Phonology pronunciation Australian English is non-rhotic do not

Phonology/pronunciation • Australian English is non-rhotic (do not pronounce the letter r after vowels in words like world). The vowel has to follow the r to pronounce it. Ie intrusive, crucial, frivolous • - The vocalization of l (is pronounced towards the back of the mouth rather than the front). MILK, PICKLE, FICKLE, PULL, FULL.

Weakening of stopped consonants • Pronunciation of t. • You will find that there a few different ways that Australians pronounce it: • 1. Between Vowels: tends to be flapped (rapid contact between two speech organs ie teeth and tongue) and also syllabic. Pronounced fast and rapid. Thirteen, city, get it, petal, mitten • 2. Final stops tend to be unreleased. Meaning unlike a stopped consonant the speech organs don’t part to create impact on the sound. ie BIT, FIT, SIT • 3. Tendency to glottalise: Emphasis on the glottal stops (made by rapidly closing vocal chords). This is most commonly seen in the use of cockney accents, and has perhaps derived from there. Ie WHAT? FAT, MAT (emphasis on the stop)

• Increasingly affricated tr and str sounds. Rather than ST or T being in focus, the pronunciation is more indicative of CH or SH. Ie TREE would most likely be pronounced CHREE, STUDENT is pronounced SHTUDENT. • Substitution of f and v for th. Mother, smother, think (fink) • Seeing the ending of the four quantifying pronouns: something, everything, anything, nothing for ink. Ie somethink, everythink etc. This is not distinctly Australian though other varieties use this.

Phonological features in terms of VOWELS: • Australians tend to use the SHWA vowels in an unstressed context. Ie boxes (AS), Comm. A, Rabb. IT • Monophthongal pronunciation: In these accents, your, sure, poor, tour, cure (not as common) and pure (not as common) all rhyme with bore and law, during rhymes with boring and jury with story.

• Sounds in connected speech: • Assimilation: sounds changing shape to become more alike ie HANDBAG changes shape to sound like HAMBAG • Vowel reduction: vowels that are in unstressed positions are reduced to schwa or dropped out entirely. Ie POLICE (reduction of o), BASIN (loss of i), TERIFFIC (loss of e) • Elision: slurring or omission of certain sounds in a phonological context, ol (old), haman eggs (and) socksn shoes (socks and) • Insertion: addition of vowel sounds where they previously didn’t exist. Ath. Elete (athlete), Fil. LUm (film)

Australian Questioning Intonation (AQI) ü a high-rising intonation ü has a nonpropositional, interactive meaning (checking for listener comprehension) and interacts with the turn-taking mechanism of conversation ü higher rates of usage among working-class speakers, teenagers, and women.

Spelling and grammar Some of the major differences are: • –able or –eable, usable or useable Both are used in Australian and British English. • –ae or -e, -paediatrician or pediatrician British spelling uses -ae, Australian –e • -ing or -eing, aging or ageing Both are used in Britain. Ageing is the preferred Australian spelling. • -ise or -ize, customise or customize The -ize spelling is standard in American spelling, the -ise ending is the preferred British, Australian usage. • -yse or –yze, analyse or analyze The -yze form is American and the –yse form British, Australian.

• -l or -ll, instal or install Australian uses single for many words (instil, enrol, enthral, dispel), but two ll forestall and install. • -ment or -ement, judgment or judgement Australian and British spelling use both forms. The preferred form in everyday writing seems to be with an –e (judgement, lodgement), though judgment is used in legal writing. • -oe or -e, foetus or fetus The -oe spelling is British. Australian English uses –oe for some words (homoeopath, oestrogen), and -e for others ( homeostasis). • -our or –or As in British spelling, the "u" is retained in words such as honour and favour. The -or form is American. • -re or –er -re is preferred over –er in words such as theatre and for metric units such as metre, litre.

Grammar • In Australian English collective nouns ((i. e. nouns referring to particular groups of people or things), (e. g. staff , government, class, team) are always followed by a singular verb. • In Australian as In British English «River» generally follows before the name e. g. , the River Thames, the River Murray or the River Torrens.

