Australian English

Australian English (AusE, AusEng, AuE, AuEng, en-AU) is the set of varieties of the English language native to Australia. It is the country's common language and ''de facto'' national language; while Australia has no official language, English is the first language of the majority of the population, and has been entrenched as the ''de facto'' national language since European settlement, being the only language spoken in the home for 72% of Australians. It is also the main language used in compulsory education, as well as federal, state and territorial legislatures and courts.

Australian English began to diverge from British and Irish English after the First Fleet established the Colony of New South Wales in 1788. Australian English arose from a dialectal 'melting pot' created by the intermingling of early settlers who were from a variety of dialectal regions of Great Britain and Ireland, though its most significant influences were the dialects of Southeast England. By the 1820s, the native-born colonists' speech was recognisably distinct from speakers in Britain and Ireland.

Australian English differs from other varieties in its phonology, pronunciation, lexicon, idiom, grammar and spelling. Australian English is relatively consistent across the continent, although it encompasses numerous regional and sociocultural varieties. 'General Australian' describes the ''de facto'' standard dialect, which is perceived to be free of pronounced regional or sociocultural markers and is often used in the media.

History

The earliest Australian English was spoken by the first generation of native-born colonists in the Colony of New South Wales from the end of the 18th century. These native-born children were exposed to a wide range of dialects from across the British Isles. Similar to early American English, the process of dialect levelling and koineisation which ensued produced a relatively homogeneous new variety of English which was easily understood by all. Peter Miller Cunningham's 1827 book ''Two Years in New South Wales'' described the distinctive accent and vocabulary that had developed among the native-born colonists.

The dialects of South East England, including most notably the traditional Cockney dialect of London, were particularly influential on the development of the new variety and constituted 'the major input of the various sounds that went into constructing' Australian English. All the other regions of England were represented among the early colonists. A large proportion of early convicts and colonists were from Ireland, and spoke Irish as a sole or first language. They were joined by other non-native speakers of English from Scotland and Wales.

The first of the Australian gold rushes in the 1850s began a large wave of immigration, during which about two percent of the population of the United Kingdom emigrated to the colonies of New South Wales and Victoria. The Gold Rushes brought immigrants and linguistic influences from many parts of the world. An example was the introduction of vocabulary from American English, including some terms later considered to be typically Australian, such as ''bushwhacker'' and ''squatter''. This American influence was continued with the popularity of American films from the early 20th century and the influx of American military personnel during World War II; seen in the enduring persistence of such universally-accepted terms as ''okay'' and ''guys''.

The publication of Edward Ellis Morris's ''Austral English: A Dictionary Of Australasian Words, Phrases And Usages'' in 1898, which extensively catalogued Australian English vocabulary, started a wave of academic interest and codification during the 20th century which resulted in Australian English becoming established as an endonormative variety with its own internal norms and standards. This culminated in publications such as the 1981 first edition of the Macquarie Dictionary, a major English language dictionary based on Australian usage, and the 1988 first edition of The Australian National Dictionary, a historical dictionary documenting the history of Australian English vocabulary and idiom.

Phonology and pronunciation

The most obvious way in which Australian English is distinctive from other varieties of English is through its unique pronunciation. It shares most similarity with New Zealand English. Like most dialects of English, it is distinguished primarily by the phonetic quality of its vowels.

Vowels

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.

There exist pairs of long and short vowels with overlapping vowel quality giving Australian English phonemic length distinction, which is also present in some regional south-eastern dialects of the UK and eastern seaboard dialects in the US. An example of this feature is the distinction between ''ferry'' and ''fairy'' .

As with New Zealand English and General American English, the weak-vowel merger is complete in Australian English: unstressed is merged into (schwa), unless it is followed by a velar consonant. Examples of this feature are the following pairings, which are pronounced identically in Australian English: ''Rosa's'' and ''roses'', as well as ''Lennon'' and ''Lenin''. Other examples are the following pairs, which rhyme in Australian English: ''abbott'' with ''rabbit'', and ''dig it'' with ''bigot''.

Most varieties of Australian English exhibit only a partial trap-bath split. The words ''bath'', ''grass'' and ''can't'' are always pronounced with the "long" of ''father''. Throughout the majority of the country, the "flat" of ''man'' is the dominant pronunciation for the ''a'' vowel in the following words: ''dance'', ''advance'', ''plant'', ''example'' and ''answer''. The exception is the state of South Australia, where a more advanced trap-bath split has taken place, and where the dominant pronunciation of all the preceding words incorporates the "long" of ''father''.

Consonants

There is little variation in the sets of consonants used in different English dialects but there are variations in how these consonants are used. Australian English is no exception.

