Australia, New Zealand and South Africa• These three countries have been grouped together for a

number of reasons. • First of all, they are the only large areas in the southern

hemisphere in which English is spoken as a• native language. • This itself is related to the relatively large-scale settlement

of all three by English speaking Europeans at roughly the same time (Australia from 1788, South Africa essentially from 1820, New Zealand officially from 1840).

• All three were, for a considerable period of time, British colonies and hence open to British institutions (government, administration, courts, military, education and religion) as well as the use of English as an official language.

Australia• When the first European settlers reached Port

Jackson (present day Sydney) in New South Wales in 1788 the continent was inhabited by the native or Aboriginal peoples.

• Since these peoples were linguistically divided and technologically far less advanced than the European newcomers, they had relatively little impact on further developments, including language.

• Today the Aboriginal population numbers about 0.25 million in a total of about 19 million.

• Initially Australia served as a British penal colony and was populated chiefly by transported convicts.

• With the economic development of the country (wool, minerals) the number of voluntary immigrants increased, and it boomed after the discovery of gold in 1851.

• The convict settlers were chiefly Irish (30 per cent) and southern English. The latter had the strongest influence on the nature of AusE.

• Because of their largely urban origins the English they used contained relatively few rural, farming terms and perhaps a greater number of words considered to be less refined in polished English society.

• The pronunciation which has developed, while distinctly Australian, has a clearly urban southern English bias; and although it is often compared to Cockney, the similarities are only partial

• Today the vast majority of the population speaks English; and over 80 per cent of them have it as their native language. Aboriginal languages are in wide use only in Western Australia and the Northern Territory; in the late twentieth century Aboriginal languages were used there by perhaps as much as a quarter of the population.

• Non-British immigration has been significant since the Second World War. The long practiced ‘white Australia’ policy, which discouraged non-European, even non-British immigration (except for New Zealanders) has yielded to more liberal policies: by the 1970s a third of the immigrants were Asians and only a half were Europeans.

• Regardless of the presence of numerous immigrant languages the primacy of English has never been called into question; the influence of both immigrant and Aboriginal languages has been limited to providing loan words.

• AusE is most easily recognized by its pronunciation.

• The intonation seems to operate within a narrower range of pitch, and the tempo often strikes non-Australians as noticeably slow.

• Except for the generally slower pronunciations of rural speech, there is no systematic regional variation in AusE, but there are significant social differences.

• Frequently AusE pronunciation is classed in three categories.

• The first is referred to as Cultivated and resembles RP relatively closely; it may, in fact, include speakers whose pronunciation is ‘near-RP’. It is spoken by proportionately few people (in one investigation of adolescent speakers approximately 11 per cent (Delbridge 1970: 19)

• Nevertheless, it is the type of pronunciation given in the Macquarie Dictionary.

• The second type is called General, spoken by the majority (55 per cent; Delbridge 1970); its sound patterns are clearly Australian, but not so extreme as what is known as Broad (34 per cent; Delbridge 1970), which realizes its vowels more slowly than General.

• In the light of Australia’s early history, in which two groups stood in direct opposition to each other, namely the convicts and the officer class which supervised them, the following remark seems fitting:

“In sum, Australian English developed in the context of two dialects – each of the bearing a certain amount of prestige. Cultivated Australian is, and continues to be, the variety which carries overt prestige. It is the one associated with females, private elite schools, gentility and an English heritage. Broad Australian carries covert prestige and is associated with males, the uneducated, commonness and republicanism The new dialect is ‘General’ which retains the national identity associated with Broad but which avoids the nonstandardisms in pronunciation, morphology and syntax associate with uneducated speech wherever English is spoken”.

(Horvath 1985: 40)

• Today teenage speakers tend to cluster in the area of General, perhaps being pushed there to distinguish themselves from the large number of immigrants who have adopted Broad

• In addition to the remark made above on the narrower range of pitch in AusE, one further comment is appropriate. This is the use of what is called the High Rising Tone (sometimes also called Australian Question Intonation), which involves the use of rising contours for statements.

• It is part of the turn-taking mechanism, and it is used chiefly in narrative and descriptive texts.

• It is apparently a low prestige usage, favored more by young people; it is also more common among females than among males and may be observed increasingly often, especially among young women, in other national varieties of English.

• There are only a few significant differences in the realization of AusE consonants when compared with RP and also with GenAm.

