Australian English

E8081

Australian English is the variety of the English language spoken in Australia, characterized by its distinctive accent, vocabulary, and some unique grammatical and spelling conventions.

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Observed surface forms (5)


Statements (59)

Predicate Object
instanceOf dialect
national variety of English
variety of English
closelyRelatedTo British English
New Zealand English
countryOfUse Australia
developedFrom English spoken by British and Irish settlers in Australia
differsFrom American English in spelling
American English in vocabulary
British English in pronunciation
documentedIn Macquarie Dictionary
hasAccent Broad Australian accent
Cultivated Australian accent
General Australian accent
hasFeature distinctive vowel system compared to British and American English
flapping of /t/ and /d/ between vowels
non-rhotic pronunciation
raising of /eɪ/ and /aɪ/ before voiceless consonants
use of high rising terminal intonation in some contexts
hasGrammarFeature informal omission of subject pronouns in some spoken contexts
use of collective nouns with either singular or plural verb agreement
use of tag questions like eh and ay in some regions
hasMorphologyFeature frequent use of diminutives ending in -ie or -o
hasRegulator no official language academy
hasSpellingConvention mixture of British and unique Australian spellings
preference for -ise over -ize in many words
use of -our endings instead of -or (e.g. colour)
use of -re endings instead of -er (e.g. centre)
use of double L in words like travelling
hasStandardForm Australian English self-linksurface differs
surface form: Standard Australian English
hasVocabulary G’day
Maccas (for McDonald’s)
arvo
barbie (for barbecue)
bogan
bush
esky
fair dinkum
footy
mate
no worries
outback
servo
thongs (for flip-flops)
ute
historicalOrigin British English of the late 18th and 19th centuries
influencedBy Aboriginal languages
American English (in some vocabulary and media)
British English
Irish English
ISOCode en-AU
languageFamily Germanic languages
Indo-European languages
West Germanic languages
usedIn Australian education system
Australian government and legal documents
Australian media
usesScript English alphabet
writingSystem Latin alphabet

Referenced by (16)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

British Isles English contrastedWith Australian English
British English differsFrom Australian English
Macquarie Dictionary focus Australian English
Australasian English hasPart Australian English
Australian English hasStandardForm Australian English self-linksurface differs
this entity surface form: Standard Australian English
Standard English hasVariant Australian English
this entity surface form: Australian Standard English
New Zealand English influencedBy Australian English
Maccas (for McDonald’s) language Australian English
subject surface form: Maccas
Gavin languageOfUse Australian English
Time South Pacific languageVariant Australian English
Kiwi oftenMentionedWith Australian English
this entity surface form: Aussie
English American relatedEthnicGroup Australian English
this entity surface form: English Australian
Australasian English standardFormOf Australian English
this entity surface form: English in Australia
The Ditch usedIn Australian English
Andrew usedInLanguage Australian English
Anthony usedInLanguage Australian English