• The past tense and past participles of the verbs learn, spell and smell are often irregular (learnt, spelt, smelt). • Similarly, in Australian usage, the particle «to» must be retained, e. g. I‘ll write to you , as opposed to US usage where it may be dropped. • Prepositions before days must be retained in Australian English • When saying or writing out numbers, «and» is inserted before the tens and units。

THE VOCABULARY OF AUSTRALIAN ENGLISH 1. BORROWINGS FROM AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL LANGUAGES 2. ENGLISH FORMATIONS 3. THE CONVICT ERA 4. BRITISH DIALECT 5. BRITISH SLANG 6. GOLD 7. WARS

1. BORROWINGS FROM AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL LANGUAGES

• In the first 100 years about 400 words were borrowed into Australian English from ~80 native languages

The Dharuk language provided a large number of words (with the year when they were first indicated): • boomerang (1790) • koala (1798) • wombat (1798) • dingo (1789)

Borrowings from the Kamilaroi language of eastern New South Wales include: • brolga (1896) - is a bird in the crane family • budgerigar (1840) - a small, long-tailed, seedeating parrot • bora (1850) - the name of an initiation ceremony of Indigenous Australians • gilgai (1867) - a small lake formed from a depression in the soil surface in expanding clay soils

Borrowings from the Yuwaalaraay language of northern New South Wales include: • bilby (1885) - desert-dwelling marsupial omnivores • galah (1862) - one of the most common and widespread cockatoos in Australia • gidgee (1862) - is a kind of a tree

Borrowings from the Wiradhuri languages of south-western New South Wales include: • corella (1859) - a subgenus of the white cockatoos • gang-gang (1833) - cockatoo • kookaburra (1834) - terrestrial tree kingfishers (зимородки) • quandong (1836) - a hemiparasitic plant

In terms of number of borrowings another big one is a Nyungar language of south-western Western Australia: • boodie (1842) - a small marsupial (сумчатые) • dibbler (1850) - an endangered species of marsupial • numbat (1842) - is a marsupial • mardo (1839) - is a shrew-like marsupial

• The words borrowed from Indigenous languages are almost exclusively nouns (terms for flora and fauna) • Some adjectives and verbs were borrowed into the Australian pidgin that was spoken in the nineteenth century. Most of these have now disappeared, but two important words have survived: • bung (1841) - cork • yakka (1847) - common name for the grasstree

2. ENGLISH FORMATIONS

• сreek - any stream or small river, whereas in England it is a small watercourse flowing into the sea; • paddock is the Australian word for "field", while in England it is a small enclosure for livestock (загон для животных). • bush or scrub means "wooded areas" or "country areas in general" in Australia, while in England they are commonly used only in proper names (such as Shepherd's Bush and Wormwood Scrubs).

• mate as a friend, rather than the conventional meaning of "a spouse" (супругсупрга), • G'day, a greeting, meaning 'good day'. • Sheila, Australian slang for "woman", is derived from the Irish girls' name Síle (IPA: /ʃiːlʲə/, anglicised Sheila). • Bludger – A person who avoids working, or doing their share of work, a loafer, a hanger-on, one who does not pull his weight. • Billy - a tin or enamel (эмаль) cooking pot with a lid (крышка) and wire handle, used outdoors, especially for making tea. It comes from the Scottish dialect word billy meaning ‘cooking utensil’ (кухонная утварь).

Settlers sometimes altered existing senses • Paddock in Britain - small fenced field, often used for keeping or exercising horses • Paddock in Australia - a piece of land, fenced, defined by natural boundaries, or otherwise considered distinct, usually a section of a rural property

Flora and fauna were often named after a European ones • ash – applied to trees which produced timber resembling the European ash • apple (1801) • cedar (1795) • cherry (1799) • mahogany (1792) • oak (1789)

In order to distinguish the Australian plant or animal from the European plant or animal with which it was compared, the Australian word was often preceded by a term such as native: • native artichoke (1909) • native bee (1845) • native bluebell (1900)

The word bush was similarly used: • bush cucumber (1937) • bush fly (1838) • bush hay (1827) • bush kangaroo (1832)

Flora and fauna were often given descriptive names of various kinds: • beefwood - named from the redness of the tree’s wood • blackwood - named because of a characteristic charred fibrous bark on the lower trunk • bottlebrush - named because its flower spikes are shaped like a bottle brush

• chef’s hat correa has a calyx that gives each flower the appearance of a chef’s traditional hat

Among such interesting terms for fauna included in the Australian Oxford Dictionary are: • anvil bird • dollar bird • whisky drinker

Among such interesting terms for flora included in the Australian Oxford Dictionary are: • compass bush • soap tree • organ grinder • cheese tree • raspberry jam tree

3. THE CONVICT ERA

• Between 1788 and 1852 ~150, 000 convicts were transported from Britain to Australia. • Their underworld terms became part of Australian English.

