HANOI UNIVERSITY

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
******

A STUDY ON AUSTRALIAN
ENGLISH PHONOLOGY

Supervisor: Ms. Nguyen Thanh Loan

Students: Pham Mai Phuong
Nguyen Thi Huyen
Khuong Thi Anh Nguyet
Pham Lan Anh
Class: Phonetic & Phonology 08

Hanoi, December 28, 2022

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 GROUP WORK CONTRIBUTION FORM

Group: 4
Topic: A study on Australian English Phonology

Name Contribution Comments

(%)

1 Phạm Mai Phương 25% Leader and be take charge of vowel introduction, diphthong and
suprasegmental features parts.

2 Nguyễn Thị Huyền 25% Taking responsibility for the vowel part and mainly focus on
Monophthong section.

3 Khương Thị Ánh Nguyệt 25% Be in charge of consonant part

4 Phạm Lan Anh 25% - Write part I, II and IV

- Proofread and edit

Group leader

Phạm Mai Phương

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 I. Introduction

1. Rationale

English is a global language with a myriad of varieties. One of these is

Australian English (AusE), a variety of English spoken by native-born Australian
people, which is necessarily distinguished from English spoken in Australia. Due to a
number of factors such as historical development and geographical features,
Australian English has been modified in multiple dimensions to become a separate
variety of English. It also carries a range of distinctive characteristics, which are
compelling enough to be studied by anyone who fancies linguistics. Thus, this study
aims at providing in-depth information of Australian English Phonology on both
segmental and supra-segmental level to shed light on its phonological properties or in
other words, its phonemic system, allophonic variations, intonation, stress and
rhythm.

2. The scope of the research

The research starts with an overview of Australian English referring to its

historical background and some characteristics, then proceeds to present a detailed
analysis of the phonemic system including vowels and consonants as well as
consonant allophonic variations. Finally, a brief reference to a number of supra-
segmental features namely intonation, stress and rhythm will be offered at the end of
the research.

3. Research question.

This study attempts to answer the following question:

` What are the phonological characteristics of Australian English?

II. Overview of Australian English historical background

Australian English has a history of around 200 years and the language has much to do
with the historical evolution. The English language was first brought to Australia with
the arrival of European people in their so-called First Fleet in 1788. Since then, more
and more people migrate from Europe to Australia. During the 1826 - 1850 period, a
pastoral expansion began, together with the influx of immigrants (Fritz, 2005).
Especially, the discovery of gold in Victoria led to an enormous wave of immigration
to Australia with the hope of acquiring wealth. According to Fritz (1996), the majority

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 of these newcomers were Americans and this event also marked the first influence of
American English on Australian English. One thing to be noted is that a myriad of
regional dialects of English were transported to Australia from Britain and America,
yet the English spoken by native-born Australians nowadays is considered
“homogeneity”. In explanation for this, the main reason can be dialect mixing
through the process of contacting each other permanently. There are a number of
dialect mixing theories proposed by linguists which focus on the early period of
Australian English. One idea is that when brought to Australia, different English
dialects were mixed and amalgamated in Sydney as people first settled in this
restricted area for a long time before expanding (Sydney mixing bowl theory) (Fritz,
1996). Another school of thought is that it was a mixed dialect but the mixing process
took place in England instead of Australia. A different possibility is that part of the
mixing occurred during the lengthy voyage from England to Australia in the confined
spaces of ships (Hickey, 2014). The origin of Australian English is not yet confirmed,
however, to some extent, it can be ascertained that it was well established within
decades.

III. Content of the research

1. Vowels

Felicity Cox - an Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics at Macquarie

University insists that although there are some distinctive consonantal alterations and
suprasegmental effects, the pronunciation of the vowel sounds distinguishes the
Australian accent from other varieties of English. Because of this, vowels in Australia
have undergone the most thorough examination ( n.d). There are several distinctive
features to distinguish different types of vowels such as the position of the tongue and
the shape of the lips. Two specific types of vowels have also been identified for AusE:
monophthongs and diphthongs.
In Australia, there are variations of spoken language. Cox & Palethrope (2001) argues
that the regional pronunciation differences in AusE are minor but growing. The most
unique variation is between two vowels /æ/ and /a/. Locations like Sydney, Hobart,
and Brisbane, where the residents mainly come from the lower socioeconomic class
by the early nineteenth century, use more /a/; Adelaide, which was settled in the
middle of the nineteenth century by people of middle or higher socioeconomic
position, employs the highest proportion of /a/. In contrast, Melbourne, which was
settled in the middle of the century with a more mixed population, has a larger
proportion of /ae/. (Bradley, 2008) as cited in Collins (n.d).

