Aussie pronounciation WAS: The King of Glottal Stops Reigns Supreme!

Tristan Alexander McLeay ghItlh:

: On Sun, 27 Jan 2002, jogloran wrote:
: >
: > <<
: >  Which is kinda strange
: > since Aussies have a notorious habit if pronouncing every vowel as
: > schwa :)
: > So for a typical Australian, it would be pronounced as /r@m@mb@/ and
: > /d@c@mb@/  Hmmm.... so perhaps we should just forget writing vowels
: > altogether and stick with consonantal trigraphs.... ;)
: > >>
: >
: > Really? Well, actually, there are many Australian dialects, and you
: > don't really define "typical", but my speech, which would be
: > considered normal, generic news-reader-type English, would
: > have /r@mEmb@/ and /d@sEmb@/. I'm sure that I would get laughed at if
: > I pronounced those two words with /@/ instead of /E/... some of them
: > might even think I was trying to make fun of New Zealanders :P
:
: I agree. Never heard /r@m@mb@/. Most definately /r@mEmb@/. And it rhymes
: with December, too.

Yeah, I haven't really heard it either (unless you count Russell's mumbling
;)
I was kind exaggerating to make a point.... And besides, it could never be
schwa cos schwa can never be stressed, even here in Australia.  But in a
'typical' Aussie accent, all the vowels tend close to mid-mid.
Of course you have exceptions, like North Shore (Sydney), but thats mainly
because of our minority upper class distinction.  In Sydney, there is hardly
any class distinction, but in Melbourne it is much more prominent.
Also, Adelaide is supposedly the only place in Australia with an actually
DISTINCT Aussie accent....

ObConlang:  How do ppl actually deal with class distinctions in the
conlangs?  Does anybody have a really difficult caste-type, like in some
parts of India?  Or do you go for the dinky-dye Aussie philosophy that 99%
of ppl are middle-class?

John.

 Windows NT crashed.
 I am the Blue Screen of Death.
 No one hears your screams.

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