The enduring ubiquity of ‘naur,’ Gen Z’s favourite objection

“Naur” is all over the place, however a latest tweet claimed it had reached a very notable echelon of ubiquity. “Gen Z is not going to like listening to me say this…however ‘naurrrr’ and ‘saurrr good’ is simply the brand new ‘ermahgerd,”’ it mentioned, referring to the 2012 web meme.

Positive, there are particular similarities. Each “r,” with “ermahgerd” stretching your mouth horizontally and “naur” stretching it vertically. And in the identical means you may “communicate” in ermahgerd (“Twitter is a hellhole,” can be “Twerter is a herrhoe” for instance), you may communicate in “naur”… it is referred to as talking with an Australian accent.

On-line, Individuals have provide you with new spellings of phrases to point they’re being mentioned within the accent, altering a phrase like “koalas are so cute” to “koalarrs ah saurr cute.”

However whereas ermahgerd was born out of the joyous early web as a strategy to categorical nerdy pleasure, “naur” has far more sophisticated roots and makes use of. We break them down under with the assistance of Australian voice and dialect coach Amy Hume, who teaches Voice on the Victorian School of the Arts on the College of Melbourne.

What does “naur” imply and the way do you utilize it?

“Naur” is “no” spelled in an Australian accent. Extra precisely, it’s “no” spelled in what an Australian accent sounds wish to Individuals. “Whenever you inform an Australian that there is an ‘r’ in the way in which we pronounce ‘no’ they’re like ‘Mmm… no, there’s not,'” says Hume.

That is as a result of the Australian accent is non-rhotic, so an “r” is not pronounced until it comes earlier than a vowel. The American accent is rhotic, so when a phrase is spelt with an “r,” a “exhausting r” sound is used. When Individuals apply their pronunciation to the Australian “no,” it leads to the phonetic spelling of “naur.” (To an Australian, “naur” appears like it will be pronounced “naw.”)

“Naur” has diverse and versatile use that adjustments with capitalization and a, u, and r additions. 

It may be a softer, extra playful “no”:

Sam: My day was going so effectively, however I simply spilled sizzling tea throughout myself on the subway 🙁
Alex: Omg naurrr

It may be used rather than “wait” or “maintain on”: 

@Sam on Twitter: naur as a result of zendaya and tom holland are so cute 

“Naur” exists as a result of “no,” “nope,” and “nah” now not lower it. In simply the previous 4 years, we have witnessed the breakdown of American politics, international warming disasters, and the COVID-19 pandemic. There are solely so many instances you may categorical worry or disapproval with “no” earlier than it loses its that means. In a post-no society, “naur” is the following iteration of that feeling.

Sam: So there is a new COVID-19 variant, and it is spreading tremendous rapidly in massive cities.
Alex: Naur
Sam: I additionally simply heard they’re making a fourth ‘Implausible Beasts and The place to Discover Them’ film
Alex: Naur
Sam: And J.Okay. Rowling is directing
Alex: NAAAURRRR

Like “no,” “naur” has an nearly infinite variety of meanings when spoken aloud. It may be chewed by rapidly or pulled out right into a drawl, increasing to incorporate as much as 4 vowels and three consonants in a single syllable, relying on the pronunciation. The that means of “Naur” shifts with context, which suggests it might imply something you need it to.

How do you pronounce “naur?”

Hume says that, to be taught an accent, you have to grasp that accent’s “oral posture” — the setting of muscle groups as they’ve toned to an accent.”

“A typical Australian speaker’s setting is more likely to be form of pursed lip corners and the lips do not actually transfer that a lot,” she says, “There’s not that a lot exercise within the cheeks both, and the tongue is fairly low within the mouth. In a basic American setting, there’s slightly bit extra elevate within the cheeks, extra motion within the prime lip, and the tongue sits increased within the mouth.”

To pronounce “naur,” Hume says take it straightforward. “Your tongue has to loosen up, decreasing again. Think about placing your tongue on like a deck chair beside a very nice pool. Your tongue is simply so chill-axed. After which you must form of shut your lips. [In Australia] we are saying ‘do not let the flies in.'” The Australian pronunciation of the top of “no” ends in a sound extra akin to a “w” than an “r,” like “na-oooo-wuh.”

All that muscularity make it a lot tougher for Individuals to undertake convincing Australian accents than for Australians to do an American one, says Hume. “The Australian tongue is so relaxed that after you begin exercising it, you may elevate it and [achieve] numerous American accents. Whereas for Individuals, it is tougher to drop the tongue.” Simply final week, Aussie actor Felix Mallard of Netflix’s Ginny and Georgia addressed his method to switching between his native and American accent, together with tongue placement and issue of hitting the “r” in each phrase excellent.

Plus, Aussie mimicry abilities perhaps be sharper due to life-long publicity to American tradition. In Australia, “you may’t go an hour with out listening to some form of American accent due to a TV present or some advert on-line or no matter,” explains Hume, “whereas as an American can pinpoint these key occasions [when they’ve] heard Australian accents.”

Not fairly mastering it? Don’t fret, it takes a while to get used to an entire new sound, says Hume, “and also you’re creating an entire new neural pathway to make that sound.”

The place did “naur” come from?

Although Know Your Meme pegs 2021(Opens in a brand new window) as the start of the “naur” revolution, it probably began earlier, round 2018. In September of that 12 months, a tweet studying “Australians be like…..naur” gained greater than 17,000 likes.