• Among these is the tendency to flap and voice intervocalic /t/ before an unstressed syllable in Broad and General, though rarely in Cultivated.

• T-flapping is very similar to the same phenomenon in GenAm. This necessarily means that there is an absence of the glottal stop [ʔ], which many urban varieties of BrE have in the same environment (e.g. butter is [bʌɾə] rather than [bʌʔə]

• Unlike GenAm, but like RP, AusE is non-rhotic. • As in Cockney there is also a certain amount of H-

dropping (’ouse for house). However, Horvath’s Sydney investigation turned up relatively little of this.

• In addition, the sound quality of /l/ is even darker than a normal velarized [l]; it is, rather, pharyngealized [lɒ] in all positions.

• Furthermore, there seems to be widespread vocalization of /l/, which leads to a new set of diphthongs (NZE is similar).

• In the following the vowel system of General/Broad AusE is presented schematically in comparison with an unshifted RP point of departure.

• One of the main differences, noted by various observers, is a general raising of the simple vowels. A counter-clockwise lowering and retraction of the first element in the diphthongs which move towards a high front second element, and a clockwise lowering and fronting of the first element of the diphthongs which move towards a high back second element are further changes

• To some extent AusE represents a continuation of the Great Vowel Shift, which began in the late Middle English period and which is continuing in the same sense in London English (Cockney)

• bit → bɨt /ɪ/ → raised /ɪ/• foot → foot /ʊ/ → raised /ʊ/• bet → bit /ɛ/ → raised /ɛ/• bat → bet /æ/ → raised /æ/• cut → cut /ʌ/ → raised /ʌ/• box → box /ɒ/ → raised /ɒ/

• Diacritic ˔ = raised

• Beyond such differences in the phonetic realization of the vowels, it is notable that far fewer unstressed vowels are realized as /ɪ/ in AusE than in RP.

• This means that the distinction maintained in RP between <-es> and <-ers> (as in boxes /ɪz/ and boxers /əz/ or humid /ɪd/ and humoured /əd/) is usually not made.

• Indeed, it may be possible to say that there is a certain centralization of /ɪ/ which brings it closer to /ə/, but also sometimes to fronted [ʉ] as well.

• fleas → fleas /i:/ → /əɪ/• who → who /u:/ → /əʊ/• bird → bird /ɜ:/ → raised /ɜ:/• face → fice /eɪ/ → /ʌɪ/• goat → goat /əʊ/ → /ʌʊ/• out → at /aʊ/ → /æo/• I’ll → oil /aɪ/ → /ɒɪ/ • start → start /ɑ:/ → /a:/

• In morphology AusE reveals a preference for several processes of word formation which are less frequent in English at large.

• One of these is the relatively greater use of reduplication, especially in designations for Australian flora and fauna borrowed from Aboriginal languages (bandy-bandy, a kind of snake, gang-gang, a kind of cockatoo) proper names (Banka Banka, Ki Ki, Kurri Kurri) and terms from Aboriginal life including pidgin/creole terms (mia-mia ‘hut’, kai kai ‘food’). In addition the endings {-ee/-y/-ie} /i/ (broomy, Aussie, Tassie, Brizzie, surfy) and {-o} [ʌʊ] (bottlo, smoko) occur more often in AusE than in other varieties.

• AusE shares all but a small portion of its vocabulary with StE; however this small, Australian element is important for giving AusE its own distinctive flavour. Indeed, next to pronunciation it is the distinctively Australian words which give this variety its specialcharacter.

• Rhyming slang, though hardly of frequent use, is often regarded as especially typical of AusE, e.g. sceptic tanks ‘Yanks’. In addition, there are a number of Australian words which originate in English dialects and therefore are not a part of StE everywhere, e.g. bonzer ‘terrific’, chook(ie) ‘chicken’, cobber ‘mate’, crook ‘ill’, dinkum ‘genuine’, larrikin ‘rowdy’, swag ‘bundle’, tucker ‘food’

• Many borrowings come from Aboriginal languages, of which some 40 words are still current in AusE and include: billabong (‘dried out river’), boomerang, budgerigar, dingo, gin ‘Aboriginal woman’, koala (an animal), kookaburra (a bird), mallee (a tree, scrub), nulla-nulla ‘Aboriginal club’, wallaby ‘small kangaroo’, wallaroo ‘mountain kangaroo’, wombat ‘burrowing marsupial’, woomera (‘throwing stick, boomerang’).

