Cambridge University Press

978-1-316-63926-9 — Australian English Pronunciation and Transcription

Felicity Cox , Janet Fletcher
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Australian English
Pronunciation and Transcription
SECOND EDITION

Australian English Pronunciation and Transcription is the first textbook to clearly

describe Australian English speech patterns. Now in its second edition, this
groundbreaking work addresses speech production characteristics and pro-
vides detailed instruction in both phonemic (broad) and phonetic (narrow)
transcription of the dialect.
The extensive practical exercises are designed to help readers develop
skills and test their knowledge as they progress through the text. These
exercises are complemented by a companion website, which contains valu-
able explanatory materials, audio examples and accompanying activities for
students. A new assessment bank includes exercises of varying difficulty,
allowing lecturers to build unique assessment tasks tailored to their
students’ needs.
Drawing on their extensive experience as teachers and researchers in
phonetics and phonology, Felicity Cox and new author Janet Fletcher have
crafted a comprehensive resource that remains essential reading for stu-
dents, teachers and practitioners of linguistics, speech pathology and lan-
guage education.

Felicity Cox is Associate Professor at the Centre for Language Sciences in the
Department of Linguistics at Macquarie University. She has 30 years’ experi-
ence in teaching and research in phonetics and phonology, and is regarded as
one of the foremost authorities on the Australian English accent.
Janet Fletcher is Professor of Phonetics in the School of Languages and
Linguistics at the University of Melbourne. Her areas of expertise include the
phonetics and phonology of intonation and prosody in Australian English
and Indigenous Australian languages.

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Cambridge University Press
978-1-316-63926-9 — Australian English Pronunciation and Transcription
Felicity Cox , Janet Fletcher
Frontmatter
More Information

Australian English
Pronunciation and
Transcription
SECOND EDITION

Felicity Cox and Janet Fletcher

© in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org

Cambridge University Press
978-1-316-63926-9 — Australian English Pronunciation and Transcription
Felicity Cox , Janet Fletcher
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First edition © Felicity Cox 2012
Second edition © Cambridge University Press 2017
This publication is copyright. Subject to statutory exception
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First published 2012
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978-1-316-63926-9 — Australian English Pronunciation and Transcription
Felicity Cox , Janet Fletcher
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Contents
..........................................

List of tables page ix

List of figures x
Acknowledgements xii
Consonant symbols for Australian English xiii
Vowel symbols for Australian English xiv

1 Introduction to Australian English speech production 1

1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 Phoneme and allophone 5
1.3 Broad (phonemic) and narrow (phonetic) transcription 7
1.4 Australian English transcription conventions 10
1.5 Australian English 11
1.5.1 How did Australian English develop? 12
1.5.2 The standard Australian English accent 16
1.5.3 Broadness 18
1.5.4 Regional variation 19
1.5.5 Australian English in the twenty-first century 20
Further reading 20

2 Consonants and vowels 22

2.1 Introduction 22
2.2 Respiration 23
2.3 Phonation 24
2.4 Articulation 29
2.5 Differentiating consonants and vowels 29
2.6 Describing consonants 31
2.6.1 Place of articulation 33
2.6.2 Manner of articulation 42
2.6.3 Voicing 46
2.6.4 Complex articulation and phonetic detail 48

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vi Contents

2.6.5 Non-pulmonic consonants 50

2.6.6 Some regional and social features of Australian
English consonants 53
2.7 Describing vowels 54
2.7.1 Vowel space 56
2.7.2 Vowel characteristics 57
2.7.3 Australian English vowel characteristics 64
2.7.4 Lexical sets 68
2.8 Major classes of sounds 70
2.9 Summary 73
Further reading 74

3 Syllables, word stress, sentence stress and intonation 75

3.1 Introduction 75
3.2 Syllables 76
3.3 Phonotactic constraints 78
3.4 Syllabification 82
3.5 Word stress 83
3.6 The metrical foot 84
3.7 Creating words from feet 86
3.8 Heavy and light syllables 88
3.9 Morphology and word stress 88
3.10 Stress in connected speech 91
3.11 Summary 100
Further reading 101

4 Broad transcription of Australian English 103

4.1 Introduction 103
4.2 Symbols for the broad transcription of Australian English 104
4.2.1 Consonant symbols 104
4.2.2 Vowel symbols 105
4.3 Phonemes of Australian English 106
4.3.1 Consonants 106
4.3.2 Vowels 106
4.3.3 Minimal pairs 108
4.4 Lexical stress 112
4.4.1 Primary stress 112
4.4.2 Secondary stress 113
4.4.3 Compound nouns 115
4.4.4 Unstressed syllables 116
4.5 Syllabic consonants 121
4.5.1 Syllabic /n/ 121
4.5.2 Syllabic /m/ 122
4.5.3 Syllabic /l/ 123

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Felicity Cox , Janet Fletcher
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Contents vii

