A communications specialist from Victoria’s University reckons that 80 per cent of Australians talk like they’re drunk, even when sober.
News Ltd reports on hilarious research by Dean Frenkel, who “has studied the Australian accent and has discovered an alcoholic slur introduced by early settlers”.
“The one thing in common all the cultures had when they came to Australia was alcohol and it brought people together,” Mr Frenkel says.
“The early stages of colonial Australia happened under the influence and given that speech is like the flu, it’s contagious, when people talked they were handing these habits down.
“We are teaching our children to speak drunk — it’s so bizarre.”
Mr Frenkel says the tendency to slur meant that the “Australian” alphabet really only had 23 letters.
“Our a’s sound like e’s so we may as well start the alphabet with b,” he said.
“We also drop our t’s and l’s a lot of the time’ – including when saying “Straya.”
