It’s interesting how language reflects our sense of cultural identity and this is evident in the Scottish Voice project, which makes a high-quality, synthetic Scottish voice available free to Scottish schools. The project website states that: “We believe there is a strong cultural and educational imperative for pupils in Scotland to be able to read and listen to Scottish curriculum resources spoke using a Scottish synthetic voice.”

Accents and idiomatic expressions have a powerful appeal and no less so than in Australia, which has its own particular linguistic “flavour”.

I wonder if this would fly in Australia – flattened vowels, anyone?

The Australian vernacular, sometimes perjoratively called “strine” (think Steve Irwin and you’ve got it), is often seen as something that needs to be sanitised and is believed to reflect a lack of cultivation (a hangover of the infamous cultural cringe that has long plagued Antipodeans). According to Wikipedia, “most linguists consider there to be three main varieties of Australian English: Broad, General and Cultivated Australian English. They are part of a continuum, reflecting variations in accent. They often, but not always, reflect the social class or educational background of the speaker.” Interestingly, it says that “cultivated Australian English is now spoken by less than 10% of the population”.

Perhaps this is because Australia is becoming increasingly diverse and is reported to be:

• The second largest Irish, Maori and Maltese country.
• The third largest English country.
• The fourth largest Scottish country.
• The fifth largest Greek, Vietnamese and Dutch country.
• The seventh largest German country.
• The ninth largest Italian country.
• The eleventh largest Serbian country.
• The fifteenth largest Han Chinese country.
• The sixteenth Turkish country.
• The seventeenth largest Indian country

What do ya reckon?