Australian English is uniformly non-rhotic; that is, the sound does not appear at the end of a syllable or immediately before a consonant. As with many non-rhotic dialects, linking can occur when a word that has a final in the spelling comes before another word that starts with a vowel. An intrusive may similarly be inserted before a vowel in words that do not have in the spelling in certain environments, namely after the long vowel and after word final . This can be heard in "law-r-and order," where an intrusive R is voiced between the AW and the A.

As with North American English, Intervocalic alveolar flapping is a feature of Australian English: prevocalic and surface as the alveolar tap after sonorants other than as well as at the end of a word or morpheme before any vowel in the same breath group. Examples of this feature are that the following pairs are pronounced similarly or identically: ''latter'' and ''ladder'', as well as ''rated'' and ''raided''.

''Yod''-dropping generally occurs after , , , but not after , and . Accordingly, ''suit'' is pronounced as , ''lute'' as , ''Zeus'' as and ''enthusiasm'' as . Other cases of and , as well as and , have coalesced to , , and respectively for many speakers. is generally retained in other consonant clusters.

In common with most varieties of Scottish English and American English, the phoneme is pronounced as a "dark" (velarised) ''l'' () in almost all positions, unlike other dialects such as Received Pronunciation and Hiberno (Irish) English, where a light ''l'' (i.e. a non-velarised ''l'') is used in many positions.

The wine–whine merger is complete in Australian English.

Pronunciation

Differences in stress, weak forms and standard pronunciation of isolated words occur between Australian English and other forms of English, which while noticeable do not impair intelligibility.

The affixes ''-ary'', ''-ery'', ''-ory'', ''-bury'', ''-berry'' and ''-mony'' (seen in words such as ''necessary, mulberry'' and ''matrimony'') can be pronounced either with a full vowel () or a schwa (). Although some words like ''necessary'' are almost universally pronounced with the full vowel, older generations of Australians are relatively likely to pronounce these affixes with a schwa while younger generations are relatively likely to use a full vowel, which is similar to the situation in British English.

Words ending in unstressed ''-ile'' derived from Latin adjectives ending in ''-ilis'' are pronounced with a full vowel, so that ''fertile'' sounds like ''fur tile'' rather than rhyming with ''turtle'' .

In addition, miscellaneous pronunciation differences exist when compared with other varieties of English in relation to various isolated words, with some of those pronunciations being unique to Australian English. For example:
* As with American English, the vowel in ''yoghurt'' and the prefix ''homo-'' (as in ''homosexual'' or ''homophobic'') are pronounced with rather than ;
* ''Vitamin'', ''migraine'' and ''privacy'' are all pronounced with in the stressed syllable () rather than ;
* The prefix ''paedo-'' (as in ''paedophile'') is pronounced rather than ;
* In loanwords, the vowel spelled with is often nativized as the vowel (), as in American English, rather than the vowel (), as in British English. For example, ''pasta'' is pronounced , analogous to American English , rather than , as in British English;
* ''Urinal'' is stressed on the first syllable and with the schwa for ''I'': ;
* ''Harass'' and ''harassment'' are pronounced with the stress on the second, rather than the first syllable;
* The suffix ''-sia'' (as in ''Malaysia'', ''Indonesia'' and ''Polynesia'') is pronounced rather than ;
* The word ''foyer'' is pronounced , rather than ;
* ''Tomato'', ''vase'' and ''data'' are pronounced with instead of : ;
* ''Zebra'' is pronounced rather than ;
* Conversely, ''precedence'', ''precedent'' and derivatives are mainly pronounced with the vowel in the stressed syllable, rather than : ;
* ''Basil'' is pronounced , rather than ;
* Conversely, ''cache'' is pronounced , rather than ;
* ''Buoy'' is pronounced as (as in ''boy'') rather than ;
* The ''E'' in ''congress'' and ''progress'' is not reduced: ;
* Conversely, the unstressed ''O'' in both ''silicon'' and ''phenomenon'' stands for a schwa: ;
* The colour name ''maroon'' is pronounced with the vowel: .

Variation

Relative to many other national dialect groupings, Australian English is relatively homogeneous across the country. Some relatively minor regional differences in pronunciation exist. A limited range of word choices is strongly regional in nature. Consequently, the geographical background of individuals may 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.

Academic research has also identified notable sociocultural variation within Australian English, which is mostly evident in phonology.

Regional variation

Although Australian English is relatively homogeneous, there are some regional variations. The dialects of English spoken in the various states and territories of Australia differ slightly in vocabulary and phonology.

