Regional & international varieties 2

1. Australian English

2. Phonology and pronunciation

3. Variation: - Sociocultural variation

- Regional variation

Content 4. Vocabulary

5. Features of standard English

6. Standard English

7. International English
 AUSTRALIAN ENGLISH ( AUE, EN-AU )

 A major variety of English language, used throughout Australian.

 Australian English is the country’s national and de facto official language.
 Australian English began to diverge from British English after the founding of the
colony of new south wales in 1788.
 Recognized as being different from British English by 1820.
 Arose from the intermingling of early settlers from a great variety of mutually
intelligible dialectal regions of the British isles and quickly developed into a distinct
variety of English .
 AUSTRALIAN ENGLISH ( AUE, EN-AU )
 As a distinct dialect, Australian English differs considerably from other varieties of
English:

- Vocabulary

- Accent

- Pronunciation

- Register

- Grammar

- Spelling
 PHONOLOGY AND PRONUNCIATION

 The primary way in which Australian English is distinctive from other varieties of

English is through its unique pronunciation.

 It shares most similarity with other southern hemisphere accents, in particular New

Zealand English. Like most dialects of English it is distinguished primarily by its vowel

phonology.
 PHONOLOGY AND PRONUNCIATION

 The primary way in which Australian English is distinctive from other varieties of
English is through its unique pronunciation.

 It shares most similarity with other Southern Hemisphere accents, in particular New
Zealand English. Like most dialects of English it is distinguished primarily by its vowel
phonology.
 PHONOLOGY AND PRONUNCIATION

 The vowels of Australian English can be divided according to length. The long vowels, which
include monophthongs and diphthongs, mostly correspond to the tense vowels used in analyses
of Received Pronunciation (RP) as well as its centring diphthongs. The short vowels,
consisting only of monophthongs, correspond to the RP lax vowels.
 PHONOLOGY AND PRONUNCIATION

 There exist pairs of long and short vowels with overlapping vowel quality giving
Australian English phonemic length distinction, which is unusual amongst the various
dialects of English, though not unknown elsewhere, such as in regional south-eastern
dialects of the UK and eastern seaboard dialects in the US. As with General American
and New Zealand English, the weak-vowel merger is complete in Australian English:
unstressed /ɪ/ (sometimes written as /ɨ/ or /ᵻ/) is merged into / ə/ (schwa), unless it is
followed by a velar consonant.
PHONOLOGY AND PRONUNCIATION

Table 2.8. Australian vowels

 PHONOLOGY AND PRONUNCIATION

 There is little variation with respect to the sets of consonants used in various English dialects.

Australian English is non-rhotic.

PHONOLOGY AND PRONUNCIATION
 Variation
 Sociocultural variation
 Academic research has shown that the most notable variation within Australian English is
largely sociocultural.
 This is mostly evident in phonology, which is divided into three sociocultural varieties: broad,
general and cultivated.
Table 2.10 variation in Australian closing diphthongs[121]
Variation in Australian closing diphthongs
Diaphoneme Lexical set Cultivated General Broad
/i:/ FLEECE [ɪi] [ɪi] [ə:ɪ]
/ei/ FACE [ɪ] [ɐɪ] [ɐ:ɪ, a:ɪ]
/ai/ PRICE [aɪ] [ɒɪ] [ɒ:ɪ]
/u:/ GOOSE [ʊu] [ïɯ, ʊu] [ə:u]
/oʊ/ GOAT [öʊ] [ɐu] [ɐ:u, a:u]
/aʊ/ MOUTH [aʊ] [æo] [Ɛ:o, Ɛ̃:ɤ]
 VARIATION

• The geographical background of individuals can be inferred, if they use words that are peculiar

to particular Australian states or territories and, in some cases, even smaller regions.

• In addition, some Australians speak creole languages derived from Australian English, such as

Australian Kriol, Torres Strait Creole and Norfuk.

• The broad, general and cultivated accents form a continuum that reflects minute variations in

the Australian accent. They can reflect the social class, education and urban or rural

background of speakers, though such indicators are not always reliable.

 VARIATION

 Australian Aboriginal English is made up of a range of forms which developed

differently in different parts of Australian. There are distinctive features of accent,
grammar, words and meanings, as well as language use.
 The ethnocultural dialects are diverse accents in Australian English that are spoken by
the minority groups, which are of non-English speaking background.
 A massive immigration from Asia has made a large increase in diversity and the will for
people to show their cultural identity within the Australian context. These
ethnocultural varieties contain features of General Australian English as adopted by
the children of immigrants blended with some non-English language features, such as
the Afro-Asiatic and Asian languages.
 VARIATION

 Regional variation
 Most regional differences come down to word usage.