1.1 Monophthong

Table 1: Monophthongs in Mitchell/Delbridge systems and in

Harrington/Cox/Evans systems

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 Mitchell / Delbridge Harrington/Cox/Evans Example word

/i/ /iː/ heed

/ɪ/ /ɪ/ hid

/ɛ/ /e/ head

/æ/ /æ/ had

/a/ /ɐː/ hard

/ʌ/ /ɐ/ hut

/ɒ/ /ɔ/ hot

/ɔ/ /oː/ horde

/ʊ/ /ʊ/ hood

/u/ /ʉː/ hoot

/ɜ/ /ɜː/ heard

/ə/ /ə/ about

/ɛə/ /eː/ hair

Adapted from: The vowels of Australia English, (n.d).

According to “The vowels of Australian English” (n.d), over the past half-decade
Australian phoneticians have developed a number of symbols for the phonemic
transcriptions of Australian English vowels. For those reasons, there are different
systems of Australian English vowels. Our study will mainly focus on Mitchell &
Delbridge (1965) systems and Harrington, Cox and Evans (1997) systems. The
Mitchell and Delbridge systems were mainly based on British “Received
Pronunciation” phonemes because AuE and RP shared the same set of phonemes. On
the basis of MD systems, the Harrington,Cox and Evans systems created a set of
symbols that more accurately represent the actual pronunciation of each vowel. One
obvious difference between two systems is the number of monophthongs. In contrast
with Mitchell & Delbridge (1965) systems, Harrington, Cox and Evans (1997)
systems had 13 monophthong vowel phonemes. The change involves in the vowel
that people can find the word : “ bear, care, fair”. In the HCE system, this vowel is
characterized as a long monophthong /eː/, but MD symbolizes it as a diphthong /ɛə/).
Felicity Cox, an Associate Professor at Macquarie University, claims that the HCE
revised system represents the AuE vowel more accurately than the MD system (cited
in Nadal, 2016).

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 1.2. Diphthong

Table 2
Words and phonemic symbols used for data elicitation

WORD symbol WORD symbol

HEED /i/ WHO’D /u/

HID /ɪ/ HEARD /ɜ/

HEAD /ɛ/ HEARED /ɪə/

HAD /æ/ HAIRED /eə/

HARD /a/ HADE /eɪ/

HUD /ʌ/ HIDE /aɪ/

HOD /ɒ/ HOYED /ɔɪ/

HOARD /ɔ/ HODE /oʊ/

HOOD /ʊ/ HOWD /aʊ/

The symbols on this above table are based on the Mitchell and Delbridge (1965)
approach used in the Macquarie Dictionary. There still exist some limitations but this
table is the most widely used within Australians Felicity Cox, Sallyanne Palethorpe
( 2001) as cited in Blair & Collins (2001).
Adapted from “ English in Australia” by D. Blair and P. Collins, 2001, The changing
face of Australian English vowels, p. 23.

As shown in table 2 there are seven distinctive diphthongs which

are /ɪə/, /eə/, /eɪ/, /aɪ/, /ɔɪ/, /oʊ/, /aʊ/ in the Australian phonemic system. When
Australians pronounce monophthongs, the vowel can be created over a relatively long
period of time. During this process, there is no remarkable movement of the
articulators from their starting position. On the contrary, in diphthongs production, in
order to reach the trait diphthong glide, the articulators have to shift. The progress of
changing from one articulatory position in the vowel space ( also known as target 1)
to other positions ( also considered as target 2) will determine the scope of the glide
and each target will be in response to a specific monophthongs position. For example,
for most AusE speakers, Target 1 of the vowel in HAY or the diphthong /eɪ/ is quite
close to the monophthong in HAD or sound /æ/, and Target 2 is comparable to the
monophthong in HID /ɪ/ - Harrington et al. (2007); Cox (1996) - as cited in Blair and
Collins ( 2001). When mentioning the variances of diphthongs between the Received
Pronunciation (RP) which was formerly known as "BBC English," is a dialect of
spoken English that originated in southern England and is based on educated speech.

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 It provides a set of "standard" sounds that can be used to compare the sounds of
English in different places of the world ( Moore, 2008), and AusE, Cox ( n,d) states
that there are two types of diphthongs which are rising diphthongs happening in the
words: HIDE, HOWD, HOYD and HODE and centering diphthongs or falling
diphthongs happening in the words EAR and AIR. The centering diphthongs are
often pronounced with slight glide so that the production is quite similar to HID and
HEAD vowels. Other sounds like “ HADE” is comparable to RP “ HIDE” whereas,
AusE “ HIDE” is equivalent to RP “ HOYD”. Sometimes, their differences trigger
misunderstanding as in the case of a woman who thought that she was sent home from
the hospital “ to die” after being told that she was “ going home today”.