Most regional differences are in word usage. Swimming clothes are known as ''cossies'' or ''swimmers'' in New South Wales, ''togs'' in Queensland, and ''bathers'' in Victoria, Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia. What Queensland calls a ''stroller'' is usually called a ''pram'' in Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, and Tasmania.Pauline Bryant (1985): Regional variation in the Australian English lexicon, Australian Journal of Linguistics, 5:1, 55–66

Preference for some synonymous words also differ between states. ''Garbage'' (i.e., garbage bin, garbage truck) dominates over ''rubbish'' in New South Wales and Queensland, while ''rubbish'' is more popular in Victoria, Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia.

Additionally, the word ''footy'' generally refers to the most popular football code in an area; that is, rugby league or rugby union depending on the local area, in most of New South Wales and Queensland, and Australian rules football elsewhere. In some pockets of Melbourne & Western Sydney it will refer to Association football. Beer glasses are also named differently in different states. Distinctive grammatical patterns exist such as the use of the interrogative ''eh'' (also spelled ''ay'' or ''aye''), which is particularly associated with Queensland. ''Secret Santa'' () and ''Kris Kringle'' are used in all states, with the former being more common in Queensland.

;South Australia
The most pronounced variation in phonology is between South Australia and the other states and territories. The trap–bath split is more complete in South Australia, in contrast to the other states. Accordingly, words such as ''dance'', ''advance'', ''plant'', ''example'' and ''answer'' are pronounced with (as in ''father'') far more frequently in South Australia while the older (as in ''mad'') is dominant elsewhere in Australia. ''L''-vocalisation is also more common in South Australia than other states.

;Centring diphthongs
In Western Australian and Queensland English, the vowels in ''near'' and ''square'' are typically realised as centring diphthongs (), whereas in the other states they may also be realised as monophthongs: .

;Salary–celery merger
A feature common in Victorian English is salary–celery merger, whereby a Victorian pronunciation of ''Ellen'' may sound like ''Alan'' and Victoria's capital city ''Melbourne'' may sound like ''Malbourne'' to speakers from other states. There is also regional variation in before (as in ''school'' and ''pool'').

;Full-fool allophones
In some parts of Australia, notably Victoria, a fully backed allophone of , transcribed , is common before . As a result, the pairs full/fool and pull/pool differ phonetically only in vowel length for those speakers. The usual allophone for is further forward in Queensland and New South Wales than Victoria.

Sociocultural variation

The General Australian accent serves as the standard variety of English across the country. According to linguists, it emerged during the 19th century. General Australian is the dominant variety across the continent, and is particularly so in urban areas. The increasing dominance of General Australian reflects its prominence on radio and television since the latter half of the 20th century.

Recent generations have seen a comparatively smaller proportion of the population speaking with the ''Broad'' sociocultural variant, which differs from General Australian in its phonology. The Broad variant is also found across the continent and is relatively more prominent in rural and outer-suburban areas.

A largely historical ''Cultivated'' sociocultural variant, which adopted features of British Received Pronunciation and which was commonplace in official media during the early 20th century, had become largely extinct by the onset of the 21st century.

Australian Aboriginal English is made up of a range of forms which developed differently in different parts of Australia, and are said to vary along a continuum, from forms close to Standard Australian English to more non-standard forms. There are distinctive features of accent, grammar, words and meanings, as well as language use.

Academics have also noted the emergence of numerous ethnocultural dialects of Australian English that are spoken by people from some minority non-English speaking backgrounds. 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 Afro-Asiatic languages and languages of Asia. Samoan English is also influencing Australian English.

High rising terminal was noted and studied in Australian English earlier than in other varieties of English; to this effect, the feature is sometimes called ''Australian questioning intonation''. Research published in 1986, regarding vernacular speech in Sydney, suggested that high rising terminal was initially spread by young people in the 1960s, and also claimed it was used more than twice as often by young people than older people, and more common among women than men. In the United Kingdom, it has occasionally been considered one of the variety's stereotypical features, and its spread there blamed on the popularity of Australian soap operas.

Vocabulary

Intrinsic traits

Australian English has many words and idioms which are unique to the dialect and have been written on extensively.

Internationally well-known examples of Australian terminology include ''outback'', meaning a remote, sparsely populated area, ''the bush'', meaning either a native forest or a country area in general, and ''g'day'', a greeting. ''Dinkum'', or ''fair dinkum'' means "true" or "is that true?", among other things, depending on context and inflection. The derivative ''dinky-di'' means "true" or devoted: a "dinky-di Aussie" is a "true Australian".