That very same 12 months, the worldwide development in Okay-pop coincided with the debut of Australian idols in main teams, most notably Bang Chan and Felix of Stray Youngsters and later Jake of ENHYPEN, who joined Blackpink’s Rosé as a part of the trade’s “Aussie line.” Fan-made YouTube compilations of the road’s English-speaking moments interviews and dwell streams have garnered tens of millions of views(Opens in a brand new window), however Bang Chan and Felix’s have proved to be their nation’s most vocal evangelists. They often alternate “g’day mates,” extol the virtues of Vegemite, and revel of their distinctive pronunciation.

When followers edited movies of “Aussie line” moments, they spelled out every syllable on display because the idol as they heard the idol pronounce it, elongating “good” to “noice,” for instance, and “no” to “naur.” Followers started utilizing “naur” on stan Twitter.

In 2019, clips from the Australian tv present H2O: Simply Add Water that includes the characters saying “Cleo, no!” in wealthy Australian accents grew in style on TikTok, as did imitations of these traces.

A fast Google search exhibits the phrase actually taking off in Could 2021, when mainstream Twitter acquired ahold of it and customers imagined phrases wherein “no” was changed by “naur” and different Aussie-fied phrases like “saur” (for “so”). It is grow to be so prevalent that manufacturers have jumped into the fray, with Netflix posting a TikTok rating(Opens in a brand new window) of one of the best “naurs” from H2O: Simply Add Water in November 2022.

Why will we like saying “naur?”

Hume is aware of how a lot non-Aussies like to imitate Aussie accents. “I’ve lots of American mates and each time I say ‘no,’ they repeat it. So it is a sound that has all the time stood out to their ears. As human beings, we’re wired to attach [and mimicry] is nearly instinctive.”

It is also a means of processing the world round us. That is why youngsters throughout the U.S. have picked up Peppa Pig’s British accent(Opens in a brand new window) and discuss consuming “brekky” after watching Australian youngsters’s cartoon Bluey on Disney Plus.

Mimicking an accent can be an enormous think about becoming in, particularly for youngsters. “If somebody strikes [to another] nation whereas they are a youngster, it is fairly probably that their accent would change [unconsciously]. Linguistic analysis exhibits that after the age of 11, it is extra of a acutely aware selection.”

After all, “naur” additionally simply feels good to say.

“There are oral postures that we will tackle for enjoyable,” Hume says. For instance, “ermahgerd.” Whenever you say it out loud, she explains, “you are pulling your lips sideways slightly bit, holding your tongue in a sure place, and making a face. It appears like a dwell motion emoji, actually, does not it? It is like ‘I’ve acquired a face and I acquired phrases to place to it. So it does really feel fairly satisfying” and naur, in all of its many types, is simply as scrumptious.

What do Australians consider “naur?”

A pal who not too long ago travelled to Canada and Cincinnati advised Hume how prevalent “naur” has grow to be, and she or he says she’s accomplished about 20 radio interviews up to now 4 weeks concerning the international curiosity within the phrase. “What’s grow to be obvious to me is how little Australians learn about how we communicate,” Hume says, noting that the most typical response to the “naur” phenomenon is “inform us extra about our accent!” [Editor’s note: Can confirm. I don’t know what’s funnier or more fascinating: watching Americans nail our accent perfectly, or watching them attempt it and hearing an absolute dog’s brekky of mangled Cockney vowels come tumbling out. The latter is like a child drawing a picture of their family — it’s funny because they’re bad at it, it’s nice because it’s affectionate, and it can also be mortifying because of what features they choose to emphasize. — Caitlin Welsh, Australia Editor]

Total, Hume says, “There’s an amazing group consciousness that is coming to the pronunciation of the phrase.” Australian entertainers have adopted a standardized Australian accent in the identical means that American celebrities and newscasters adopted the transatlantic accent within the first half of the twentieth century. That has led to some disgrace.

“We have got this factor in Australia referred to as the cultural cringe(Opens in a brand new window); we cringe at how we sound or how we glance,” Hume explains. “There’s discomfort with our personal tradition which, to me, goes again to colonization. It is about aspirations to Britain… If I am going to the theater, or I see an Australian movie, and persons are talking [in a standardized Australian accent], then I cringe at myself as a result of I do not communicate like that.”

And Hume says it is nonetheless regular for Australian actors to be requested to eliminate their accents totally. “There’s an expectation that if [an American production is] filming [in Australia], you must go in to the audition sounding American, so I do lots of work teaching Australian actors in American accents.”

However the vowel-laden, non-standardized “no” has by no means really gone away. “Australians have been speaking like that for the reason that nation was colonized. It has been there for 200 years,” says Hume. Now it is thriving as a result of TikTok has given a platform to on a regular basis folks, unaffected by standardization. “Somebody from some distant a part of Australia data their voice, and so they have not had any form of manipulation of their accent.” Take H2O: Simply Add Water, an origin level of the “naur” meme: “That was a youngsters’ TV present the place you had younger individuals who hadn’t been to drama faculty, so their pure voices are on display. It’s a suburban present, and it was simply placed on domestically.”

After watching the latest rise of “naur,” Hume has modified the subject of her grasp’s analysis to focus to how the Australian accent has been portrayed on stage. “My speculation is that the standardization of accents has been a contributing issue to why [Australians] do not learn about their accent,” she says. “Naur” could also be a phenomenon within the U.S. and on-line, however its greatest impression could possibly be on Australians themselves. “Your accent is part of your id,” says Hume, and gnawing on “naur” might help Aussies be taught extra about their very own.