2. Consonants
2.1. Phonemic system:

Australian English consonants are similar to those of other non-rhotic varieties of

English. In Australian English, the phonemic system of consonants can be divided
into categories such as: place of articulation, manner of articulation, voicing of
articulation.
Table 3

Table of Australian English consonant phonemes

Adapted from: Australian English (2007)

2.1.1. Place of articulation

The term "place of articulation" refers to where the mouth's primary articulations are
located. It is an essential element in establishing the precise auditory features of the
sound. In a bilabial consonant, the upper and lower lips move toward or touch each
other. For bilabial articulation, the soft palate is raised for oral articulation such as /p,
b/ so that the passage of airflow is through the mouth, whereas the soft palate is
lowered to allow air to flow into the nose for nasal articulation such as /m/. People
articulate labiodental sounds by touching the bottom lip to the upper teeth. Dental is a
place that humans pronounce the sound by inserting the tip of the tongue between the
teeth. Our tongue must reach up and make contact with the alveolar ridge in order to
make the alveolar sounds. Alveolar ridge is the region that is in front of the upper
teeth and the palate (Rahman, 2020). The constriction for post-alveolar sounds is
achieved by lifting the front portion of the tongue toward the palate. Consonants

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 called palatals are pronounced with the tongue's body lifted against the hard palate
(the middle part of the roof of the mouth) (wikipedia, n.d). For velar consonants
like /k/, /g/, /ŋ/, /w/, people articulate by pressing the back of the tongue on the soft
palate, or the rear of the roof of the mouth (wikipedia, n.d). The last place of
articulation is glottals. To pronounce glottal /h/, people need to use their glottis as
their primary articulation (wikipedia, n.d)

2.1.2. Manner of articulation

2.1.2.1. Plosives

A plosive, often known as an occlusive or simply a stop in phonetics, is a pulmonic

consonant in which the vocal tract is stopped, preventing all airflow. The tongue tip or
blade ([t], [d]), tongue body ([k], [g]), lips ([p], [b]), or glottis ([h]) can be used to
occlude (wikipedia, n.d).

2.1.2.2. Affricates

 Affricates, like stops, have absolute oral occlusion, but instead of releasing the
closure abruptly, the stop is released more gradually into a fricative. The two
affricative phonemes in English are /tʃ/, /dʒ/, as in "chin" and "gin". The first has no
voice, whereas the second has one. Affricates also feature a raised soft palate and a
central airflow route. Affricates are complex articulations (Cox, 2012).

2.1.2.3. Nasals

In phonetics, a nasal, also known as a nasal occlusive or nasal stop, is an occlusive

consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to exit freely through the
nose, as opposed to an oral stop or nasalized consonant (wikipedia, n.d)

2.1.2.4. Fricatives

When two articulators are placed closely together, they create a narrow channel
through which air is forced, producing the sound known as a fricative (wikipedia,
n.d). Fricatives include sounds /f/, /v/, /s/, /z/, /θ/, /ð/, /ʒ/, /h/

2.1.2.5. Approximants and lateral approximants

Approximants have more open articulations than the other consonants. The
articulations approach each other, but not to the point of frication. Approximants are
the most vowel-approximants, with air moving through a central oral pathway in /w, j,
r/ and lateral airflow over the lowering sides of the tongue in /l/. The soft palate is
elevated to allow for oral airflow. Approximants are often open and voiced sounds,
which means that they are sonorant. Approximants are further subdivided into the
phonological groups glides and liquids. /w/ and /j/ are glides (also known as
semivowels), while /l/ and /r/ are liquids (Cox, 2012). Approximants that are
pronounced with the side of the tongue are known as lateral approximants, sometimes
abbreviated to lateral. An English lateral is /l/.

2.1.3. Voicing of articulation

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 The state of the larynx is described by the voicing characteristic. Speech sounds are
classified as voiced or voiceless based on whether vocal fold vibration is present or
missing. The alveolar fricative /s/ is voiceless because it is produced without vocal
fold vibration, but /z/ is voiced because it is produced with the glottal tone. Vowels,
approximants, and nasal phonemes are all voiced sounds in AusE. Fricatives,
affricates, and oral stops can be voiced or voiceless (Cox, 2012). 