Australian poetry, such as "The Man from Snowy River", as well as folk songs such as "Waltzing Matilda", contain many historical Australian words and phrases that are understood by Australians even though some are not in common usage today.

Australian English, in common with British English, uses the word '' mate'' to mean ''friend'', as well as the word ''bloody'' as a mild expletive or intensifier. ''Bloody'' is taken to be milder in Australia than it is in the UK, where the word is considered profanity.

Several words used by Australians were at one time used in the United Kingdom but have since fallen out of usage or changed in meaning there. For example, ''creek'' in Australia, as in North America, means a stream or small river, whereas in the UK it is typically a watercourse in a marshy area; ''paddock'' in Australia means field, whereas in the UK it means a small enclosure for livestock; ''bush'' or ''scrub'' in Australia, as in North America, means a wooded area, whereas in England they are commonly used only in proper names (such as Shepherd's Bush and Wormwood Scrubs).

Some elements of Aboriginal languages have been adopted by Australian English—mainly as names for places, flora and fauna (for example dingo) and local culture. Many such are localised, and do not form part of general Australian use, while others, such as ''kangaroo'', ''boomerang'', ''budgerigar'', ''wallaby'' and so on have become international. Other examples are ''cooee'' and ''hard yakka''. The former is used as a high-pitched call, for attracting attention, (pronounced ) which travels long distances. ''Cooee'' is also a notional distance: ''if he's within cooee, we'll spot him''. ''Hard yakka'' means ''hard work'' and is derived from ''yakka'', from the Jagera/Yagara language once spoken in the Brisbane region. Also of Aboriginal origin is the word ''bung'', from the Sydney pidgin English (and ultimately from the Sydney Aboriginal language), meaning "dead", with some extension to "broken" or "useless". Many towns or suburbs of Australia have also been influenced or named after Aboriginal words. The best-known example is the capital, Canberra, named after a local Ngunnawal language word meaning "meeting place".

Litotes, such as "not bad", "not much" and "you're not wrong", are also used. Diminutives and hypocorisms are common and are often used to indicate familiarity. Some common examples are ''arvo'' (afternoon), ''barbie'' (barbecue), ''smoko'' (cigarette break), ''Aussie'' (Australian) and ''Straya'' (Australia). This may also be done with people's names to create nicknames (other English speaking countries create similar diminutives). For example, "Gazza" from Gary, or "Smitty" from John Smith. The use of the suffix ''-o'' originates in ga, ó, which is both a postclitic and a suffix with much the same meaning as in Australian English.

In informal speech, incomplete comparisons are sometimes used, such as "sweet as" (as in "That car is sweet as."). "Full", "fully" or "heaps" may precede a word to act as an intensifier (as in "The waves at the beach were heaps good."). This was more common in regional Australia and South Australia but has been in common usage in urban Australia for decades. The suffix "-ly" is sometimes omitted in broader Australian English. For instance, "really good" can become "real good".

Australia's switch to the metric system in the 1970s changed most of the country's vocabulary of measurement from imperial to metric measures. Since the switch to metric, heights of individuals are listed in centimetres on official documents and distances by road on signs are listed in terms of kilometres and metres.

Comparison with other varieties

Where British and American English vocabulary differs, sometimes Australian English shares a usage with one of those varieties, as with petrol (AmE: ''gasoline'') and mobile phone (AmE: ''cellular phone'') which are shared with British English, or truck (BrE: ''lorry'') and eggplant (BrE: ''aubergine'') which are shared with American English.

In other circumstances, Australian English sometimes favours a usage which is different from both British and American English as with:"The Macquarie Dictionary", Fourth Edition. The Macquarie Library Pty Ltd, 2005.