• There are a variety of words for Aboriginal hut: gunya (Port Jackson), mia-mia (Victoria), humpy (Queensland), wurley (South Australia).

• Other words are general StE, but may be applied somewhat differently in AusE.

• For example, early settlement gave AusE station for a farm (from earlier prison station).

• Paddocks are fields. • A mob of sheep is a flock or herd. • Muster for rounding up cattle is explained as due to the military

arrangement of the convict settlements, as are superintendent of the station and huts of the men.

• Squatter, initially someone with small holdings but later large ones, took on a connotation of wealth.

• Further terms from this period include outback, overlanders ‘cattle drivers’, stockman ‘man in charge of livestock’, jackaroo ‘apprentice on a station’ , but also cocky ‘small farmer’.

• Mate/mateship grew into its present legendary egalitarian male friendship and interdependence, first in the workplace and then more generally. Today an egalitarian mateyness contributes to the immediate use of first names, often abbreviated or given the Australian diminutive in {-o} as in Stevo from Stephen.

• Borrowing was not only from Aboriginal languages and dialects, but also from both standard BrE and standard AmE.

• The former gives us railway (AmE railroad), goods train (AmE freight train), guard’s van (AmE caboose), but AmE cowcatcher (not needed in Britain).

• Australians have semi-trailers or semis not BrE articulated lorries; and AusE has truck, not lorry; station wagon, not estate car.

• In the political arena we find states and interstate; federalists and state-righters; Senate, House of Representatives – all AmE in source, but each state upper house is called a Legislative Council and the lower, a Legislative Assembly (Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia) or House of Assemby (Southern Australia, Tasmania) – all more BrE.

• Store has the AmE meaning; other AmE borrowings include older block ‘area of land for settlement etc.’, township, bush ‘the countryside as opposed to town’ and more recently french fries, cookies and movies.

• The language situation in New Zealand resembles that in Australia in many ways. Virtually everyone can speak English, and most have it as their native language.

• The large minority of Maoris, the native Polynesian people of New Zealand, are rapidly losing their native tongue.

• At the end of the 1970s only about 20 per cent of them, which is approximately 3 per cent of the population of the country, were still fluent in it, and few of these speakers were younger people (Benton 1991: 187).

• The decision in 1987 to give Maorithe status of official language is unlikely to change anything.

• The historical development of New Zealand is closely related to that of Australia.

• Before British sovereignty over the territory was officially proclaimed in 1840 there were already some 2,000 English speaking people there. They had come, mostly via Australia, to establish whaling stations or to work as Christian missionaries to the Maoris.

• After 1840 European settlement was more closely regulated (but with no transported convicts and no penal stations) and grew gradually in the following decades, drawing on immigration chiefly from Great Britain and Australia.

• It was these people, Australians and many English immigrants with a London bias to their speech, who determined the linguistic character of New Zealand.

• The English which the present day New Zealand population of almost 4 million (including approximately 15 per cent Maoris and 6 per cent other Polynesians) speaks is very much like AusE, suggesting a single dialect area with two major varieties.

• Indeed, it has sometimes been said that, linguistically speaking, New Zealand is to Australia as Canada is to the United States. The differences within each of the pairs are small, but for the smaller partner psychologically vital.

• The pronunciation and the vocabulary of NZE is noticeably different for non-New Zealanders, but the grammar is fully standard, differing from other standard varieties only in preference for use of some forms:

• “The differences between NZE and other varieties are to be found in matters of degree rather than in categorical distinctions, but NZE is not just the same as BrE or AmE: it is a distinct variety, in grammar as well as in lexis and pronunciation.” (Bauer 1989: 82)

• For all practical purposes New Zealanders sound like Australians, at least to outsiders; of course, ‘to New Zealanders the Australian accent seems quite different’ (Gordon and Deverson 1985: 13).

• There seems to be little or no regional difference in pronunciation despite the fact that New Zealanders feel there is (but see remarks below on Otago and Southland).

• Social or class differences do, however, show up, though less than in Britain. It may also be the case that RP is still more a model in New Zealand than in Australia; certainly it is favoured in ‘serious’ broadcasting and the news.

• Investigations of attitudes show associations of RP with ambition, education, reliability, intelligence, higher income and occupational prestige, but association of NZE accents with friendliness and a sense of humour. While RP has high overt prestige, North American accents show the overall highest covert prestige.