2.2. Allophonic variants of Australian English consonants

2.2.1. Non-rhoticity

Australian English is non-rhotic. There is no sound /r/ at the end of a syllable or

immediately before a consonant. Therefore, the words here [hɪə] and park [paːk] will
not contain the /r/ sound (wikipedia, n.d). Written evidence implies that the loss of
postvocalic /r/ occurred intermittently in the mid-15th century, and these /r/-less
spellings were infrequent and limited to private papers, particularly those written by
women. Postvocalic /r/ was still pronounced in most contexts in the mid-18th century,
but by the 1740s to 1770s, it was frequently dropped totally, especially following low
vowels. The southern British standard had been largely changed into a non-rhotic
version by the early nineteenth century, though some variety remained as late as the
1870s (Lass 1999, as cited in wikipedia, n.d). With lack of prepausal and
preconsonantal /r/, standard AusE becomes non-rhotic. This is most likely due to the
fact that Australia's white colony was created after r-loss in Southern British English
was well advanced, if not complete. (Beal, as cited in Cox, 2006) 

2.2.2. Linking and intrusive “r”

Linking /r/ is usually inserted in the position that is between the first morpheme
ending in the vowel phonemes and the following morpheme beginning with a vowel
(Pavlík, 2011) For example, clearing /ˈklɪərɪŋ/. Besides, intrusive /r/ occurs after
morphemes ending in /aː/, /oː/, /ə/, /ɪə/ when followed by a morpheme beginning with
a vowel (Pavlík, 2011). According to wikipedia, intrusive R is an overgeneralizing
situation of linking “r” into the r-insertion rule affecting all words that end in the non-
high vowels /ə/, /ɪə/, /ɑː/, or /ɔː/. If a word is followed by another word starting with a
vowel sound, a /r/ is inserted between them. 

2.2.3. Flapping

According to Evans (as cited in Cox and Palethorpe 2007), flapping of the /t/ and /d/
is permitted in the intervocalic position before weak vowels within words. For
instance: water [woːɾə], ladder [læɾə]). Additionally, /t/ can flap before syllabic /l/ and
/m/ (as in “cattle”, and “bottom”) as well as before unstressed vowels coming after /n.
(Tollfree, as cited in Cox and Palethorpe, 2007)

2.2.4. Pronunciation of “l”

When in pre-pausal and pre-consonantal situations, the sound /l/ is often dark before a
morpheme boundary that comes before a vowel and is realized as [ɫ]. Some claim that
the AusE beginning of the letter "l" is more dorsal (darker) than in other English
dialects (Wells, 1982). Some speakers may vocalize /l/ in pre-consonantal, syllable-

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 final, and syllabic situations in words like milk [mɪʊk], and noodle [nʉːdʊ] (Borowsky
& Horvarth 1997, Borowsky 2001, as cited in Cox and Palethorpe, 2007).

3. Suprasegmental features

Moore (2008) argues that Australian speech is relatively flat, at its most severe has a
prolonged voice. When compared to RP, AusE tends to have less variation in
intonation and also it has less range between the highest and the lowest pitches. The
tendency for stress to be distributed more evenly within a sentence may also
contribute to the impression that Australians speak with a drawl. For instance, with
the same sentence: “ thank you very much”, while RP speakers put stress on “ thank,
much”, an Australian speaker would put more stress on that sentence which is “ thank,
very, much”.
As stated in research carried out by University of NewCastle Australia (2016),
Australians are inclined to join different sounds into blocks called syllables.You can
make larger words out of many syllables more frequently, such as "attitude" or
"pictorial." In those two instances, the words "attitude" (at / ti / tude) and "pictorial"
(pic / tor / ri / al) each have three syllables. It helps to visualize the words as musical
lyrics with a consistent rhythm. During that process, the syllables which are not
stressed will be changed into different sounds. Take the word “ attitude” as an
example, this word has stress on the first syllable, so the second syllables will be
changed as in ““AT ter tyood”. Afterwards, you may run different words together
when you speak. For example instead of saying “ Australians all let us rejoice”, native
speakers will say “Au-stray lyan-zor leh-dus red-joyce” .

IV. Conclusion

In conclusion, the study has covered a number of contents: an overview of AusE’s

historical background, an analysis of AusE phonemic systems and allophonic
variations, and finally, a concise summary of prosodic features.
Despite all the efforts, there are inevitable limitations to the study due to word limits
and restricted access to relevant documents. However, it is expected that this study to
some extent will contribute to the repertoire of knowledge in this topic.

Word count: 2981 words.

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