The Australian English vowels/ɪ/,/e/ and/eː/ are noticeablycloser (pronounced with a higher tongue position) than their contemporaryReceived Pronunciation equivalents. However, a recent short-front vowel chain shift has resulted in younger generations having lower positions than this for these three vowels.[1]
The vowels of Australian English can be divided according to length. The long vowels, which includemonophthongs anddiphthongs, mostly correspond to the tense vowels used in analyses ofReceived Pronunciation (RP) as well as its centring diphthongs. The short vowels, consisting only of monophthongs, correspond to the RP lax vowels. There exist pairs of long and short vowels with overlapping vowel quality giving Australian Englishphonemic length distinction.[3]
There are two families of phonemic transcriptions of Australian English: revised ones, which attempt to more accurately represent the phonetic sounds of Australian English; and the Mitchell-Delbridge system, which is minimally distinct from Jones' original transcription of RP. This page uses a revised transcription based on Durie and Hajek (1994) and Harrington, Cox and Evans (1997) but also shows the Mitchell-Delbridge equivalents as this system is commonly used for example in theMacquarie Dictionary and much literature, even recent.
As withGeneral American, theweak vowel merger is nearly complete in Australian English: unstressed/ɪ/ is merged with/ə/ (schwa) except before a followingvelar.New Zealand English takes it a step further and merges all instances of/ɪ/ with/ə/ (even in stressed syllables), which is why the New Zealand pronunciation of the dish namefish and chips as/ˈfəʃənˈtʃəps/ sounds like 'fush and chups' to Australians.[4] In Australian English,/ə/ is restricted to unstressed syllables, as in most dialects.
Thetrap-bath split is aregional variable in Australia, with thePALM vowel/aː/ being more common inSouth Australia than elsewhere. This is due to the fact that that state was settled later than the rest of Australia, when the lengthened pronunciation was already a feature of London speech. Research done byCrystal (1995) shows that the wordgraph is pronounced with thePALM vowel (/ɡɹaːf/) by 86% speakers fromAdelaide, whereas 100% speakers fromHobart use theTRAP vowel in this word:/ɡɹæf/. There are words in which theTRAP vowel is much less common; for instance, Crystal reports that both the wordgrasp and the verbto contrast are most commonly pronounced with thePALM vowel:/ɡɹaːsp/,/kənˈtɹaːst/. This also affects the pronunciation of some placenames;Castlemaine is locally/ˈkæsəlmæɪn/, but speakers from outside ofVictoria often pronounce that name/ˈkaːsəlmæɪn/ by analogy to the nouncastle in their local accent.
The target for/ɪ/ is closer to cardinal[i] than in other dialects.[5] The aforementioned phrasefish and chips as pronounced by an Australian ([ˈfiʃənˈtʃips] in narrow transcription) can sound a lot likefeesh and cheeps to speakers of New Zealand English and other dialects, whereas words such asbit andsit may sound likebeat andseat, respectively.
The sound/ɪə/ is usually pronounced as a diphthong (or disyllabically[iːə], likeCURE) only in open syllables. In closed syllables, it is distinguished from/ɪ/ primarily by length[6][7] and from/iː/ by the significant onset in the latter.
/e/ tends to be higher than the corresponding vowel in General American or RP. The typical realization is close-mid[e], although for some speakers it may be even closer[e̝] (according to John Wells, this pronunciation can occur only in Broad varieties).[8][9] A recent change is thelowering of/e/ to the[ɛ] region.[8]
For someVictorian speakers,/e/ has merged with/æ/ in pre-lateral environments, and thus the wordscelery andsalary are homophonous as/ˈsæləɹiː/.[10] Seesalary-celery merger.
