@casbot71

1 week ago

Steve Irwin became famous in America first, before in Australia.
So many of us, upon first hearing him, thought he was a caricature.

But he had an exaggerated hyper excited accent added on to a very country bumpkin Aussie Mate accent that average Australians do as a joke.... we're "Aussieing it up" trying to be as blokey as possible.
And for some reason, Australians in America have their aussie accent become broader when living there. If you factor in that Steve had an American wife with a strong American accent, then she probably had the same effect of making his accent more broad as well.

But Irwin probably had a speech defect (along with ADHHHD!), and like Sean Connery was speaking in a strong accent incorrectly.
Other Scots in Connery's home region don't sound like he did and thought he spoke funny.
It's just Connery's slight lisp combined really beautifully with the local regional accent.
If his parents had emigrated to Ireland when he was two and moved next door to the Neeson family, he wouldn't have ended up sounding like Lian Neeson.
His speech issues might not have synergised so well with the local accent either.

And if Steve Irwin had as a baby been moved to the same street that you grew up in, he would sound nothing like you and still speak with a strange cadence.
Twice as fast as you do.

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