Generally if you're going to talk about Australian dialects, someone who vaguely knows what they're talking about will come in and say that there are three of them: broad (Paul Hogan), standard (Hugh Jackman) and cultivated (Geoffrey Rush). In addition, they'll say that broad and cultivated accents are dwindling in number, as both are associated with social groups that most people look down on, for different reasons. Therefore, the vast (and growing) number of Australian have a 'standard' accent.
But I'm not so interested in that stuff, precisely because most Australians have a standard accent. I'm interested in what differences exist from region to region, state to state. Because even though they haven't really been widely researched, sometimes you can just tell what state someone is from after listening to them talk.
A lot of this has to do with the words we use (I'm just going down to the deli but I might have to park on the verge), but though that is interesting it's also fairly well attested to. What's more interesting and less known is the difference in pronunciation for the same words - a common phenomenon in Britain and the United States, but not well studied here.
Some of these signals have been spotted by researchers, for example:
Salary/celery merger
This is more commonly argued to be a feature among our friends over the ditch, but Victorians are commonly said to merge salary and celery as well. Interestingly, it has been suggested that the direction of the merger has changed over the generations. An older gentleman might say that they're going up to the Elps for the winter, but a teenager might say she saw a halicopter. We have plenty of Victorians here, so is it true? Does it depend on whether they're in the city or the regions?
L-vocalisation
Most common among South Australians, and also a fair chunk of Western Australians, this sound is basically about turning words like 'milk' into 'miwk'. It also affects word like 'pool', which can sound for similar to 'pull'.
Trap/bath split
Probably the most well known of the lot, South Australians are the most likely to go the opposite way for 'chance, dance and advance,' though it seems like different states fall on different lines depending on the word. I definitely go the South Australian way on 'graph', but not really on anything else.
Oo
Queenslanders (and New South Welshmen to some extent) are known for this one: pool, fool, school? Make that pewl, fewl and skewl.
Diphthongs
Never fear, the beer is near. A Western Australian would have three more syllables in this sentence than most t'othersiders would, because words like 'fear' are pronounced with jaw movement (fee-ah), whereas over east they keep their jaw in place.
Though these have all been argued to exist, there isn't much research to back it up. So, even though we aren't researchers per se, we are a large cross-section of Australian societies across different states. Can you attest to these, or any other notable differences? Tasmanians are said to 'just know' a Tasmanian accent when they hear it, but no-one has been able to pinpoint what it is. Others have claimed that, when on the phone, someone will be able to spot that they're from another state just from one or two words. Can this be the case?
But I'm not so interested in that stuff, precisely because most Australians have a standard accent. I'm interested in what differences exist from region to region, state to state. Because even though they haven't really been widely researched, sometimes you can just tell what state someone is from after listening to them talk.
A lot of this has to do with the words we use (I'm just going down to the deli but I might have to park on the verge), but though that is interesting it's also fairly well attested to. What's more interesting and less known is the difference in pronunciation for the same words - a common phenomenon in Britain and the United States, but not well studied here.
Some of these signals have been spotted by researchers, for example:
Salary/celery merger
This is more commonly argued to be a feature among our friends over the ditch, but Victorians are commonly said to merge salary and celery as well. Interestingly, it has been suggested that the direction of the merger has changed over the generations. An older gentleman might say that they're going up to the Elps for the winter, but a teenager might say she saw a halicopter. We have plenty of Victorians here, so is it true? Does it depend on whether they're in the city or the regions?
L-vocalisation
Most common among South Australians, and also a fair chunk of Western Australians, this sound is basically about turning words like 'milk' into 'miwk'. It also affects word like 'pool', which can sound for similar to 'pull'.
Trap/bath split
Probably the most well known of the lot, South Australians are the most likely to go the opposite way for 'chance, dance and advance,' though it seems like different states fall on different lines depending on the word. I definitely go the South Australian way on 'graph', but not really on anything else.
Oo
Queenslanders (and New South Welshmen to some extent) are known for this one: pool, fool, school? Make that pewl, fewl and skewl.
Diphthongs
Never fear, the beer is near. A Western Australian would have three more syllables in this sentence than most t'othersiders would, because words like 'fear' are pronounced with jaw movement (fee-ah), whereas over east they keep their jaw in place.
Though these have all been argued to exist, there isn't much research to back it up. So, even though we aren't researchers per se, we are a large cross-section of Australian societies across different states. Can you attest to these, or any other notable differences? Tasmanians are said to 'just know' a Tasmanian accent when they hear it, but no-one has been able to pinpoint what it is. Others have claimed that, when on the phone, someone will be able to spot that they're from another state just from one or two words. Can this be the case?