The sound/æː/ is traditionally transcribed and analysed the same as the short/æ/, butminimal pairs exist in at least some Australians' speech.[11][6] It is found in the adjectivesbad,mad,glad andsad, before the/ɡ/ sound (for example,hag,rag,bag) and also in content words before/m/ and/n/ in the same syllable (for example,ham,tan,plant).[12] InSouth Australia,plant is usually pronounced with the vowel sound/aː/, as inrather andfather. In some speakers, especially those with the broad accent,/æː/ and/æ/ will be shifted toward[ɛː] and[ɛ], respectively.[13]
There isæ-tensing before anasal consonant. Thenasal sounds create changes in preceding vowels because air can flow into the nose during the vowel. Nasal consonants can also affect thearticulation of a vowel. Thus, for many speakers, the/æː/ vowel in words likejam,man,dam andhand is shifted towards[eː]. This is also present inGeneral American andCockney English.[14] Length has become the main difference between words like 'ban' and 'Ben', with 'ban' pronounced[beːn] and 'Ben' pronounced[ben].[15]
/æ/ is pronounced as open front[a] by many younger speakers.[16]
As withNew Zealand English, thePALM/START vowel in words likepark/paːk/,calm/kaːm/ andfarm/faːm/ is central (in the past even front)[3] in terms of tongue position and non-rhotic. This is the same vowel sound used by speakers of theBoston accent ofNorth Eastern New England in theUnited States. Thus the phrasepark the car is said identically by a New Zealander, Australian or Bostonian.[17] This vowel is only distinguished from theSTRUT vowel by length, thus:park/paːk/ versuspuck/pak/.
The phoneme/ɜː/ is pronounced at least as high as/eː/ ([ɘː]), and has a lowered F3 that might indicate that it is rounded[ɵː].[6][7] The ⟨ɜ⟩ glyph is used — rather than ⟨ɘ⟩ or ⟨ɵ⟩ — as most revisions of the phonemic orthography for Australian English predate the1993 modifications to the International Phonetic Alphabet. At the time, ⟨ɜ⟩ was suitable for any mid central vowel, rounded or unrounded.
The schwa/ə/ is a highly variable sound. For this reason, it is not shown on the vowel charts to the right. The word-final schwa incomma andletter is often lowered to[ɐ] so that it strongly resembles theSTRUT vowel/a/:[ˈkɔmɐ,ˈleɾɐ]. As the latter is a checked vowel (meaning that it cannot occur in a final stressed position) and the lowering of/ə/ is not categorical (meaning that those words can be also pronounced[ˈsəʉfə] and[ˈbeɾə], whereasstrut is never pronounced[stɹət]), this sound is considered to belong to the/ə/ phoneme.[18] The word-initial schwa (as inenduring/ənˈdʒʉːɹɪŋ/) is typically mid[ə]:[ənˈdʒʉːɹɪŋ]. In the word-internal position (as inbottom/ˈbɔtəm/),/ə/ is raised to[ɨ̞]:[ˈbɔɾɨ̞m], as in American Englishroses[ˈɹoʊzɨ̞z]. Thus, the difference between the/ə/ ofpaddock and the/ɪ/ ofpanic lies in the backness of the vowels, rather than their height:[ˈpædɨ̞k,ˈpænik].[19] In the rest of the article, those allophones of/ə/ are all transcribed with the broad symbol ⟨ə⟩:[ˈkɔmə] etc./ɪ/ is also broadly transcribed with ⟨ɪ⟩:[ˈpænɪk], which does not capture its closeness.
The vowel/iː/ has an onset[ɪi̯], except before laterals.[10] The onset is often lowered to[əi], so thatbeat is[bəit] for some speakers.
As in American English and modern RP, the final vowel in words likehappy andcity is pronounced as/iː/ (happee,citee), not as/ɪ/ (happy-tensing).[20]
In some parts of Australia, a fully backed allophone of/ʉː/, transcribed[ʊː], is common before/l/. As a result, the pairs full/fool and pull/pool differ phonetically only in vowel length for those speakers.[6] The usual allophone is further forward in New South Wales than Victoria. It is moving further forwards, however, in both regions at a similar rate.[10]
The second elements of/æɪ/ and/oɪ/ on the one hand and/ɑɪ/ on the other are somewhat different. The first two approach theKIT vowel/ɪ/, whereas the ending point of/ɑɪ/ is more similar to theDRESS vowel[e], which is why it tends to be written with ⟨ɑe⟩ in modern sources.John Wells writes this phoneme/ɑɪ/, with the same ending point as/æɪ/ and/oɪ/ (which he writes with ⟨ʌɪ⟩ and ⟨ɔɪ⟩). However, the second element of/ɑɪ/ is not nearly as different from that of the other fronting-closing diphthongs as the ending point of/æɔ/ is from that of/əʉ/, which is the reason why ⟨ɑɪ⟩ is used in this article.
