Regional characteristics of Australian English: phonology

The regional phonological characteristics of Australian English are much more subtle than those in the British Isles or North America, but they exist and are continuing to develop. As the contribution to this volume by Horvath indicates, these regional differences are much less substantial than the pervasive sociolectal differences. The regional differences are especially in vowel realizations, as is usual throughout English, but also in a few areas of consonant realizations. Australian speakers are much less aware of most of them than they are of the substantial sociolectal differences, though some speakers are aware of some of the most salient regional differences.

Most older scholarly sources, following Mitchell and Delbridge (1965), state that there are no such differences. This is increasingly the subject of derisive comment by popular commentators on language, for example Buzo (2002).