How to speak Australian English by April

As many of you know, there are different types of English. These are British English, American English and Australian English. This article is about Australian English, it‘s pronounciation, idiomatic expressions or other interesting facts. It is really impressive to see the differences from Australian English, abbreviated AusE, to BrE and AmE.

First I’m gonna talk about AusE pronounciation. Australians pronounce the /t/ like a /r/ or „t-flap“. If you are doing the „t-flap“, your tongue touchs the roof of your mouth for a short time and then moves back to the front of your mouth. You use the „t-flap“ for example for the words : butter, better, difficulty and sweater. So the „t-flap“ usually occurs between two vowels.

Also exciting about AusE pronounciation is that words with the ending „-er“, “-our“, „-re“, „-or“… are pronounced /a/. Water is for example pronounced /wo:ta/. It is different to BrE and AmE, because in Great Britain people used to pronounce it /wo:te/, but in AmE they pronounce it /´water/. Another difference is, that the word „sweater“ is not used in AusE. They usually use the word „jumper“.

Another point are the Australian English hypocoristics and word formation processes. In a word formation process you can take two words and add them together to a new word. Examples here for are „textbook“ and „wallpaper“. Another form of a word formation process is, when you mix two words together to one word. For instance „breakfast“ and „lunch“ becomes „brunch“.

To use the hypocoristic form, you first clip a word (AustralianàAus) and then add another suffix (AusàAussie). When the hypocoristic form contains an /s/ sound, Australians often change the pronounciation to /z/ (Aussieà/a:zi/).

Australia also has many idioms, which is an expression with a meaning that cannot be guessed from the meaning of the individual word. One example for an Australian idiom is „Blood is worth bottling“. If an Australian says to you „Your blood is worth bottling“, he/she is complimenting or praising you for doing something or being someone very special. „Tough as woodpecker lips“ is something that is very strong and resilient.

All in all, AusE is very different to AmE and BrE but it is interesting to know how some words are pronounced and what kind of idioms are used. I think, it is important to know all of these facts if you’re going to Australia.