The first element of/ɑɪ/ may be raised and rounded in broad accents.
The first element of/æɪ/ is significantly lower[a̠ɪ] than in many other dialects of English.
There is significant allophonic variation in/əʉ/, including a backed allophone[ɔʊ] before a word-final or preconsonantal/l/. The first part of this allophone is in the same position as/ɔ/, but[ɔʊ] differs from it in that it possesses an additional closing glide, which also makes it longer than/ɔ/.
/əʉ/ is shifted to[ɔy] among some speakers. This realisation has its roots inSouth Australia but is becoming more common among younger speakers across the country.[21]
The phoneme/ʊə/ is rare and almost extinct. Most speakers consistently use[ʉːə] or[ʉː] (before/ɹ/) instead. Many cases of RP/ʊə/ are pronounced instead with the/oː/ phoneme in Australian English. "pour" and "poor", "more" and "moor" and "shore" and "sure" are homophones, but "tore" and "tour" remain distinct.
One needs to be very careful of the symbol/ɔ/, which represents different vowels: theLOT vowel in the Harrington, Cox and Evans (1997) system (transcribed/ɒ/ in the other system), but theTHOUGHT vowel in the Mitchell-Delbridge system (transcribed/oː/ in the other system).[12]
The fourth column is the OED transcription, taken from the OED website.[22]
It differs somewhat from the ad hoc Wikipedia transcription used in this article. In a few instances the OED example word differs from the others given in this table; these are appended at the end of the second column following a semicolon.
Australian English is non-rhotic; in other words, the/ɹ/ sound does not appear at the end of a syllable or immediately before a consonant. So the wordsbutter[ˈbaɾə],here[hɪə] andpark[paːk] will not contain the/ɹ/ sound.[24]
The[ɹ] 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, incar alarm the sound[ɹ] can occur incar because here it comes before another word beginning with a vowel. The wordsfar,far more andfarm do not contain an[ɹ] butfar out will contain the linking[ɹ] sound because the next word starts with a vowel sound.
An intrusive[ɹ] may be inserted before avowel in words that do not have⟨r⟩ in the spelling. For example,drawing will sound likedraw-ring,saw it will sound likesore it,the tuner is andthe tuna is will both be[ðəˈtʃʉːnə.ɹɪz]. This[ɹ] occurs between/ə/,/oː/ and/aː/ and the following vowel regardless of the historical presence or absence of[ɹ]. Between/eː/,/ɜː/ and/ɪə/ (and/ʉːə/ whenever it stems from the earlier/ʊə/) and the following vowel, the[ɹ]-ful pronunciation is the historical one.
Intervocalic/t/ (and for some speakers/d/) undergo voicing and flapping to thealveolar tap[ɾ] after the stressed syllable and before unstressed vowels (as inbutter,party) and syllabic/l/ or/n/ (bottle[ˈbɔɾl̩],button[ˈbaɾn̩]), as well as at the end of a word or morpheme before any vowel (what else[wɔɾ‿ˈels],whatever[wɔɾˈevə]).[25] For those speakers where/d/ also undergoes the change, there will behomophony, for example,metal andmedal orpetal andpedal will sound the same ([ˈmeɾl̩] and[ˈpeɾl̩], respectively). In formal speech/t/ is retained.[t] in the cluster[nt] can elide. As a result, in quick speech, words likewinner andwinter can become homophonous (as[ˈwɪnə]). This is a quality that Australian English shares with New Zealand andNorth American English.