• plant - to hide (articles, animals, etc. ) frequently stolen goods • swag - referred to a thief’s booty or plunder, but by the middle of the nineteenth century it was used to describe the collection of personal belongings wrapped up in a bedroll, as carried by a bush traveler.

• muster (in Standard English) - an assembly of soldiers, sailors, etc. , for inspection, verification of numbers, exercise, display, etc. • In the Australian convict colony - a similar assembly of convicts, • By the mid-nineteenth century - gathering together of livestock for counting and branding.

Most of the recorded terminology has to do with the organization and administration of the convict system: • convict overseer • convict settler • convict station • public servant (civil servant in Britain)

4. BRITISH DIALECT

• About 200 words, from a range of British dialects, lost their ‘dialect’ status in Australian and became part of mainstream Australian English • Most of the important borrowings occur in the second 60 years of settlement • Many of the words borrowed come from the dialects of northern England Scotland

• Many of the early terms have to do with agriculture, land settlement, and mining The significant borrowings from British dialect are concentrated in the second 60 years of settlement: • nugget (1851) - a small lump of gold or other precious metal found ready-formed in the earth. • chook (1855) - a chicken or fowl • skite (1857) – boast (talk with excessive pride and self-satisfaction about one’s achievements)

5. BRITISH SLANG

Some of these are ‘underworld’ words Many of them have disappeared from Australian English, but some survived: • bludger (1882) - a person who borrows from or lives off others • caser (1825) - a crown, five shillings • chiack (1853) - make rude and mocking remarks or tease

6. GOLD

• Some standard mining terminology • Some transported to the Australian goldfields from the Californian goldfields • many of the terms lasted only as long as the goldrush period itself

• gold washer • storekeeper’s rush - a gold rush started by a false rumour • long tom - a trough (корыто) for washing gold -bearing deposits • gold escort - an armed group protecting gold while it is being transported

• digger – derives from deep holes which had to be dug in the search for gold, and the trenches which the soldiers had to dig • fossick now means ‘to search around or about’ On the goldfields it had two meanings: ‘to search for gold on the surface, sometimes in a desultory or unsystematic way’ or ‘to steal gold from other diggers’

• Roll-up - a mass meeting of miners to consider an individual grievance or an issue of common concern is used in mining contexts • by the end of the nineteenth century had developed its transferred sense of ‘an assembly’, which is now its primary meaning in Australian English

7. WARS

There are overlaps in terminology between these Australian groups and worldwide military slang Even so, some distinctively Australian Navy terms have been produced: • dimple - a hole in a ship’s hull (корпус) caused by a torpedo • drain the bilge - to be extremely seasick • macaroon - a new rating • squid - female trainee

Air Force slang is also greatly influenced by British traditions, but there have been many Australian terms: • blear - (when lost) fly about in search of a landmark • blind stabbing - blind flying • emu - member of the ground staff • nest - an aerodrome • wags - signallers

Most terms do not survive their wartime contexts: • anzac button - a nail used in place of a trouser button • anzac soup - shell-hole water polluted by a corpse • belly-ache - a mortal wound • floating kidney - a soldier unattached to any unit, or without definite duties

The First World War produced a number of major Australian cultural icons: • Anzac - appears in 1915 as an acronym formed from the initial letters of Australian and New Zealand Army Corps • Digger - transferred use of ‘a miner on the Australian goldfields’ • Aussie - for ‘Australia’, for an Australian soldier, and then more generally for ‘an Australian’ or ‘Australian’

• oil - information, news and its compounds dinkum oil, straight oil, and good oil all gained wide currency as First World War Services’ slang • possie (now) - position of supposed advantage to the occupant; a place; a job • (was) - individual soldier’s place of shelter or firing position

• souvenir - to appropriate; to steal; to take as a souvenir • plonk - cheap wine (an example of a word of Australian derivation adopted in Britain, and elsewhere, with little awareness of its origin) • somebody`s blood’s worth bottling – a special compliment only handed out for some personal contribution by you that the person believes is of particular significance to him/her

The Second World War was similarly productive of new terms: • to go troppo - degenerate into mild imbecility through tropical conditions • troppo - the man with a fishy gaze and sluggish limbs