Aussies with funny accents should blame it on the Foster’s, says a Melbourne-based language expert.

Dean Frenkel, of Victoria University, believes the quirky Australian dialect stems from early settlers’ booze-filled conversations.

“The Australian alphabet cocktail was spiked by alcohol,” Frenkel says in Melbourne’s The Age newspaper. “Our forefathers regularly got drunk together and, through their frequent interactions, unknowingly added an alcoholic slur to our national speech patterns.”

Frenkel thinks it’s time for Australians to start speaking more clearly so they can become a “cleverer country.”