'Makes me feel more Aussie': ethnic identity and vocative 'mate' in Australia

Abstract

A ‘quintessentially Australian’ feature of English (Rendle-Short, 2009: 245), vocative 'mate' has commonly been said to carry a special connection with Australian identity and culture (e.g. Wierzbicka, 1997). However, precisely how this can be measured within a population is yet to be established. This paper analyses the reported use of the address term 'mate' by Australians of a Non-English Speaking Background (NESB) and its relation to self-perceived ethnic identity. Data was collected from 101 participants of varying ethnic backgrounds using a written questionnaire observing self-reported use of 'mate' and attitudes towards its use. Results demonstrate that, overall, usage patterns for NESB Australians are similar to those found for Australians of an English speaking background (Rendle-Short, 2009), with significant variation in use across gender groups. Though they reported using the term less overall, females using 'mate' claimed to do so with a greater range of addressees than male respondents, reporting a use pertaining less to the ‘traditional’ masculine and Anglo-Celtic associations of 'mate' (Rendle-Short, 2009; Wierzbicka, 1997; Wilkes, 1985) and suggesting a more innovative use of the vocative. This would follow the widely accepted notion that young females are the most innovative within a community in situations of ongoing language change (Labov, 1990; Trudgill, 1972). The influence of identity in language use is widely accepted in sociolinguistic work and it has been proposed that ‘individuals whose ethnic identity is important to them will show more ethnic marking in their language than those who have chosen to assimilate within the dominant group’ (Clyne, Eisikovits & Tollfree, 2001: 226). This claim has however been made without a means for measuring ethnic identity. Such has been developed by Hoffman and Walker (2010) with an ‘Ethnic Orientation (EO) Survey’. As applied in the present study, the survey featured questions relating to ethnicity and community language use. Based on answers to 33 questions, respondents were assigned an overall EO score along a continuum and sorted into ‘low’, ‘mid’ and ‘high’ EO groups, with those scoring highly said to identify strongly with their ethnic heritage, those scoring lower identifying with it less, and so, presumably relating more to an Australian identity. EO was found to correlate with reported use of vocative 'mate', and actually offered a better account than groupings based on time spent in Australia. Respondents in the high EO group claimed to use the vocative less often than those in the low EO group, where the term was also used across a broader range of addressees, including females and other members of the same ethnic group. This would suggest a more widespread and innovative use for some participants, stepping away from the term’s traditional sense of masculine and Anglo-Celtic exclusivity. Results indicate that for the NESB Australians studied here perceived use of vocative 'mate' is associated with affiliation to Australian society, many seeing it as a tool of assimilation. As one participant wrote: ‘['mate'] gives a sense of an Australian identity despite my skin colour’ (female, 24, second generation, low EO) Show more