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Monday, May 23, 2022

How do you pronounce the new Australian PM's Name ??

Albania is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares land borders with Montenegro,  Kosovo, North Macedoniaand Greece.  Tirana is its capital and largest city.   The term Albania is the medieval Latin name of the country. It may be derived from the Illyrian tribe of Albani, from  the city of Albanopolis located northeast of Durrës. During the Middle Ages, the Albanians called their country Arbëri or Arbëni and referred to themselves as Arbëreshë or Arbëneshë.Likely that today there would be so many searches in the web on ‘Albania’ !!  (I did !!)



Labour has won 72 seats but needs 76 to govern without relying on the Greens or independents for confidence and supply - voting for the government’s budget legislation… .. .. following !! 

The 2022 Australian federal election was held on 21 May 2022 to elect members of the 47th Parliament of Australia. The incumbent Liberal/National coalition government led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison sought to win a fourth consecutive term in office. It was challenged by the opposition, the Labor Party led by Anthony Albanese. The Greens, United Australia, One Nation, other minor parties, and independents also contested the election.  Late on election night, Morrison conceded the election and announced his forthcoming resignation as Liberal leader and  Albanese was sworn in as Prime Minister today.

Anthony Albanese has officially been sworn in as Australia’s 31st prime minister, marking the first time a person with a non-Anglo surname has held the office.How do you pronounce the new Australian Prime Minister ? It’s been hypothesised the prime minister may feel a sense of conflict about fully embracing his Italian surname as he was brought up by his mother and only met his Italian father, Carlo, after his mother’s death in 2002.  Italian isn’t an inflexible language and has various regional differences and dialects. According to ancestry.com, the title Albanese hails from southern Italy and is an ethnic name for “an Albanian”, describing someone from Albania or one of the Albanian settlements in Italy.



The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister heads the executive branch of the federal government of Australia and is also accountable to federal parliament under the principles of responsible government. Formally appointed by the governor-general, the office of the prime minister is governed by Westminster system convention as it is not described in the Australian constitution. To become prime minister, a politician should be able to command the confidence of the House of Representatives. As such, the prime minister is typically the leader of the majority party or coalition. Prime ministers do not have a set duration or number of terms, but an individual's term generally ends when their political party loses a federal election, or they lose or relinquish the leadership of their party.

Thirty-one people have served as prime minister, the first of whom was Edmund Barton taking office on 1 January 1901 following federation. The longest-serving prime minister was Robert Menzies, who served over 18 years, and the shortest-serving was Frank Forde, who served one week.

The incoming parliament will be the most diverse in the nation’s history, and comes at a time when half of Australia’s six state premiers have non-Anglo surnames. Despite more than three decades in public life, the pronunciation of Albanese’s Italian surname remains a thing of controversy. In short, Albanese has used, and answers to, multiple variations of his surname. In interviews, he’s told reporters it’s easier to just call him Albo. Early in his parliamentary career, Albanese pronounced his surname “Al-ba-neez”, rhyming with cheese. In her 2016 biography of Albanese, the Saturday Paper journalist Karen Middleton said that gradually the pronunciation of his name became “more flexible”, as a form of political convenience. Speaking on Channel 10’s The Project in 2019, Albanese was played a clip of politicians pronouncing his surname in alternate ways, including members of his own party.

“So I’m not terribly precious about it, which is why Albo is a lot easier; you can’t get that wrong.” – said the new Prime Minister.

Interesting ! 

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
23.5.2022. 

1 comment:

  1. Nice one .. literarture as also current affairs - Sujatha

    ReplyDelete