Australian English vowels are divided into two categories: long, which includes long monophthongs and diphthongs, and short, all of which are monophthongs. A number of vowels differ only by the length.
There are two families of phonemic transcriptions of Australian English: revised ones, which attempt to more accurately represent the phonetic sounds of Australian English; and the Mitchell-Delbridge system, which is minimally distinct from Jones' original transcription of RP. This page uses a revised transcription based on Durie and Hajek (1994) and Harrington, Cox and Evans (1997) but also shows the Mitchell-Delbridge equivalents as this system is commonly used for example in the Macquarie Dictionary and much literature, even recent.
Australian English long vowels mostly correspond to the tense vowels used in analyses of Received Pronunciation (RP) as well as its centralising diphthongs.
; : for example ''lt'', ''clth'', ''bdy'', ''ht''. (M-D. .) This phoneme tends to merge with in pre-lateral environments.
; : for example ''ft'', ''hd''. (M.-D. .)
; : for example bout'', ''wint'''er'''''. (M.-D. .) As in most varieties of English, this phoneme is only used in unstressed syllables.
Academic studies have shown that there are limited Regional Variations In Australian English . The table below, based on Crystal (1995), shows the percentage of speakers from different capital cities who pronounce words with as opposed to .
Australian English consonants are similar to those of other non-rhotic varieties of English. In comparison to other varieties, it has a Flapped variant of and in similar environments as in American English. Many speakers have also Coalesced and into and , with pronunciations such as being standard. , and merged with , and word initially; other cases of and are often pronounced as and . Remaining cases of are often pronounced simply as in colloquial speech, though this is stigmatised particularly in the case of the word ''Australia'', so it is often pronounced as four syllables to avoid the . , and other common sequences of consonant+, are retained. Some speakers use a Glottal Stop as an allophone of in final position, for example ''trait'', ''habit''; or in medial position, such as a followed by a syllabic is often replaced by a Glottal Stop , for example ''button'' or ''fatten''. Alveolar pronunciations nevertheless predominate.
A table containing the Consonant Phoneme s is given below.
Australian English pronunciation is most similar to that of , but like Victoria has merged with in pre-lateral environments.
Australian English pronunciation is also similar to dialects from the South-East of Britain, particularly Cockney and Received Pronunciation. Like these, it is Non-rhotic , and has the Trap-bath Split although, as indicated above, there is some variation in particular words that are usually pronounced with the bath-vowel in England. Historically Australian English also had the same Lengthening Of before unvoiced fricatives, but, like the English accents, this has since been reversed. Australian English lacks some innovations in Cockney since the settling of Australia, such as the use of a Glottal Stop in some places where a would be found, Th-fronting , H-dropping , and L-vocalisation .
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