Ex: swimming clothes : cossies or swimmers in New South Wales, togs in Queensland,
and bathers in Victoria, Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia.
 Preference for synonymous words also differs between states.

Ex: garbage dominates over rubbish in New South Wales and Queensland, while rubbish
is more popular in Victoria, Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia.
 Distinctive grammatical patterns exist such as the use of the interrogative eh (also
spelled ay or aye), which is particularly associated with Queensland.
 VOCABULARY
o Australia English has many words and idioms which are unique to the dialect and have
been written on extensively, with the Macquarie Dictionary, widely regarded as the
national standard, incorporating numerous Australian terms.
o Examples: Australian terminology:
 Outback: a remote, sparsely populated area
 The bush: a native forest or country area.
 Dinkum, or fair dinkum: true or “is that true?”
 -> Depend on context and inflection.
 VOCABULARY

A dinky-di Aussie: true Australian.

 Australian poetry: The Man from Snowy River
Australian word Contain many history that are
 Folk songs: Waltzing Matilda understood by Australian.
.
 FEATURES OF STANDARD ENGLISH

 Standard English is the national variety of the language inasmuch as it is not

restricted to any region within the country.
 It is taught throughout the education system.
 It is the public language of official communication.
 It is preeminently the language of printed matter.
 It is the variety that is taught to foreign learners.
 FEATURES OF STANDARD ENGLISH
5 essential features:

SE is a variety of English-a distinctive combination of linguistic features with a particular

role to play in a country.

 The linguistic features of se are chiefly matters of grammar, vocabulary, and

orthography( spelling and punctuation). It is important to note that SE is not a matter

pronunciation: SE is spoken in a wide variety of accents.

 Se is the variety of English which carries most prestige within a country. In the words

of one US linguist, SE is " the English used by the powerful "

 FEATURES OF STANDARD ENGLISH
 It is the variety which is used as the norm of community's leading institutions, such as

its government, law courts, and media. It is the variety which is likely to be the most

widely disseminated among the public. 

 Although se is widely understood, it is not widely produced. Only a minority of people

within a country (e.g. Radio newscasters) actually use it when they talk. 
 On this basic, we may define the standard English of an English-speaking country as a
minority variety (identified chiefly by its vocabulary, grammar, and orthography) which
carries most prestige and is most understood.
 STANDARD ENGLISHES
 The dialect we grace with the name standard English is spoken with many different accents.
 But, there are also many standard English. US standard English is distinguishable from south
 African standard English and Australian standard English, for instance, and all three differ
from the
 British standard dialect.
 Nowadays, English is spoken as a mother tongue in great Britain, America, Australia,
 New Zealand and elsewhere. We can speak of standard British English, standard American
English, standard Australian English...
 Two major English standards are British standard and American standard. Other English
standards are based on these two standards.
 STANDARD ENGLISHES

 A common core or nucleus is present in all these standard varieties so that, however
esoteric a variety may be, it has running through it a set of grammatical and other
characteristics that are present in all the others. It is this fact that justifies the
application of the name English to all the varieties.
 INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH
 International English is the concept of the English language as a global means of
communication in numerous dialects, and also the movement towards an international
standard for the language. It is also referred to as Global English, World English,
Common English, Continental English or General English.
 Sometimes “international English” and the related term above refer to a desired
standardisation,...Standard English; however, there is no consensus on the path to this
goal.
 INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH
 English is now the dominant or official or semi-official language in over 60 countries
and is represented in every continent and in three major oceans: Atlantic, Indian and
Pacific.
 English is the majority first language in twenty-three countries. It is an official
language or a joint official language in about fifty other countries, where it is used in
addition to the indigenous first language for a variety of public and personal function.
It is also used as a second language, though without official status, in countries such
as Bangladesh and Malaysia. Countries where English is a first or second language are
located in all five continent. The total population of these countries amounts to
around 2.5 billion, about 49 per cent of the worlds population.
 INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH
 The number of first-language speakers of English has been estimated at well over 300
million, of whom over 216 million live in the United States. The United Kingdom has
about 53 million, Canada over 17 million, and Australia about 14 million.
 The present day status of international/world status of English is primarily the result
of two factors: the expansion of British colonial power, which peak towards the end of
the 19th century, and the emregences of the United States as the leading economic
power of the 20th century.
 INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH
 Most of the worlds scientific and technical journals are in English.
 The English taught to foreign learners is generally Bristish or American English in
standard varieties.
 At present, there are no established and generally acknowledge standard varieties in
second-language countries.
 There is no method of weighing the advantages and disadvantages of English
 INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH

 The future of English as a global/international language will depen very largely on

the political, economical, demographic and cultural trends in the world. The
beginning of the 21st century is a time of global transition.