• In contrast to AusE: ‘A true New Zealand standard is still evolving’ (Bayard 1990: 67). Note, too, that correction in the direction of the prestige sometimes results in such hypercorrect forms as /eɪ/ for /aɪ/ in such words as I or like.

• The explication and figures presented above for AusE, apply to NZE as well.

• The shifts shown there include such items as the growing merger of /e/ and /eə/, which compounded with the raising of /æ/ to /e/ led to the following misunderstanding.

• A visiting American phoning a colleague at his house got one of the man’s children on the line. The American heard, much to his astonishment, ‘He’s dead’ rather than the intended ‘Here’s Dad’ (Gordon and Deverson 1985: 82).

• While much of NZE pronunciation is the same as in AusE, including the even more frequent use of the high rising tone, a few points are arguably different and merit pointing out.

• One of these is the greater retraction and centralization of /ɪ/ in NZE, a point which non-New Zealanders have often commented on. Hence the vowel of kit becomes [1] or even a stressed schwa [ə]. This explains the surprise of an American hearing Flight 846 at Wellington Airport announced as follows: ‘Flight ite four sucks’ (Gordon and Deverson 1985: 82).

• There is also a very noticeable tendency to vocalize /l/ in NZE. The result has had a far reaching effect on the vowel system because it has created a number of new diphthongs.

• This occurs more commonly after front than after back vowels and often involves neutralization (i.e. otherwise different vowels are no longer distinguished when followed by /l/), e.g. bill = bull, fool = full and kill = cull, or, even more extreme, pool = pull =

• pill = pall, all of which might be rendered as pooh. • A related phenomenon is the neutralization of the /e/–/æ/

opposition in words like helicopter, help, Wellington, which then sound like hallicopter, halp and Wallington.

• The centring diphthongs /ɪə/ and /εə/ are merging (beer = bear) for more and more young people, as in AusE and SAE as well.

• On the other hand, young people show signs of increasing use of the glottal stop in words with final /t/ (Bayard 1991: 184).

• The vocabulary of NZE has been influenced by new flora, fauna, topography, institutions and the presence of a non-English speaking people. In addition, it shares many items with AusE that differ from other national varieties of English.

• Like AusE there is relativelylittle regionally different vocabulary, but note ‘a certain type of large, smooth sausage’, which in Auckland is called polony, in Christchurch saveloy, in Southland Belgium, Belgium roll/sausage (AusE uses polony and saveloy, Adelaide fritz, Brisbane and Sydney, devon) (Burridge and Mulder 1998: 4).

• What distinguishes NZE most from AusE is the existence in NZE of a sizeable number of borrowings from Maori. Examples include the following: hoot ‘money’, kiwi ‘a kind of (flightless) bird, the NZ symbol’, ngaio ‘a kind of tree’, Pakeha ‘white New Zealander’, wahine ‘woman’, whare ‘small house, hut’, yacker ‘work’.

• The fact that /a/ as in whare /wari/ can become /ɒ/ in NZE led one schoolboy to make the following spelling mistake: ‘Dad thought Mum looked tired so he hired a whore for the holidays’ (Turner 1972: 129).

• The vocabulary of NZE has been influenced by new flora, fauna, topography, institutions and the presence of a non-English speaking people. In addition, it shares many items with AusE that differ from other national varieties of English.

• Like AusE there is relativelylittle regionally different vocabulary, but note ‘a certain type of large, smooth sausage’, which in Auckland is called polony, in Christchurch saveloy, in Southland Belgium, Belgium roll/sausage (AusE uses polony and saveloy, Adelaide fritz, Brisbane and Sydney, devon) (Burridge and Mulder 1998: 4).

• What distinguishes NZE most from AusE is the existence in NZE of a sizeable number of borrowings from Maori. Examples include the following: hoot ‘money’, kiwi ‘a kind of (flightless) bird, the NZ symbol’, ngaio ‘a kind of tree’, Pakeha ‘white New Zealander’, wahine ‘woman’, whare ‘small house, hut’, yacker ‘work’.

• The fact that /a/ as in whare /wari/ can become /ɒ/ in NZE led one schoolboy to make the following spelling mistake: ‘Dad thought Mum looked tired so he hired a whore for the holidays’ (Turner 1972: 129).