Differences exist between Australian English and other varieties of English, where different terms can be used for the same subject or the same term can be ascribed different meanings. Non-exhaustive examples of terminology associated with food, transport and clothing is used below to demonstrate the variations which exist between Australian English and other varieties:
* ''Food'': capsicum (BrE: ''(red/green) pepper''; AmE: ''bell pepper''); (potato) chips (refers both to BrE ''crisps'' and AmE ''French fries''); chook (sanga) (BrE and AmE: ''chicken (sandwich)''); coriander (shared with BrE. AmE: ''cilantro''); entree (refers to AmE ''appetizer'' whereas AmE ''entree'' is referred to in AusE as ''main course''); eggplant (shared with AmE. BrE: ''aubergine''); fairy floss (BrE: ''candy floss''; AmE: ''cotton candy''); ice block or icy pole (BrE: ''ice lolly''; AmE: ''popsicle''); jelly (refers to AmE ''Jell-o'' whereas AmE ''jelly'' refers to AusE ''jam''); lollies (BrE: ''sweets''; AmE: ''candy''); marinara (sauce) (refers to a tomato-based sauce in AmE and BrE but a seafood sauce in AusE); mince or minced meat (Shared with BrE. AmE: ''ground meat''); prawn (which in BrE refers to large crustaceans only, with small crustaceans referred to as ''shrimp''. AmE universally: ''shrimp''); snow pea (shared with AmE. BrE ''mangetout''); pumpkin (AmE: ''squash'', except for the large orange variety - AusE ''squash'' refers only to a small number of uncommon species; BrE: ''marrow''); tomato sauce (also used in BrE. AmE: ''ketchup''); zucchini (shared with AmE. BrE: ''courgette'')
* ''Transport'': aeroplane (shared with BrE. AmE: ''airplane''); bonnet (shared with BrE. AmE: ''hood''); bumper (shared with BrE. AmE: ''fender''); car park (shared with BrE. AmE: ''parking lot''); convertible (shared with AmE. BrE: ''cabriolet''); footpath (BrE: ''pavement''; AmE: ''sidewalk''); horse float (BrE: ''horsebox''; AmE: ''horse trailer''); indicator (shared with BrE. AmE: ''turn signal''); peak hour (BrE and AmE: ''rush hour''); petrol (shared with BrE. AmE: ''gasoline''); railway (shared with BrE. AmE: ''railroad''); sedan (car) (shared with AmE. BrE: ''saloon (car)''); semitrailer (shared with AmE. BrE: ''artic'' or ''articulated lorry''); station wagon (shared with AmE. BrE: ''estate car''); truck (shared with AmE. BrE: ''lorry''); ute (BrE and AmE: ''pickup truck''); windscreen (shared with BrE. AmE: ''windshield'')
* ''Clothing'': gumboots (BrE: ''Wellington boots'' or ''Wellies''; AmE: ''rubber boots'' or ''galoshes''); jumper (shared with BrE. AmE: ''sweater''); nappy (shared with BrE. AmE: ''diaper''); overalls (shared with AmE. BrE: ''dungarees''); raincoat (shared with AmE. BrE: ''mackintosh'' or ''mac''); runners (footwear) (BrE: ''trainers''. AmE: ''sneakers''); sandshoe (BrE: ''pump'' or ''plimsoll''. AmE: ''tennis shoe''); singlet (BrE: ''vest''. AmE: ''tank top'' or ''wifebeater''); skivvy (BrE: ''polo neck''; AmE: ''turtleneck''); swimmers or togs or bathers (BrE: ''swimming costume''. AmE: ''bathing suit'' or ''swimsuit''); thongs (refers to BrE and AmE ''flip-flops (footwear)''. In BrE and AmE refers to ''g-string (underwear)'')

Terms with different meanings in Australian English

There also exist words which in Australian English are ascribed different meanings from those ascribed in other varieties of English, for instance:
* Asian in Australian (and American) English commonly refers to people of East Asian ancestry, while in British English it commonly refers to people of South Asian ancestry
* Biscuit in Australian (and British) English refers to AmE ''cookie'' and ''cracker'', while in American English it refers to a leavened bread product
* (potato) Chips refers both to British English ''crisps'' (which is not commonly used in Australian English) and to American English ''French fries'' (which is used alongside ''hot chips'')
* Football in Australian English most commonly refers to Australian rules football, rugby league or rugby union. In British English ''football'' is most commonly used to refer to ''association football'', while in North American English ''football'' is used to refer to '' gridiron''
* Pants in Australian (and American) English most commonly refers to British English ''trousers'', but in British English refers to Australian English ''underpants''
* Nursery in Australian English refers to a plant nursery whereas in British English it often refers to a child care or daycare for pre-school age children
* Paddock in Australian English refers to an open field or meadow whereas in American and British English it refers to a small agricultural enclosure
* Premier in Australian English refers specifically to the head of government of an Australian state, whereas in British English it is used interchangeably with ''Prime Minister''
* Public school in Australian (and American) English refers to a state school. Australian and American English use ''private school'' to mean a non-government or independent school, in contrast with British English which uses ''public school'' to refer to the same thing
* Pudding in Australian (and American) English refers to a particular sweet dessert dish, while in British English it often refers to dessert (the food course) in general
* Thong in Australian English it refers to British and American English ''flip-flop'' (footwear), whereas in both American and British English it refers to Australian English ''G-string'' (underwear)
* Vest in Australian (and American) English refers to a padded upper garment or British English ''waistcoat'' but in British English refers to Australian English ''singlet''