Some speakers use aglottal stop[ʔ] as an allophone of/t/ in final position, for exampletrait,habit; or in medial position, such as a/t/ followed by a syllabic/n/ is often realized as a glottal stop, for examplebutton orfatten.Alveolar pronunciations nevertheless predominate.
Pronunciation of/l/
The alveolar lateral approximant/l/ is velarised[ɫ] in pre-pausal and preconsonantal positions and often also in morpheme-final positions before a vowel. There have been some suggestions that onset/l/ is also velarised, although that needs to be further researched. Some speakersvocalise preconsonantal, syllable-final and syllabic instances of/l/ to a close back vowel similar to/ʊ/, so thatmilk can be pronounced[mɪʊ̯k] andnoodle[ˈnʉːdʊ]. This is more common inSouth Australia than elsewhere.[26]
Standard Australian English usually coalesces/tj/ and/dj/ into/tʃ/ and/dʒ/ respectively. Because of thispalatalisation,dune is pronounced as/dʒʉːn/, exactly likeJune, and the first syllable ofTuesday/ˈtʃʉːzdæɪ/ is pronounced likechoose/tʃʉːz/. That said, there is stylistic and social variation in this feature./t/ and/d/ in the clusters/tɹ/ and/dɹ/ are similarly affricated.[26]
Word initial/sj/ and/zj/ have merged with/s/ and/z/ respectively. Other cases of/sj/ and/zj/ are often pronounced respectively[ʃ] and[ʒ], as inassume/əˈʃʉːm/ andresume/rəˈʒʉːm/ (ashume andrezhume).[27][28]
Similarly,/lj/ has merged with/l/ word initially. Remaining cases of/lj/ are often pronounced simply as[j] in colloquial speech.
/nj/ and other common sequences of consonant plus/j/, are retained.[26]
For some speakers,/ʃ/ (or "sh") may be uttered instead of /s/ before the stressed /tj/ sound in words likestudent,history,eschew,street andAustralia[29] – As a result, in quick speech,eschew will sound likeesh-chew.[30] According to author Wayne P. Lawrence, "thisphonemic change seems to be neither dialectal nor regional", as it can also be found among some American, Canadian, British and New Zealand English speakers as well.[31]
Between voiced sounds, the glottal fricative/h/ may be realised as voiced[ɦ], so that e.g.behind may be pronounced as either[bəˈhɑɪnd] or[bəˈɦɑɪnd].[32]
The sequence/hj/ is realised as a voiceless palatal fricative[ç], so that e.g.huge is pronounced[çʉːdʒ].[32]
The wordfoyer is usually pronounced/ˈfoɪə/, as in NZ and American English, rather than/ˈfoɪeɪ/ as in British English.
The worddata is commonly pronounced/ˈdaːtə/, with/ˈdæɪtə/ being the second most common, and/ˈdætə/ being very rare.
Thetrans- prefix is pronounced/tɹæns/, even inSouth Australia, where thetrap–bath split is significantly more advanced than in other states.
Some dialects of Australian English feature africated/t/ in certain contexts, such as in words likebeautiful andgreat.[33]
In English, upward inflexion (a rise in thepitch of the voice at the end of an utterance) typically signals a question. Some Australian English speakers commonly use a form ofupward inflexion in their speech that is not associated with asking questions. Some speakers use upward inflexion as a way of including their conversational partner in the dialogue.[34] This is also common inCalifornian English.
Australian English pronunciation is most similar to that ofNew Zealand English; many people from other parts of the world often cannot distinguish them but there are differences. New Zealand English has centralised/ɪ/ and the other short front vowels are higher. New Zealand English more strongly maintains the diphthongal quality of theNEAR andSQUARE vowels and they can be merged as something around[iə]. New Zealand English does not have thebad-lad split, but like Victoria has merged/e/ with/æ/ in pre-lateral environments.[35]
Both New Zealand English and Australian English are also similar toSouth African English, so they have even been grouped together under the common label "southern hemisphere Englishes".[36] Like the other two varieties in that group, Australian English pronunciation bears some similarities to dialects from the South-East of Britain;[37][38][39][40] Thus, it isnon-rhotic and has thetrap-bath split although, as indicated above, this split was not completed in Australia as it was in England, so many words that have thePALM vowel in Southeastern England retain theTRAP vowel in Australia.
