AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

The remaining major areas where English is used as a mother tongue are in the Antipodes. Australia was discovered by James Cook in 1770, and within twenty years Britain had established its first penal colony at Sydney, thus relieving the pressure on the overcrowded gaols of England. From 1788, for over fifty years, about 130,000 prisoners were transported. 'Free' settlers, as they were called, began to enter the country from the very beginning, but they did not achieve substantial numbers until the mid-nineteenth century. From then on, the immigrants came in increasing numbers. By 1850, the population of Australia was about 400,000, and by 1900 nearly four million.

In New Zealand, the story started later and moved more slowly. A few Europeans settled in the country in the 1700s, but the official colony was not established until 1840. There was then a considerable increase - from around 2,000 Europeans in 1840 to 25,000 in 1850, and to three quarters of a million by 1900.

The main source of settlers, and thus the main influence on the language, was Britain. Many of the convicts came from London and Ireland, and features of Cockney and Irish English can be traced in the characteristic pronunciation patterns (the Australian 'twang') still heard today. Many of the words now thought of as Australian in fact started out in Britain, and some can still be heard in British local dialects - such as dinkum, cobber, tucker (cf. tuck shop) and joker (person). On the other hand, in recent years the influence of American English has been apparent, so that the country now displays a curious lexical mixture, in some ways resembling that found in Canada. Thus we find American truck, elevator, and freeway alongside British petrol, boot (of a car) and tap