4.6 Connected speech 124

4.6.1 Function words 124
4.6.2 Epenthetic consonants 126
4.7 Characteristics of /t/ 129
4.7.1 Flaps/taps 129
4.7.2 Glottal stops 130
4.8 Assimilation 130
4.8.1 Alveolar to bilabial stops 131
4.8.2 Alveolar to velar stops 131
4.8.3 Alveolar to postalveolar fricatives 131
4.8.4 Word-internal assimilation 132
4.8.5 Affrication 132
4.8.6 Vowels before coda /l/ 133
4.9 Consonant deletion/elision 133
4.10 Voicing of stops, fricatives and affricates 134
4.11 Tips for broad transcription 136

5 Narrow transcription of Australian English 141

5.1 Allophonic variation and narrow transcription 141
5.2 Narrow transcription of consonants 142
5.2.1 Symbol selection 142
5.2.2 Aspiration and release of oral stops 143
5.2.3 Variants of /t/ 148
5.2.4 Devoicing 150
5.2.5 Assimilation of velar oral stops 152
5.2.6 Assimilation of alveolar consonants 153
5.2.7 Syllabic consonants 155
5.2.8 Clear and dark realisations of /l/ 156
5.2.9 Allophones of /h/ 159
5.2.10 Gemination 159
5.2.11 Labialisation 159
5.3 Narrow transcription of vowels 160
5.3.1 Coarticulation and dialect effects 160
5.3.2 Prelateral contexts 161
5.3.3 Nasalisation 162
5.3.4 Allophones of /eː/ and /ɪə/ 163
5.3.5 Allophones of schwa /ə/ 163
5.3.6 Allophonic vowel length 164
5.4 Tips for narrow transcription (including transcription of
common allophones) 165

6 Evaluation of two broad transcription systems 169

6.1 Introduction 169
6.2 Historical background 170

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Felicity Cox , Janet Fletcher
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viii Contents

6.3 Vowel transcription 172

6.4 The revised transcription system for Australian English 173
6.5 The HCE system relative to the IPA cardinal vowels 178
6.6 Flexibility in transcription choice 180
6.7 Reform 180
6.8 Conclusion 181
Further reading 182

Appendix Average formant and durational values for vowels

of Australian English 183
Glossary 186
References 202
Solutions 209
Index 259
International Phonetic Alphabet 266

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Felicity Cox , Janet Fletcher
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Tables
..........................................

2.1 Australian English consonant phoneme symbols with

illustrative words page 31
2.2 Table of symbols for Australian English consonant phonemes
indicating place of articulation, manner of articulation and
voicing features 32
2.3 Phonemic vowel symbols for the HCE and MD systems 55
2.4 Lexical sets for Australian English 70
2.5 Major class features 71
2.6 Feature matrix for Australian English monophthongal vowels 73
2.7 Feature matrix for [+voice, +consonantal] Australian English
phonemes 73
3.1 Examples of English syllabic structure 77
3.2 Tonal categories and their general pitch description,
and major Break Indices from AusE ToBI 95
4.1 The consonant phonemes of Australian English 106
4.2 The vowel phonemes of Australian English 107
6.1 Comparison between phonemic vowel symbols used in
HCE and MD 171

ix

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Felicity Cox , Janet Fletcher
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Figures
..........................................

2.1 Major cartilages of the larynx page 25

2.2 Major structures of the larynx viewed from above 26
2.3 MRI midsagittal view of the vocal tract 30
2.4 Important articulatory landmarks 30
2.5 Schematic showing bilabial place of articulation with the
soft palate raised for oral consonants such as /p, b/ 35
2.6 Schematic showing bilabial place of articulation with the
soft palate lowered for nasal consonants such as /m/ 35
2.7 Schematic showing labiodental place of articulation with
the soft palate raised for consonants such as /f, v/ 36
2.8 Schematic showing dental place of articulation with the
soft palate raised for oral consonants such as /θ, ð/ 37
2.9 Schematic showing alveolar place of articulation with the
soft palate raised for oral consonants such as /t, d/ 37
2.10 Schematic showing alveolar place of articulation with the
soft palate lowered for nasal consonants such as /n/ 38
2.11 Schematic showing postalveolar place of articulation with
the soft palate raised for consonants such as /ʃ, ʒ, ʧ, ʤ/ 39
2.12 Schematic showing retroflex place of articulation with the
soft palate raised 39
2.13 Schematic showing palatal place of articulation with the
soft palate raised for the oral consonant /j/ 40
2.14 Schematic showing velar place of articulation with the
soft palate raised for oral consonants such as /k, ɡ/ 41
2.15 Schematic showing velar place of articulation with the
soft palate lowered for nasal consonants such as /ŋ/ 41
2.16 Illustration of the relationship between supralaryngeal
and laryngeal events during the production of various voicing
categories for oral stops 48
2.17 Schematic showing the front tongue position for vowels 58

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Felicity Cox , Janet Fletcher
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Figures xi