Idioms taking different forms in Australian English

In addition to the large number of uniquely Australian idioms in common use, there are instances of idioms taking different forms in Australian English than in other varieties, for instance:
* A drop in the ocean (shared with BrE usage) as opposed to AmE ''a drop in the bucket''
* A way to go (shared with BrE usage) as opposed to AmE ''a ways to go''
* Home away from home (shared with AmE usage) as opposed to BrE ''home from home''
* Take (something) with a grain of salt (shared with AmE usage) as opposed to UK ''take with a pinch of salt''
* Touch wood (shared with BrE usage) as opposed to AmE ''knock on wood''
* Wouldn't touch (something) with a ten-foot pole (shared with AmE usage) as opposed to BrE ''wouldn't touch with a barge pole''

British and American English terms not commonly used in Australian English

There are extensive terms used in other varieties of English which are not widely used in Australian English. These terms usually do not result in Australian English speakers failing to comprehend speakers of other varieties of English, as Australian English speakers will often be familiar with such terms through exposure to media or may ascertain the meaning using context.

Non-exhaustive selections of British English and American English terms not commonly used in Australian English together with their definitions or Australian English equivalents are found in the collapsible table below:

Grammar

The general rules of English Grammar which apply to Australian English are described at English grammar. Grammatical differences between varieties of English are minor relative to differences in phonology and vocabulary and do not generally affect intelligibility. Examples of grammatical differences between Australian English and other varieties include:
*Collective nouns are generally singular in construction, e.g., ''the government was unable to decide'' as opposed to ''the government were unable to decide'' or ''the group was leaving'' as opposed to ''the group were leaving''. This is in common with American English.
*Australian English has an extreme distaste for the modal verbs ''shall'' (in non-legal contexts), ''shan't'' and ''ought'' (in place of ''will'', ''won't'' and ''should'' respectively), which are encountered in British English. However, ''shall'' is found in the Australian Constitution, Acts of Parliament, and other formal or legal documents such as contracts.
*Using ''should'' with the same meaning as ''would'', e.g. ''I should like to see you'', encountered in British English, is almost never encountered in Australian English.
*''River'' follows the name of the river in question, e.g., ''Brisbane River'', rather than the British convention of coming before the name, e.g., ''River Thames''. This is also the case in North American and New Zealand English. In South Australian English however, the reverse applies when referring to the following three rivers: Murray, Darling and Torrens. The Derwent in Tasmania also follows this convention.
*While prepositions before days may be omitted in American English, i.e., ''She resigned Thursday'', they are retained in Australian English: ''She resigned on Thursday''. This is shared with British English.
*The institutional nouns ''hospital'' and ''university'' do not take the definite article: ''She's in hospital'', ''He's at university''. This is in contrast to American English where ''the'' is required: ''In the hospital'', ''At the university''.
*''On the weekend'' is used in favour of the British ''at the weekend'' which is not encountered in Australian English.
*Ranges of dates use ''to'', i.e., ''Monday to Friday'', rather than ''Monday through Friday''. This is shared with British English and is in contrast to American English.
*When speaking or writing out numbers, ''and'' is always inserted before the tens, i.e., ''one hundred and sixty-two'' rather than ''one hundred sixty-two''. This is in contrast to American English, where the insertion of ''and'' is acceptable but nonetheless either casual or informal.
*The preposition ''to'' in ''write to'' (e.g. ''I'll write to you'') is always retained, as opposed to American usage where it may be dropped.
*Australian English does not share the British usage of ''read'' (v) to mean ''study'' (v). Therefore, it may be said that ''He studies medicine'' but not that ''He reads medicine''.
*When referring to time, Australians will refer to 10:30 as ''half past ten'' and do not use the British ''half ten''. Similarly, ''a quarter to ten'' is used for 9:45 rather than ''(a) quarter of ten'', which is sometimes found in American English.
*Australian English does not share the British English meaning of ''sat'' to include ''sitting'' or ''seated''. Therefore, uses such as ''I've been sat here for an hour'' are not encountered in Australian English.
*To ''have a shower'' or ''have a bath'' are the most common usages in Australian English, in contrast to American English which uses ''take a shower'' and ''take a bath''.
*The past participle of ''saw'' is ''sawn'' (e.g. ''sawn-off shotgun'') in Australian English, in contrast to the American English ''sawed''.
*The verb ''visit'' is transitive in Australian English. Where the object is a person or people, American English also uses ''visit with'', which is not found in Australian English.
*An outdoor event which is cancelled due to inclement weather is ''rained out'' in Australian English. This is in contrast to British English where it is said to be ''rained off''.
*In informal speech, sentence-final ''but'' may be used, e.g. ''I don't want to go but'' in place of ''But I don't want to go''. This is also found in Scottish English.
*In informal speech, the discourse markers ''yeah no'' (or ''yeah nah'') and ''no yeah'' (or ''nah yeah'') may be used to mean ''no'' and ''yes'' respectively.

