Talk:Australian English

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This article is written in Australian English, which has its own spelling conventions (centre, realise, program, labour (but Labor Party)) and some terms may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

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edit Archives and related discussion
Talk:Australian English
Archive I	Archive II	Archive III
Talk:Australian English vocabulary
Archive I	Archive II	Archive III
Wiktionary:Appendix talk: Australian English vocabulary
Talk:Australian English phonology
Archive I	Archive II
Talk:Variation in Australian English

The vowel chart seems wildly off the mark

The chart seems to resemble Estuary English phonetics more than actual Australian phonetics, which may or may not be due to it being outdated, or perhaps because of its describing particularly the cultivation variation of the Australian accent, instead of the general variation. However, it's pretty clear that almost all entries in the chart do not represent the phonology of general Australian accent accurately.

Let's analyse an archetypal example of the modern Australian accent in a sample of Australian astrophysicist Matt O'Dowd's presentation for PBS Spacetime: [1], and go through some entries in the chart one by one:

• At 0:15, we hear the "i" in "big" pronounced as i and clearly not ɪ, as in the chart
• At 0:44, we hear the "e" in "Penrose" pronounced as ɪ (with the letter "e" being previously pronounced as e in "end" at 0:39, seemingly due to it being at the start of a word) and clearly not ɛ, as in the chart
• At 1:49, we hear the "er" in "rubber" pronounced as ɑ and not ə, as in the chart (although the "ure" in "future" was previously pronounced as ə at 0:47, but this seems to be an exception rather than the rule)
• At 0:55, we hear the "aye" in "decayed" pronounced as ɐɪ and not æɪ, as in the chart
• At 0:17, we hear the "i" in "like" pronounced as ɒə (with the ə being very short) and not ɑɪ, as in the chart

And these are only some examples. Can anyone find better sources and correct the chart, please? Because, as we've already seen from the sample presented, the current chart is very misleading. YourAverageMax (talk) 13:40, 26 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

• That's incorrect. He is is pronouncing it as [ɪ]
• That's incorrect. He is pronouncing it as [e], I think you are confusing [ɛ] for [e]
• [ɑ], [a] or [ɐ] are some realisations of /ə/ in open or bare syllables in General Australian English. This is mentioned in the article Australian English phonology. But /ə/ is still the phoneme, and [ɑ] is just a phonetic realisation in this environment. Perhaps the environment of this sound change does not include the /ə/ after /j/ as in "failure" for this individual speaker.
• He is clearly saying /æɪ/, although his [æ] is not exact, as per the fronting diphthong chart in the Australian English phonology article. "[ɐɪ]" is the diphthong in "mine" and not "main".
• This is wrong. To me he is pronouncing it exactly as /ɑɪ/. You can't even see his lips round as he says it.

Jimydog000 (talk) 14:19, 21 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with you mostly. However, "big" at 0:15 is indeed quite close to [i] in my opinion. He does say [ɪ] in other places, and I think this slight variation [ɪ~i] is quite common in Australian English. "Penrose" is [e]. "Decayed" might be [aɪ] with a front [a], but it's much rather [æɪ] than [ɐɪ]. No rounding in "like", but the offglide is lowered to [e~ɛ]. 92.218.236.121 (talk) 10:05, 8 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Coming back to this: Here's a clear example of [i] for /ɪ/: "in American history" [in əmeɹəkən histəɹi] ca. 1:07 from the start. 84.63.31.91 (talk) 12:42, 24 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Different

The final section of the article, on keyboard layout, has got me wondering whether Aussies use the British “different from” or the American “different than”. Anyone? Mr Larrington (talk) 08:51, 24 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think I've ever seen a survey on that. I say "different from", and I've definitely heard "different than", but you might find "different to" is more common. HiLo48 (talk) 09:30, 24 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Nationality?

User:Schestos - You added a table listing people by Nationality. What do you mean by nationality? Wouldn't most of those people be Australian citizens? If they are, their nationality is Australian. The link to Cultural Atlas doesn't explain it at all, nor does it show those number, so your addition is effectively unsourced. HiLo48 (talk) 06:02, 30 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Per the census question. Is nationality the wrong word? Would ancestry be better? Also you have to click on each country then scroll to population statistics. Schestos (talk) 06:39, 30 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Yes User:Schestos, I think ancestry would be better. HiLo48 (talk) 07:59, 30 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed it. Schestos (talk) 08:27, 30 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

New table for information in #Comparison with other varieties section

I have began formatting some of the information on this page in the user space (here). Mitchsavl (talk) 05:51, 14 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I have finished organising some information into a table, would anyone be able to go check it out and verify it before I add it in? I have added some notes onto the able for terms I am personally unsure of. I will make sure to verify these terms before adding it. Mitchsavl (talk) 03:19, 31 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I have now added the formatted table to the article. Mitchsavl (talk) 06:36, 4 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Can we discuss donut and percent

I believe that donut and percent are more common than their counterparts doughnut and per cent. My reasoning:

• Donut is the preferred spelling in advertising. Coles uses this spelling in their self-made products. It's largely due to the influence of the fast-food chain Dunkin' Donuts.
• Per cent is predominantly British and is falling out of use. I know it's the recommended spelling in the official Australian style guide, but due to American influence the closed form percent is being adopted more and more. I myself was taken aback to see it recently when I was reading some previous-century literature.

What do we think? Should a mention of these be included in the article? Newbzy (talk) 07:45, 3 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

I think that a mention would be warranted, as the usage by the public and media in Australia is a better reflection of language within society than the standards used by the government. Mitchsavl (talk) 06:51, 4 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Australian Maths teacher here. I don't care what the kids write, so long as they get the right answers. I just checked a couple of textbooks. They use "percentage" or the "%" symbol. The latter would be their version of percent. Just realised. I just wrote percent, not per cent. In words, "percent" would be my preference. I cannot remember when I last saw "doughnut". HiLo48 (talk) 07:34, 4 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Right, I've added a sentence about this to the "spelling" section of the article. Thanks guys for joining the discussion Newbzy (talk) 07:26, 7 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]