2.18 Schematic showing the back tongue position for vowels 59

2.19 Schematic showing the high/close tongue position for vowels 60
2.20 Schematic showing the low/open tongue position for vowels 60
2.21 Midsagittal MRI images illustrating one NZE speaker’s
production of the vowels in the words a) heed, b) hard, c)
hoard and d) who’d 62
2.22 The traditional vowel map showing the major IPA cardinal
reference vowels 63
2.23 Schematic representation of the stressed monophthongs of
Australian English positioned within the vowel space relative
to some IPA cardinal vowels 65
2.24 The diphthongs of Australian English 67
3.1 The syllabic structure of the word dance 77
3.2 The relationship between the sonority profile for English
speech sounds and manner of articulation 80
3.3 The relationship between syllable components and sonority 80
3.4 The foot structure of the words a) elbow, b) oxygen and c) cat 86
3.5 The relationship between syllable weight and stress for the
words a) benevolent, b) volition and c) distinction 89
3.6 Prosodic tree diagrams for the words a) confident, b) confidential
and c) confidentiality 89
3.7 An example of a prosodic tree diagram for the word apparent 90
6.1 Spectrogram of the word herd produced by a young adult male
speaker 174
6.2 The average F1/F2 monophthong vowel space for 116 young
women from Sydney 175
6.3 Spectrogram of the word hoyd produced by a young adult male
speaker 176
6.4 F1/F2 monophthong vowel space with superimposed
diphthong trajectories for /æɪ, əʉ, οɪ/ from 116 young women
from Sydney 177
6.5 F1/F2 monophthong vowel space with superimposed
diphthong trajectories for /ɑe/ and /æɔ/ from 116 young
women from Sydney 177
6.6 Schematic representation of the stressed monophthongs of
Australian English positioned within the vowel space relative
to some IPA cardinal vowels 178
6.7 The diphthongs of Australian English 179

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Felicity Cox , Janet Fletcher
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Acknowledgements
..........................................

This book is the product of many years of research into the phonetics and
phonology of Australian English and the teaching of its various idiosyncra-
sies and nuances. Many people have been integral to the completion of this
work, including the teachers and mentors who inspired, the students who
challenged and the colleagues who encouraged. We have been incredibly
fortunate to have studied with, and worked alongside, passionate and
engaging scholars such as Mary Beckman, John Bernard, David Blair, Andy
Butcher, John Clark, Arthur Delbridge, Jonathan Harrington, Bob Ladd,
Robert Mannell and the late Colin Yallop, upon whose shoulders we have
the privilege to stand. We are grateful to our fellow phoneticians, both past
and present, for their collegiality, advice and helpful discussions, and to our
colleagues in the Linguistics Department at Macquarie University and the
School of Languages and Linguistics at Melbourne University for their
kindness and support. A special thank you must go to Linda Buckley, a
woman with an amazing eye for detail who helped with the manuscript in all
manner of ways. Of course any errors that remain are entirely our own.
A special thank you is also due to the volunteers who donated their time to
become the voices behind the scenes. This book would not have been
possible without the extraordinary generosity of our families and friends.

xii

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Felicity Cox , Janet Fletcher
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Consonant symbols
for Australian English
..........................................

................................................................................................................................................................
/p/ paw /θ/ thaw /ɡ/ gore
................................................................................................................................................................
/b/ bore /ð/ thou /ŋ/ song
................................................................................................................................................................
/m/ more /s/ saw /h/ hoar
................................................................................................................................................................
/f/ for /z/ zoo /ʧ/ chore
................................................................................................................................................................
/v/ vow /ɹ/ raw /ʤ/ jaw
................................................................................................................................................................
/t/ tore /l/ law /ʃ/ shore
................................................................................................................................................................
/d/ door /w/ war /ʒ/ azure
................................................................................................................................................................
/n/ nor /k/ core /j/ your
................................................................................................................................................................

xiii

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978-1-316-63926-9 — Australian English Pronunciation and Transcription
Felicity Cox , Janet Fletcher
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Vowel symbols
for Australian English
..........................................

........................................................................................
HCE MD Example word
................................................................................................................................................................

iː i beat
................................................................................................................................................................
ɪ ɪ bit
................................................................................................................................................................
e ɛ bet
................................................................................................................................................................
eː ɛə bared
................................................................................................................................................................
æ æ bat
................................................................................................................................................................
ɐː a part
................................................................................................................................................................
ɐ ʌ but
................................................................................................................................................................
ɔ ɒ pot
................................................................................................................................................................
oː ɔ bought
................................................................................................................................................................
ʊ ʊ put
................................................................................................................................................................
ʉː u boot
................................................................................................................................................................
ɜː ɜ pert
................................................................................................................................................................
æɪ eɪ bait
................................................................................................................................................................
ɑe aɪ bite
................................................................................................................................................................
oɪ ɔɪ Boyd
................................................................................................................................................................
æɔ aʊ bout
................................................................................................................................................................
əʉ oʊ boat
................................................................................................................................................................
ɪə ɪə beard
................................................................................................................................................................
ə ə the (not thee)
................................................................................................................................................................

xiv

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