Spelling and style

As in all English-speaking countries, there is no central authority that prescribes official usage with respect to matters of spelling, grammar, punctuation or style.

Spelling

There are several dictionaries of Australian English which adopt a descriptive approach. The ''Macquarie Dictionary'' is most commonly used by universities, governments and courts as the standard for Australian English spelling. The Australian Oxford Dictionary is another commonly-used dictionary of Australian English.

Australian spelling is significantly closer to British than American spelling, as it did not adopt the systematic reforms promulgated in Noah Webster's 1828 Dictionary. Notwithstanding, the Macquarie Dictionary often lists most American spellings as acceptable secondary variants.

The minor systematic differences which occur between Australian and American spelling are summarised below:"The Macquarie Dictionary", 8th Edition. Macquarie Dictionary Publishers, 2020.
* French-derived words which in American English end with or, such as ''color'', ''honor'', ''behavior'' and ''labor'', are spelt with our in Australian English: ''colour'', ''honour'', ''behaviour'' and ''labour''. Exceptions are the Australian ''Labor'' Party and some (especially South Australian) placenames which use ''Harbor'', notably Victor ''Harbor''.
* Words which in American English end with ize, such as ''realize'', ''recognize'' and ''apologize'' are spelt with ise in Australian English: ''realise'', ''recognise'' and ''apologise''. The British Oxford spelling, which uses the ize endings, remains a minority variant. The Macquarie Dictionary says that the ''-ise'' form as opposed to ''-ize'' sits at 3:1. The sole exception to this is ''capsize'', which is used in all varieties.
* Words which in American English end with yze, such as ''analyze'', ''paralyze'' and ''catalyze'' are spelt with yse in Australian English: ''analyse'', ''paralyse'' and ''catalyse''.
* French-derived words which in American English end with er, such as ''fiber'', ''center'' and ''meter'' are spelt with re in Australian English: ''fibre'', ''centre'' and ''metre'' (the unit of measurement only, not physical devices; so ''gasometer'', ''voltmeter'').
* Words which end in American English end with log, such as ''catalog'', ''dialog'' and ''monolog'' are usually spelt with logue in Australian English: ''catalogue'', ''dialogue'' and ''monologue'', however the ''Macquarie Dictionary'' lists the log spelling as the preferred variant for ''analog''.
* A double-consonant l is retained in Australian English when adding suffixes to words ending in ''l'' where the consonant is unstressed, contrary to American English. Therefore, Australian English favours ''cancelled'', ''counsellor'', and ''travelling'' over American ''canceled'', ''counselor'' and ''traveling''.
* Where American English uses a double-consonant ll in the words ''skillful'', ''willful'', ''enroll'', ''distill'', ''enthrall'', ''fulfill'' and ''installment'', Australian English uses a single consonant: ''skilful'', ''wilful'', ''enrol'', ''distil'', ''enthral'', ''fulfil'' and ''instalment''. However, the Macquarie Dictionary has noted a growing tendency to use the double consonant.
* The American English ''defense'' and ''offense'' are spelt ''defence'' and ''offence'' in Australian English.
* In contrast with American English, which uses ''practice'' and ''license'' for both nouns and verbs, ''practice'' and ''licence'' are nouns while ''practise'' and ''license'' are verbs in Australian English.
* Words with ae and oe are often maintained in words such as ''oestrogen'' and ''paedophilia'', in contrast to the American English practice of using e alone (as in ''estrogen'' and ''pedophilia''). The ''Macquarie Dictionary'' has noted a shift within Australian English towards using e alone, and now lists some words such as ''encyclopedia'', ''fetus'', ''eon'' or ''hematite'' with the e spelling as the preferred variant and hence Australian English varies by word when it comes to these sets of words.

Minor systematic difference which occur between Australian and British spelling are as follows:"The Macquarie Dictionary", 8th Edition. Macquarie Dictionary Publishers, 2020.
* Words often ending in eable in British English end in able in Australian English. Therefore, Australian English favours ''livable'' over ''liveable'', ''sizable'' over ''sizeable'', ''movable'' over ''moveable'', etc., although both variants are acceptable.
* Words often ending in eing in British English end in ing in Australian English. Therefore, Australian English favours ''aging'' over ''ageing'', or ''routing'' over ''routeing'', etc., although both variants are acceptable.
* Words often ending in mme in British English end in m in Australian English. Therefore, Australian English favours ''program'' over ''programme'' (in all contexts) and ''aerogram'' over ''aerogramme'', although both variants are acceptable. Similar to Canada, New Zealand and the United States, ''(kilo)gram'' is the only spelling.

