AUSTRALIAN ENGLISH

The spread of Australian English

 1788 - a British Penal colony was established in Sydney, consisting of mainly prisoners and prison
officers with their families
 early residents developed phrases that would both
1. address the requirement for communication and the social organization of the prison system
in order to adapt to their new surroundings and,
2. fulfil the communication demand in those special convict system conditions
 with the second generation of native-born settlers, Australian English became more stable and
included mixing, leveling, unmarking, and reallocation
 the Cockney dialect of London and other South East England dialects had a significant impact on the
creation of the new variation, in addition to Irish from Irish prisoners and settlers who made up a
sizable section of the population
 additional influence from American English that came with the Gold Rush and American movies
 Edward Ellis Morris' Austral English: A Dictionary Of Australasian Words, Phrases And Usages,
published in 1898, extensively catalogued Australian English vocabulary
Characteristics of Australian English

 Australian English, being one of the many variations of the English language, has quite a few distinct
features that make it unique.
 The most obvious way in which Australian English is distinctive from other varieties of English is
through its unique pronunciation.
 phonological, classified as a non-rhotic variety of English- non-rhotic = speakers pronounce “r” only
if it is followed by a vowel
 lexical: Lexically, there is overlap with both British English (bonnet, boot, dummy, nappy, lift,
coriander) and American English (zucchini, eggplant) as well as words of their own (footpath not
sidewalk or pavement, thongs not flip flops, g-string not thong)
 Grammatical differences between varieties of English are minor relative to differences in phonology
and vocabulary. Publishers, schools, universities and governments typically use the Macquarie
Dictionary as a standard spelling reference
 pronunciation Australians are known to shorten words or even whole sentences. For instance,
Australians would pronounce “good day” as “g’day” or “sandwich” like “sanga” and use “footie” as
the short form of “football”, although they’ll be referring to rugby. Most native English speakers will
pronounce all the syllables in “Australia,” but Aussies say “straya” instead.
Interesting Features:

 Hypocorisms – using nicknames that show affection or closeness (Oz – Australia, Tazzie –
Tasmania…)
Accent and slang

 Common use of diminutives in slang (“arvo” – afternoon, “sanga” – sandwich…), other slang terms
(“sheila” – female/woman, “fair dinkum” – genuine…)
 Accent: Australians do not pronounce the clear /r/ sound (especially at the end of words) (e.g.
“warmer” is pronounced without the middle /r/ sound “Wamer”), sometimes use high intonation at
the end of declarative sentences, glottal stops