eneral Australian PronunciationAust

eneral Australian Pronunciation

Australians have a distinct accent, which varies between social classes and is sometimes claimed to vary from state to state, although this is disputed. Accents tend to be strongest in the more remote areas. (Note that while there are many similarities between Australian accents and New Zealand ones, there are also a number of differences.)
In Australia they commonly distinguish between 3 accents, these are as follows:
1. Cultivated. An accent, used by about 10 per cent of the population, on which Received Pronunciation continues to exert a considerable influence. In some speakers the accent is very close to educated southern British, with just a hint of its Australian origin in certain vowels and in the intonation. In its most RP-like form, speakers of other varieties tend to think of it as affected.
2. Broad. At the opposite extreme, this accent, used by about 30 per cent of the population, is the one most clearly identified with the notion of an Australian twang. It is heard in many countries in the voices of the characters portrayed by such actors as Paul Hogan and Barry Humphries.
3. General. In between there is a mainstream group of accents used by most of the population.
The Australian vowel system is quite different from other varieties. Other standard varieties have tense vowels, lax vowels, and diphthongs. Australian English on the other hand has turned most of the tense vowels into diphthongs, and turned some of what are diphthongs in Received Pronunciation into long vowels, thus replacing the tense-lax distinction (one of quality) with a long-short distinction (one of quantity). The table below shows these.
Received Pronunciation General Australian Example
/i:/ /əɪ/ see /səɪ/
/ɑ:/ /a:/ heart /ha:t/
/u:/ /əʊ/ school /skəʊl/
/æ/ /e/ bad /bed/
/ʌ/ /a/ cut /kat/
/eɪ/ /æɪ/ say /sæɪ/
/aɪ/ /ɑɪ/ high /hɑɪ/
/aʊ/ /æʊ/ now /næʊ/
/əʊ/ /ʌʊ/ no /nʌʊ/
/ɪə/ /i:/ near /ni:/
/eə/ /e:/ hair /he:/
Australian accent is non-rhotic: star /stɑ:/.
1. The long ee sound (as in see) is heard as the diphthong er-ee (the first element of which is the schwa, or neutral sound as it is sometimes called), so that see turns into seree, or, for foreigners, even sehee (sayee).
2. The long oo sound is heard as o, so that soup turns into soap.
3. The long ah sound (as in heart) tends to be fronter, sounding similar to what begins the diphthong i (as in lie), but longer.
4. The short u sound (as in love) tends to be fronter too, sounding as if it begins the diphthong i (as in lie).
5. The diphthong ay (as in play) tends to be wider, as if its first element is the sound a (as in bad), or sometimes it can sound as the sound i (as in lie), so that may turns into my.
6. The diphthong air (as in care) becomes monophthong eh (as in pen), but long.
7. The first element of the diphthong i (as in lie) is pronounced as a short ah sound (as in heart).
8. The first element of the diphthong ow (as in now) is produced at the front of the mouth and it is raised, so that it sounds as a (as in bad).
9. The diphthong ere (as in here) sounds as pure ee (as in see), so that here turns into he.
10. When there is a choice between the er (teacher) and the short ee (ladies) in an unstressed syllable, the er sound replaces the short ee in most cases but in the -ed ending where the long ee is often produced. So boxers and boxes sound the same (both with the er sound) whereas studied and studded sound differently (the first word has the long ee and the second one has the er).
11. Vowels next to a nasal consonant tend to retain the nasality more than in RP: such words as down and now are often strongly nasalised in the broad accent, and are the chief reason for the designation of this accent as a twang.
The phonetic basis for the three accent types emerges from a consideration of these qualities. The broad accent makes much use of tongue movements which are more open or further forward than the RP norms. The cultivated accent is, literally, further back.