Other examples of individual words where the preferred spelling is listed by the ''Macquarie Dictionary'' as being different from current British spellings include ''analog'' as opposed to ''analogue'', ''guerilla'' as opposed to ''guerrilla'', ''verandah'' as opposed to ''veranda'', ''burqa'' as opposed to ''burka'', ''pastie'' (noun) as opposed to ''pasty'', ''neuron'' as opposed to ''neurone'', ''hicup'' as opposed to ''hicough'', ''annex'' as opposed to ''annexe'', ''raccoon'' as opposed to ''racoon'' etc."The Macquarie Dictionary", 8th Edition. Macquarie Dictionary Publishers, 2020. Unspaced forms such as ''onto'', ''anytime'', ''alright'' and ''anymore'' are also listed as being equally as acceptable as their spaced counterparts."The Macquarie Dictionary", 8th Edition. Macquarie Dictionary Publishers, 2020.

There is variation between and within varieties of English in the treatment of -t and -ed endings for past tense verbs. The Macquarie Dictionary does not favour either, but it suggests that ''leaped'', ''leaned'' or ''learned'' (with -ed endings) are more common but ''spelt'' and ''burnt'' (with -t endings) are more common."The Macquarie Dictionary", 8th Edition. Macquarie Dictionary Publishers, 2020.

Different spellings have existed throughout Australia's history. What are today regarded as American spellings were popular in Australia throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the Victorian Department of Education endorsing them into the 1970s and ''The Age'' newspaper until the 1990s. This influence can be seen in the spelling of the Australian Labor Party and also in some place names such as Victor Harbor. The ''Concise Oxford English Dictionary'' has been attributed with re-establishing the dominance of the British spellings in the 1920s and 1930s. For a short time during the late 20th century, Harry Lindgren's 1969 spelling reform proposal ( ''Spelling Reform 1'' or ''SR1'') gained some support in Australia and was adopted by the Australian Teachers' Federation.

Punctuation and style

Prominent general style guides for Australian English include the ''Cambridge Guide to Australian English Usage'', the ''Australian Government Style Manual'' (formerly the '' Style Manual: For Authors, Editors and Printers''), the ''Australian Handbook for Writers and Editors'' and the ''Complete Guide to English Usage for Australian Students''.

Both single and double quotation marks are in use, with single quotation marks preferred for use in the first instance, with double quotation marks reserved for quotes of speech within speech. Logical (as opposed to typesetter's) punctuation is preferred for punctuation marks at the end of quotations. For instance, ''Sam said he 'wasn't happy when Jane told David to "go away"'.'' is used in preference to ''Sam said he "wasn't happy when Jane told David to 'go away.'"''

The DD/MM/YYYY date format is followed and the 12-hour clock is generally used in everyday life (as opposed to service, police, and airline applications).

With the exception of screen sizes, metric system units are used in everyday life, having supplanted imperial units upon the country's switch to the metric system in the 1970s.

In betting, decimal odds are used in favour of fractional odds, used in the United Kingdom, or moneyline odds, used in the United States.

Keyboard layout

There are two major English language keyboard layouts, the United States layout and the United Kingdom layout. Keyboards and keyboard software for the Australian market universally uses the US keyboard layout, which lacks the pound sterling, euro and negation symbols and uses a different layout for punctuation symbols than the UK keyboard layout.

See also

* ''The Australian National Dictionary''
* Australian English vocabulary
* New Zealand English
* South African English
* Zimbabwean English
* Falkland Islands English
* Diminutives in Australian English
* International Phonetic Alphabet chart for English dialects
* Strine

References

Citations

Works cited

*

Further reading

*
* Mitchell, Alexander G. (1995). ''The Story of Australian English.'' Sydney: Dictionary Research Centre.

External links

Aussie English, The Illustrated Dictionary of Australian English

Australian National Dictionary Centre

free newsletter from the Australian National Dictionary Centre, which includes articles on Australian English

Australian Word Map
at the ABC—documents regionalisms

R. Mannell, F. Cox and J. Harrington (2009), An Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology
Macquarie University

Aussie English for beginners
��the origins, meanings and a quiz to test your knowledge at the National Museum of Australia.

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Languages attested from the 18th century
Dialects of English
Sociolinguistics
Languages of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Oceanian dialects of English
Languages of Australia