Significant features of New Zealand and Australian English – vowels

Short vowels

Australian and New Zealand varieties of English show an unusual pattern involving a general raising of short front vowels. Most striking is the raising of the DRESS and TRAP vowels in NZE. This is less evident in AusE, although it does occur. In some parts of Australia, particularly on the east coast (for example in Melbourne) the KIT vowel is also raised. In NZE, however, this vowel is lowered and centralized (although less centralized in Maori English than in Pakeha English). The pronunciation of the KIT vowel is an outstanding feature of this dialect and has become a shibboleth for distinguishing New Zealand and Australian speakers. As noted by Bauer and Warren and also Gordon and Maclagan, Australians parody the New Zealand KIT vowel with their STRUT vowel; in fact, the vowel that most NZE speakers use here is a central vowel that is slightly more open than schwa.

These two major dialects of Antipodean English have in common a number of vowel mergers currently underway in prelateral environments. For example, in both varieties a sociolinguistic variable is the neutralization of DRESS and TRAP before laterals. For many younger speakers the word shell and shall and Alan and Ellen are no longer distinguishable. In NZE the neutralized vowel is typically more open and more retracted than either DRESS or TRAP, although vowels intermediate between DRESS and TRAP are also heard. AusE speakers usually merge these vowels in favor of [æ]. In Australia this merger is also reported as being regionally differentiated, occurring in both Melbourne and Brisbane, but generally absent from the other major cities.

There is a parallel phenomenon occurring with respect to the LOT and GOAT vowels: for many speakers the words doll and dole are not distinguished. The GOOSE and FOOT vowels and the FLEECE and KIT vowels are also in the process of merging in prelateral position, in this case in the direction of the short vowels. For example, fool is merging on full and feel is merging on fill. Moreover, in NZE the distinction between the vowels of KIT and FOOT is also frequently lost in this environment, so that pairs of words like pill and pull become indistinguishable. It therefore follows from the previous mergers that for some speakers of NZE the KIT and GOOSE vowels are also indistinguishable (as in fill and fool and pill and pool). Note that the prelateral lowering of vowels has also been noted as being especially marked in the Norfolk vernacular, in particular for DRESS. In NZE a merger between KIT and STRUT is sometimes heard prelaterally (as in kilt and cult).

In both NZE and AusE the FOOT vowel is a typically a mid-high back (slightly rounded) vowel [ʊ]. However, NZE is showing evidence of a change underway towards a vowel that is both centralized and unrounded.

The STRUT vowel is a low and central vowel. In both dialects it shares phonetic qualities with the START vowel. Accordingly, the vowels in pairs of words such as cut and cart are distinguished largely by length.

Speakers of Aboriginal English, especially those falling closer to the creole end of the continuum, may not distinguish between KIT and FLEECE or between DRESS and TRAP. In this variety the STRUT vowel often alternates with various front or back vowels from among the following: /Λ~ɪ~æ~ɒ/. Mid back vowels are often used interchangeably or may, under influence from the creole, alternate with /o/.