ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

G'day all, I'm in a bit of a bind as I've received 2 different suggestions for the syllable count for "Australian" yank & pom syllable counters say it's 3, "Aus-tra-lian", but I'm sure it's 4, "Aus-tra-li-an". can anyone eas my mind please.....

G'day Dave

I don't think there is a definite answer on this one. The first two sources that I have used as a reference on this both say three syllables. The first source I checked was my Macquarie Australian Dictionary - Aus-trail-ya. The second source was my rhyming dictionary, "The Poet's Manual and Rhyming Dictionary" by Frances Stillman, which also favours this pronunciation.

Dictionary.com on the web was interesting. The first reference on there said the same as the above in its definition. In the second, which showed a phonetic spelling, it had four syllables.

Other dictionaries may show four syllables too.

Regards


John Peel

If you spoke like the Queen when she visits Or - stray -le-A then I guess it has 4 but I've always reckoned it should be 3 because we tend to say Oz-strayl-ya. Being a well educated Pommie by birth and having been tort to speak propa by me Ma I can see that it has 4 silly bulls, but the the Ozzy sheila who shares me body reckons 3

Thank you Peely & Mause, I think, maybe, perhaps, sort of you have helped I'm gunna stick with 4.

Will you be using the piece in a competition or similar ?
Jim.

There are certainly four syllables in Australian, but in practice only 1 stressed syllable and the unstressed syllables are 'skipped' over, not counted like some sort of mathematical equation.
If someone said " u-STRAY- yun, we know exactly what they mean.
That's the way it would be done in any performance and I argue till the cows come home that written poetry should follow suit the usual spoken practice.

And how is the sylllable/stress count worked out in the first line of Advance Australia Fair. hmmmm
deDA deDA deDA DADA.
de DA de DA de DA.
au STRAY ans ALL let US reJOICE,
for WE are YOUNG and FREE
see what I mean?

As Robin Williams says to the poetry class in the movie Dead Poets Society, " we are not laying pipe, we are doing poetry "

But if you are intent on pleasing some adjudicator then I guess you will have to go with the flow.

Thank you blokes for your replies, I do & always have pronounced Australia 'Aus-tra-li-a' so I will stick with 4. Jim, not an official competition as such, the poem & line in question is one of my Haiku which traditionally has a syllable count of 5-7-5, this line "Sun warms Australian bush" according to a yank has 6 syllables but, I'm sticking with 7 syllables........

Again thank you everyone.