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

On Sat, 11 Mar 2000 10:54:33 +0900, Adrian Morgan <morg0072@...>
wrote:

<...>
>Lambda represents the vowel in "but" (i.e. the
>one that I understand is represented by an
>upside-down _v_ in the phonetic alphabet, hence
>my suggestion of _^_ as an applicable rendering).
>Double-lambda represents the vowel in _barn_ (in
>South Australian speech), i.e. lengthened lambda.
>Phi is equivalent to the Welsh _ll_, that is, an
>unvoiced _l_. Pi is equivalent to the unvoiced
>_th_ in _bath_, and Psi to the voiced _th_ in
>_bathe_.
<...>
>Right, now onto the complete phonetics. The reason
>I don't use phonetic alphabets to explain this is
>that I've never seen a description aimed at
>South Australians (or Australians at all, for that
>matter). I think word examples are good enough to
>give people a rough mental image of how things are
>pronounced, which is enough. (Since it's an
>imaginary language anyway, you can always imagine
>a dialect in which your perceptions are correct.)
>
>Most sounds are based on South Australian speech.
>In the following, square brackets indicate an
>exception to this, namely a greater prominence of
>the letter 'r' (c.f. Irish or American speech.)
>
>Vowels
>------
>
>The vowel in ... is spelt ...
>bat              a
>bait             ay
>bet              e
>air              [eq, eer]
><schwa>          i
>boat             iu
>bite             iy
>sound            iww
>bot              o
>gone             oo
>oar              [oq, oor]
>boot             u
>bit              y
>beat             yy
>ear              [yyq, yyr]
>but              lambda (herein ^)
>barn             ^^, [^q, ^^r]
>bottle           ll
>burn             rr, [rrq]
>book             ww
<...>

- I have some problems with this. In particular, why the vowels in _gone_
and _bot_ are kept apart from each other?

Unfortunately, all I could find about Australian English (AuE) on the net
was word/phrase lists; nothing about the pronunciation.

So I tried to recall what I'd read about AuE. However, I know nothing
about the sociolinguistic implications - all varieties of English
are equally foreign to me. I suspect that all features listed below
can be found simultaneously only in some very informal variety of AuE.

Now, the differences from British English (RP).

The vowel(s) in:

_bat_, _hot_, _bet_
- narrower than in RP;

_cut_
- can be very open, close to [a];

_book_, _put_
- tends to get delabialized and can be close to [@] (schwa);

_part_, _father_, _grant_, _half_, _palm_, _ask_ (same phoneme in all,
just as in RP)
- strongly backed, tends to become labialized;

_bird_, _stern_, _hurt_
- fronted and labialized, approaching the quality of the French vowel
in _coeur_;

_where_, _more_
- monophthongs, narrower than (the syllabic components of) the
respective RP sounds;

_dear_
- tends to become a monophthong [i:];

_poor_
- tends to become a monophthong ([O:], [o:] or [u:]);

_bite_, _out_
- become [AI] and [&u];

_bait_, _boat_
- become [VI] (or even [aI]) and [VU] (or even [aU]);

_beat_, _moon_
- become diphthongs: [@i] and [@u];

The vowel in the atonic ending _-es_ (_horses_, _washes_) is 'schwa'
rather than 'ih';

The word-final unstressed vowel in _lucky_, _easy_, _carry_, etc.
is identified with 'ee' rather than 'ih'.

Some features common with RP:

_r_ is silent, except when a vowel follows;

_more_ rimes with _for_ and _law_ (_law_ and _lore_, _four_ and _for_ are
perfect homonyms); _board_ has the same vowel as _port_;

_hurry_, _very_, _mirror_, _occurring_ have all different stressed vowels.

I am not sure about the vowels in _long_, _dog_, _lock_. And it seems to
me that there was something peculiar about vowels before nasals.

Adrian, can you comment on what of the above is relevant for the
Gz^rod|in phonetics?


Basilius