing Broad Australian speech caricature vs reality.
3. Macquarie University – Broad Australian English samples
https://www.mq.edu.au/faculty-of-medicine-health-and-human-sciences/departments-and-schools/department-of-linguistics/australian-voices/broad-australian-english
Directly relevant to “Strine”: authentic recordings of Broad accents with phonetic commentary. Demonstrates real-world correlates of the stylised Strine system.
4. International Dialects of English Archive – Broad/vernacular speakers
https://www.dialectsarchive.com/search?q=australia+broad
Searchable corpus where more vernacular, working-class, or regional speakers approximate what is popularly labelled “Strine.”
5. Australian English: Pronunciation and Transcription (supporting materials)
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/australian-english-pronunciation-and-transcription
Highly technical phonetic treatment; crucial for understanding the actual sound system underlying Strine-like features (diphthong shifts, vowel centralisation, etc.).
6. University of Edinburgh – Accent & Dialect resources (AusE)
https://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/research/gsound/
Includes comparative phonetic data useful for situating Broad Australian English within wider English phonological systems.
7. The Phonetics and Phonology of Australian English (supplementary materials)
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/phonetics-and-phonology-of-australian-english
Definitive academic treatment of the sound system. Essential for separating genuine phonological patterns from exaggerated “Strine” representations.
8. University of Queensland – Sociolinguistics of Australian English
https://languages-cultures.uq.edu.au/research/linguistics
Includes research on informal speech, variation, and identity—key to understanding how “Strine” functions as a sociolect rather than a discrete variety.
▶️Youtube Resources
Aussiest. Interview. Ever. What a legend! – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QCgqQdmr0M
Can You Understand This Aussie Guy? | Australian Accent Lesson @ Aussie English – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTKBqdz-oDs
Can you understand his strong Aussie accent? | Ocker Aussie Accent | Real English Conversations – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UjLf2mIND8
Carl Barron – Uncultured – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QttLAcHyato
Most Aussie guys ever foil robbery despite a ‘busted plugger’ – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KavEoHGiU5I
Australia Zoo Tour with Steve Irwin – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlDXZywedvc
