USAGE: S. Australian (was: Re: Gz^rod|in)

I don't know if this helps but I went and found my list of phonemes for
NZEng which is close to similar to AusEng.

Let me run the chart past:

i      u
I      U
E 3
& @ A  O
a      Q

diphthongs:

EI, aI, OI, AU, aU, I@, E@, U@

Let's see how Adrian's vowels splice into this:

yy       u
y        ww
e  rr
*   i  ^  oq
^^       o

ay, iy, *, iu, iww, yyq, eq, *

* this space for rent.

The * sounds are a in bat, oy in boy, and our in tour.  & is rising into
E and this seems to be shifting the diphthongs.  I@ and E@ are not
necessarily distinct, Australians settling on one and New Zealanders on
the other.  U@ and O are pretty indistinct also.  The ih sound is higher
for Australians than New Zealanders.  If Adrian and I ever met his 'ih'
would probably sound like 'ee' to me and my pronunciation as 'uh' to
him.  It's a classic parody for both nations.  In NZ English 'ih' and
schwa sound similar, especially when unstressed.

I will have to check out what the studies are saying now in the ten
years or so since I studied NZ Linguistics.

- andrew.
--
Andrew Smith, Intheologus                       hobbit@earthlight.co.nz

                          Takitimu - my mountain
                            Otepuni - my river