Australian English

It is a non-rhotic variety of English spoken by most native born Australians. Phonologically, it is one of the most regionally homogeneous language varieties in the world. As with most dialects of English, it is distinguished primarily by it’s vowel phonology.

Relationship of Australian English to other varieties: Australian English pronunciation is most similar to that of New Zeland English: many people from other parts of the world often can’t distinguish them but there are differences.

Australian English pronunciation is also similar to the South African English dialect, dialects from the South-East of Britain, particulary Cockney and Received Pronunciation. Like these, it is non-rhotic, and has the trap-bath split – a vowel split that occurs mainly in southern varieties of English (including Received Pronunciation), by which the Early Modern English phoneme /æ/ was lengthened in certain environments and ultimately merged with the long /α:/ of father. (Wells 1982)

Phonological and phonetic distinctions of AuE. Three major varieties can be distinguished in AuE:

• Cultivated (or Educated) Australian – is an accent used by about 10 per cent of the population;

• General Australian – is the most characteristic type of AuE pronunciation. It is, so to speak, the language of communication. It is used by at least 55 persent of Australians and it is type of accent heard on TV, radio and other public institutions;

• Broad Australian (Uneducated, Popular Australian) is a substandart accent distinguished from the others chiefly by its vowels, the nature of its diphtongs and a good deal of nasality – an ‘Australian twang’.

It’s typical of AuE speakers to shorten words. It gives AuE its special style – informal, friendly, sometimes funny.

Shortened words: Barbecue = barbie

• The Australian Vowel System: Short vowels (monophtongs ), Long vowels (monophtongs, diphtongs ).

The auditory impression of a distinctive Australian accent lies in the vowel system especially in the way diphtongs are pronounced

1. RP /i:/ and /u:/ (as in see, do) are heard as diphtongs, e.g.

/I:/=/əI/ /u:/=/əu/

tea=/təΙ/, too=/təu/

Closing diphthрongs have the following counterparts in GAuE:

• /eI/=/ΛI/ e.g. same=/sΛim/;

• /aI/, especially in the word final position,=/oI/ e.g. time=/toIm/, high=/hI/;

• /aυ/=/æυ/ e.g. now=/næu/,cow=/kæu/.

GAuE speakers show a general tendency to avoid the pure /a:/. There is, for instance a preference for the short /æ/ before two consonants, e.g/ plant=/plænt/

The consonants in GAuE are the same or very similar to RP consonants. The most observable differences are as follows:

1. The omission of some consonants, especially /k/, /t/, /g/, /h/

facts=/fæks/, half past two=/’a:pa:stu/;

2. The substitution and insertion of consonants in certain words, morning=/’mo:nən/;

3. There are no glottal stops (in spite of all the similarities of AuE to Cockney )

Word stress Very few differences in Word stress between RP and GAuE speech may be observed.

The first tendency is to allow full value to unstressed vowels, e.g. subject /’sΛbdzect/, bankrupt /bænkrΛpt/, -day /dei/in the names of the days of the week.

In a similar way the endings –ial, -ius, -ium which in RP are often reduced to monosyllables, are usually disyllabic in GAuS, e.g. genial /’dzi:nΙəl/, helium /’hi:lΙəm/.

The second accentual tendency is strongly in favor of keeping the stress in the first syllable, e.g.

incline /’ ΙnklaΙn/, defect /’dΙfekt/, relay /’rΙleΙ/

Intonation GAuE Intonation is investigated much less than its other phonological components.

There is general opinion that GAuE and RP intonational patterns are practically the same, but RP intonation is “more lively and vigorous” than GAuE. There is a common tendency in GAuE to “use longer word-groups”.

It is characterized by a slower rhythm which has a quality of monotony. There is a strong tendency to stress words like “by”, “and”, “to”, “in”, etc. in the sentence.

Summing up principle differences between RP and GAuE, the fallowing conclusions can be drawn:

• There are no inventory differences between GAuE and RP vowels and consonants. The existing differences are mainly selectional.

• GAuE vowels have a general tendency to become more front and closer, and to be diphtongized.

• There is an avoidance of pure back vowels.

• Accentual and intonation differences are not numeruos and need further thorough instrumental investigation.