For me (and I assume for most people) the South African accent is far far far different to both Australian and New Zealand which are pretty similar. Which makes sense geography and influence wise.
1 month ago (edited) | 11
Aussie here. It's in the vowels. I can't describe it, but I know it when I hear it
1 month ago | 1
New Zealand accents have that characteristic vowel shift (bad->bed->bid) that make them instantly recognizable
1 month ago | 3
I can reliably tell apart South African (I had some exposure to South African television at one point growing up, and know several South Africans where I currently live), but I have to consciously pay attention to tell apart Australian and New Zealand accents, so I went with the first choice to be safe. Sometimes even some British accents vaguely sound Antipodean.
1 month ago | 2
As a foreigner who’s been living in Australia for a year, I can easily tell these three accents apart now. The Australian accent is super recognizable to me I can pick it up instantly. If someone sounds Australian but says words like “ten” and “pen” more like “tin” and “pin,” that’s when I know it’s a New Zealand accent. The South African accent shares quite a few similarities with the Australian one, but their t are often rolled which makes it quite distinct once you notice it. If we go a bit deeper, I think there are also some subtle intonation differences between Australians and New Zealanders — Aussies tend to use “up talk” more often, but that part’s still a bit hard for me to pick out sometimes. That’s just how I’ve come to understand the differences as an outsider!
1 month ago | 2
I'm a kiwi, I can definitely hear the difference between an aussie accent and a kiwi accent but I can't really recognise a south african accent, even though there are a lot of south africans in New Zealand
1 month ago | 2
from essex (in the uk), so a fair amount of us have some sorta contact with the (typically white/afrikaans, not sure which) south african accent. the trifeca are different though ive confused them sometimes until they say enough words for me to realise otherwise i think id be able to group nz/aus accents (i.e. differenciate them), but not be able to tell which group is which per se
1 month ago | 2
I am American, and I have trouble telling Australian English apart from English English
1 month ago
| 1
i haven't spent enough time listening to a NZ accent to properly be able to identify it
1 month ago | 1
In the past, before I got to watching Kiwi and Aussie TV shows, I used to struggle telling them apart. Nowadays, I am pretty sure I can tell them apart. It took exposure to happen.
1 month ago (edited) | 1
I can easily tell the south African accent apart from the Australian and New Zealand accent. I have noticed that the south African accent has a lot of phonetic similarities with the dutch accent. Some slang words in the south African accent i also know from dutch, because they come from the south African language that is closely related to dutch. It is way more difficult for me to tell the New Zealand and Australian accents apart
1 month ago | 2
I struggle to remember what South African accents sound like
1 month ago | 2
My mental accent-vibes flowchart, for my Englishman's brain, goes like this: -Do they sound South African? (Yes) -> South African. -Do they sound Antipodean? (Yes) -Now that you consciously think about it, do they also sound a bit South African? (Yes) - Kiwi (No) - Aussie I don't think Kiwi vs. Aussie is difficult, but it's not as intuitive. It often requires that active thought, even if that thought is easily answered (but it'd be the same for differentiating some English accents from the other end of the country to me).
1 month ago | 2
Falkland Islands English is a fun one. From what I've heard from clips of it, it has features of both English accents and Australian accents (although it sounds distinct from Cultivated Australian).
1 month ago
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South african is the most distinct probably , though I'm more likely to mix ot up with NZ than australian . I can usually tell it apart , maybe with only a small sample I wont be sure but if i were to have a full conversation with someone I'm almost certain I'd know . Aus and NZ are harder , but I can usually tell them apart too ( I feel like) , but I'm sure theres many times where a Ive assumed speaker from NZ was australian -> maybe a lot of times (?) , and never realised . Maybe there are a couple accents in NZ and i can only recognise some of them idk There are cases where i will think some australians sound kiwi and Im not sure what causes it . Again , the longer I listen the more likely I am to know . I find AUS speech sounds quite similar to The english south east ( I am from the Midlands)
1 month ago (edited) | 1
I can pretty easily tell NZ and AUZ apart. It depends on the accent in SAF tho, sometimes, they sound like an aussie imitating a really old RP speaker. Many of them have pretty obvious South African accents tho Ive had the least exposure to South African accents out of all the choices so that's probably why Im less confident about them. Edit: Youtube app is bugging and not letting me edit my comment. It keeps deleting a line from it. 😢 Very sa
1 month ago (edited) | 1
Rhea's Language Academy
ACCENT QUESTION...
How easily are you able to tell Australian accents, South African accents, and New Zealand accents apart from one another?
DON'T answer this poll if you're from those places!! I've made a separate poll for all you mob!
1 month ago | [YT] | 15