Australian English Part 2 Morphology and Phonology

Morphological Features Diminutives: The system by where we shorten words. This is particularly evident in Australian Slang where people tend to shorten common nouns and proper nouns. servo bowlo ambo arvo rego garbo tele video I videoed the tele last night he drives a semi I live in a semi sunnies cossies swimmers munchies nibblies rellies rels prezzies drinkies

Have a read of this article: http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/a ussie-slang-why-we-shorten-barbie-gday-and- footy.htm

Phonological Features: consonants Australian English is non-rhotic (do not pronounce the letter r after vowels in words like world. They do pronounce it before a vowel). The vowel has to follow the r for us to pronounce it. Ie intrusive, crucial, frivolous The vocalisation of l is pronounced towards the back of the mouth rather than the front. MILK, PICKLE, FICKLE, PULL, FULL. These words do not roll off of the toungue yet sit toward the back of the mouth. MELBOURNE, GOULBURN. You will notice that with these Proper nouns the pronunciation of the preceding vowel sound is rounded subsequently.

Phonological features: consonants Weakening of stopped consonants. Lets take a look at the pronunciation of t. You will find that there are a fewEW 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 (PRONOUNCING IN SYLLABLE). 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 here. Ie WHAT? FAT, MAT (emphasis on the stop)

Phonological Features: consonants 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 VOWELS: Using the SHWA vowels in an unstressed context. Ie boxes (AS), CommA, RabbIT 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.

Phonological features Sounds in connected speech: Lets quickly recap over these concepts found in AE 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 ommission of certain sounds in a phonologcal context, ol (old), haman eggs (and) socksn shoes (socks and) Insertion: addition of vowel sounds where they previously didn’t exist. AthElete (athlete), FilLUm (film)

Conclusion Australian English is quite complicated in terms of phonology. Some variations are not indicative of AE only and are derived in fact from British and American varieties. Phonological features are also dependant on ethnicity, socio cultural and regional dialects.