Australian English

Australian English is the name given to the group of dialects spoken in Australia that form a major variety of the English language. English is the primary language spoken throughout Australia. Despite being given no official status in the constitution, English is Australia's de facto official language and is used by the majority of the population.

Australian English was distinctly recognisable as different from British English shortly after the founding of the colony of New South Wales in 1788. It arose from the intermingling of children of early settlers from a great variety of mutually intelligible dialectal regions of the British Isles and quickly developed into a major variety of English. The earliest form of Australian English was first spoken by the children of the colonists born into the colony of New South Wales. This very first generation of children created a new dialect that was to become the language of the nation. The Australian-born children in the new colony were exposed to a wide range of different dialects from all over the British Isles, in particular from Ireland and South East England, with a large proportion of Cockneys.

Some elements of Aboriginal languages and Torres Strait Island languages have been adopted by Australian English—mainly as names for places, flora and fauna (for example dingo) and local culture. Many such are localised, and do not form part of general Australian use, while others, such as kangaroo, boomerang, budgerigar, wallaby and so on have become international. Among the changes brought by the 19th century gold rushes was the introduction of words, spellings, terms and usages from North American English. The words imported included some later considered to be typically Australian, such as dirt and digger and bonzer. The influx of American military personnel in World War II brought further American influence; seen in the enduring persistence of okay, you guys and gee. The American influence on North Queensland during and after World War II led to the localised adoption of terms such as bronco for the native brumby meaning wild horse, and cowboy for the native drover for a cattle or sheep herder.

Since the advent of film, however, the American influence on language in Australia has mostly come from popular culture and media. Where British and American vocabulary differs, Australians will in some cases favour an Australian usage (such as capsicum (for US bell pepper, UK red or green pepper), in some cases favour an American usage (such as eggplant for UK aubergine), and in some cases favour a British usage (such as mobile phone for US cell phone).

Sociocultural variation

Three main varieties of Australian English are spoken according to linguists: broad, general and cultivated. They are part of a continuum, reflecting variations in accent. They can, but do not always reflect the social class, education and urban or rural background of the speaker.

Broad Australian

Broad Australian English is recognisable and familiar to English speakers around the world and is prevalent nationwide, but is especially strong in rural areas. Examples of people with this accent are Steve Irwin, Paul Hogan and Julia Gillard. In Australia, this dialect is sometimes called Strine (or "Strayan"), a shortening of the word Australian, and a speaker of the dialect may be referred to as an Ocker.

Tests indicated that the Broad speakers demonstrated a greater tendency for syllable assimilation and consonant elision, were more likely to use weak consonants or restricted intonation (narrow pitch range), were more likely to speak slowly (drawl), and further, showed a greater tendency to exhibit pervasive nasality.

General Australian

The most common of Australian accents is known as General Australian English, and is used as a standard language for the purposes of television news broadcasts and advertising. This accent is especially prominent in urban Australia and it predominates in modern Australian films and television programmes and is used by, for example, Hugh Jackman, John Howard and Eric Bana.

Cultivated Australian

Cultivated Australian English has some similarities to Received Pronunciation. It has become less common especially amongst younger generations. Cultivated Australian English has in the past been thought to indicate high social class or education, and is spoken by Kevin Rudd, Malcolm Fraser and Geoffrey Rush.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander English

Australian Aboriginal English refers to a dialect of Australian English used by a large proportion of Indigenous Australians. It is made up of a range of forms which developed differently in different parts of Australia, and are said to vary along a continuum, from forms close to Standard Australian English to more non-standard forms. There are distinctive features of accent, grammar, words and meanings, as well as language use. The dialect is not to be confused with Australian Kriol language, which is not mutually intelligible with Australian English but in fact a separate language spoken by over 30,000 people. On the Torres Strait Islands, a distinctive dialect known as Torres Strait English, the furthest extent of which is Torres Strait Creole, is spoken.

Ethnocultural varieties

The ethnocultural dialects are diverse accents in Australian English that are spoken by the minority groups, which are of non-English speaking background. A massive immigration from Asia and the Middle East has made a large increase in diversity and the will for people to show their cultural identity within the Australian context. These ethnocultural varieties contain features of General Australian English as adopted by the children of immigrants blended with some non-English language features, such as the Afro-Asiatic and Asian languages.

Phonological features

Australian English is a non-rhotic accent that is highly distinctive from other varieties of English. It shares most similarity with other Southern Hemisphere accents, in particular New Zealand English. Like most dialects of English it is distinguished primarily by its vowel phonology.

The vowels of Australian English can be divided into two categories: long and short vowels. The short vowels consist only of monophthongs. The long vowels consist of both monophthongs and diphthongs.

A long /æ:/ sound is found in the adjectives bad, mad, glad and sad, before the /g/ sound (for example, hag, rag, bag) and also in content words before /m/ and /n/ in the same syllable (for example, ham, tan, plant).

In some speakers, especially those with the Broad accent, the vowel in words like dad, back and lag will be shifted toward [ε].

In some varieties of Australian English, bad (with long [æ:]) and lad (with short [æ]) do not rhyme.

There is æ-tensing before a nasal consonant—the nasal sounds create changes in preceding vowels because air can flow into the nose during the vowel. Nasal consonants can also affect the articulation of a vowel. So for several speakers, the /æ:/ vowel in words like "jam", "man", "dam" and "hand" will be shifted towards [e].

Words like chance, plant, branch, sample (words containing the suffix -mand, -ant, -anch, -ance) mostly have an /æ/ vowel as in cat but there are some speakers who use the vowel in cart (/a:/) for these words, particularly in South Australia, which had a different settlement chronology and type than other parts of the country. Comparatively, most of the British accents use the back /а:/ sound.

The /i/ sound, used in tin, bit and sit, tends to be tenser than in other varieties of English, and may sometimes sound like it's shifted to /i:/ in the foreign ear. Thus, words like pin and kin will sound almost similar to peen and keen in the foreign ear. The final vowel in words like “happy” and “city”, which is typically /i/, is elongated to an /i:/ sound, so both will sound like happee and citee, respectively.

For many speakers, the vowel in words like "town" and "now" is [æu].

The vowel in words like "neat" and "feet" is [ei] sound where, for example, "neat" will be [neit].

The vowel in "high" may be [ai] for those with the Broad accent, so "buy" might sound like "boy" in the foreign ear. This is a direct influence from the Cockney accent.

Linking and intrusive R or epenthetic /r/

The /r/ sound can occur when a word that has a final “r” in the spelling comes before another word that starts with a vowel. For example, in “car alarm” the sound /r/ can occur in “car” because here it comes before another word beginning with a vowel. The words “far”, “far more” and “farm” do not contain an /r/ but “far out” will contain the linking /r/ sound because the next word starts with a vowel sound.

An intrusive /r/ may be inserted before a vowel in words that do not have “r” in the spelling. For example, "drawing" will sound like "draw-ring", "saw it" will sound like "sore it", "the tuner is" and "the tuna is" will both be /ðə tjг:nəriz/.

For some speakers, a subtle epethentic /r/ may be added after the əu sound in words like "no" [nəur], "hello" [hələur], "don't" [dəurnt] and "low" [ləur].

Yod coalescence occurs in /dj/, /sj/ and /tj/ into /d /, / dʒ / and /tʃ /, producing /dʒ ro:/ for draw.

High rising intonation

Australian English speakers commonly use a form of upward inflection in their speech that is not associated with asking questions. In English, upward inflection (a rise in the pitch of the voice at the end of a sentence) typically signals a question. However, some speakers also use upward inflection as a way of including their conversational partner in the dialogue. This is also common in Californian English.