Lax vowels

The regional differences in front lax vowels are clear: Sydney and Newcastle, just to its north in New South Wales, have substantial centralization of the KIT vowel, though less extreme than in most sociolects of New Zealand English. Melbourne has this vowel raised nearly to cardinal [i], and also has raised both DRESS and TRAP vowels consistently more than other areas of Australia, as first noted in Bradley and Bradley (1979). This occasionally leads to misunderstanding between Melbournians and other Australians. The New Zealand centralization or KIT and raising of DRESS and TRAP are carried much further, but represent a continuation of this unusual pattern of raising of lax vowels (Labov 1994: 138) already incipient in Australian English before its transfer to New Zealand, and extended further in Melbourne.