Abstract
As soon as distinctive linguistic features started appearing in Australia, Australian English (AusE) was placed very low in the hierarchy of Englishes with its perceived informality, egalitarianism, swearing, and convict heritage, and it took a long time till it was perceived as a variety in its own right - even by Australians themselves. This linguistic insecurity is closely related to the construction of national identity and to this day Australia suffers from cultural cringe. National identity is, therefore, still an important topic of Australian literature.
To trace the development of postcolonial varieties of English on their journey to linguistic independence which goes hand in hand with the construction of national identity, Schneider (2007) devised the Dynamic Model of development that defines five developmental stages. There is consensus that Australian English now finds itself in the last stage, Differentiation (1980s-). Based on a close reading of two Australian novels, Peter Carey's Illywhacker (1985) and Hsu-Ming Teo's Behind the Moon (2005), which in their timelines together span most of Australia's modern history, from the end of the nineteenth century until the present, this chapter attempts to contextualise the relationship between language and the development of national identity within the stages of Schneider's Dynamic Model and to interpret them with regard to the characteristics of each stage. This is achieved via the analysis of metalinguistic commentaries that reveal attitudes to the vernacular in Australia and how these attitudes were influenced by prescriptivist ideology enforcing Standard British English associated with social status and prestige.
Schneider's brief survey of the scenario in Australia suggests that the periods when Australians have truly embraced their vernacular are the Nativisation period around the time of independence (1901) and the Differentiation period which saw a resurgence of self-confident nationalism, whereas in the Endonormative stabilisation period it was still perceived as a lesser variety even by Australians, despite the acceptance and codification of the variety. This is apparent from the analysis of Illywhacker and Behind the Moon, which has shown that a positive or negative evaluation of the vernacular is strongly connected to confidence in Australian culture, which is likely to be stronger in periods of increased nationalism. The commentaries in the voice of the characters and/or the narrator confirm that language was used as a political tool to assert allegiance either to Britain or to Australia before the Differentiation stage. Both novels suggest that the ideology which promotes BrSE as more prestigious is still alive and strong in the twenty-first century, albeit more strongly among non-native Australians, such as incoming migrants.