Historically, the Australian English speaking manuals endorsed thelengthening of/ɔ/ before unvoiced fricatives however this has since been reversed. Australian English lacks some innovations in Cockney since the settling of Australia, such as the use of aglottal stop in many places where a/t/ would be found,th-fronting, andh-dropping
AusTalk is a database of Australian speech from all regions of the country.[41][42] Initially, 1000 adult voices were planned to be recorded in the period between June 2011 and June 2016. By the end of it, voices of 861 speakers with ages ranging from 18 to 83 were recorded into the database, each lasting approximately an hour. The database is expected to be expanded in future, to include children's voices and more variations. As well as providing a resource for cultural studies, the database is expected to help improve speech-based technology, such asspeech recognition systems andhearing aids.[43]
The AusTalk database was collected as part of the Big Australian Speech Corpus (Big ASC) project, a collaboration between Australian universities and the speech technology experts.[44][45][46]
^abcdDurie, M.; Hajek, J (1994), "A revised standard phonemic orthography for Australian English vowels", Australian Journal of Linguistics 14: 93–107
^abCox, Felicity (2006), "The acoustic characteristics of /hVd/ vowels in the speech of some Australian teenagers", Australian Journal of Linguistics 26: 147–179
^Durian, David (2007) "Getting [ʃ]tronger Every Day?: More on Urbanization and the Socio-geographic Diffusion of (str) in Columbus, OH," University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics: Vol. 13: Iss. 2, Article 6
^Cole, J., Hualde, J.I.,Laboratory Phonology 9, Walter de Gruyter 2007, p. 69.
^Lawrence, Wayne P. (2000) "Assimilation at a Distance," American Speech Vol. 75: Iss. 1: 82–87; doi:10.1215/00031283-75-1-82
^Gordon, Elizabeth and Andrea Sudbury. 2002. The history of southern hemisphere Englishes. In: Richard J. Watts and Peter Trudgill. Alternative Histories of English. P.67
^Gordon, Elizabeth and Andrea Sudbury. 2002. The history of southern hemisphere Englishes. In: Richard J. Watts and Peter Trudgill. Alternative Histories of English. P.79
Cox, Felicity (2006), "The acoustic characteristics of/hVd/ vowels in the speech of some Australian teenagers",Australian Journal of Linguistics,26 (2):147–179,doi:10.1080/07268600600885494,S2CID62226994
Cox, Felicity; Palethorpe, Sallyanne (2003), "The border effect: Vowel differences across the NSW–Victorian Border",Proceedings of the 2003 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society:1–14
Durie, M.; Hajek, J (1994), "A revised standard phonemic orthography for Australian English vowels",Australian Journal of Linguistics,14:93–107,doi:10.1080/07268609408599503.
Harrington, J.; Cox, Felicity; Evans, Z. (1997), "An acoustic phonetic study of broad, general, and cultivated Australian English vowels",Australian Journal of Linguistics,17 (2):155–84,doi:10.1080/07268609708599550
Tollfree, Laura (2001), "Variation and change in Australian consonants: reduction of /t/", in Blair, David; Collins, Peter (eds.),English in Australia, John Benjamins, pp. 45–67,doi:10.1075/veaw.g26.06tol,ISBN90-272-4884-2
Bauer, Laurie (2015), "Australian and New Zealand English", in Reed, Marnie; Levis, John M. (eds.),The Handbook of English Pronunciation, Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 269–285,ISBN978-1-118-31447-0
Turner, George W. (1994), "6: English in Australia", in Burchfield, Robert (ed.),The Cambridge History of the English Language, vol. 5: English in Britain and Overseas: Origins and Development, Cambridge University Press, pp. 277–327,ISBN978-0-521-26478-5
