Phonological Reflexes of British Varieties in Australian English (PDF)

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,3, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen (Institut für Anglistik), language: English, abstract: The purpose of this paper is to examine phonological reflexes of British varieties in AusE focusing on the question of which British variety influenced AusE the most. In order to approach this issue, it is necessary to adduce a theoretical framework: firstly, I will sketch the history and evolution of AusE by means of Schneider's "Dynamic Model" (2007) in order to clarify how and under which influences AusE evolved.

Due to the utmost importance of the historical development of AusE with respect to its phonology, I will devote a proper chapter for this part. Additionally, I will provide a rough overview of Australia's present demographic situation focusing on its cultural diversity and the people's ancestries emphasizing Australia's British roots. These preliminary theoretical considerations support and eventually lead to the third chapter which deals with the main issue of this paper, namely the analysis of the extent of phonological reflexes of British varieties in AusE.

For this purpose, I will, firstly, examine every single vowel of AusE providing the respective phonetic descriptions as well as an account of potential similarities and differences concerning English dialects of the British Isles. Afterwards, I will discuss the most distinctive consonantal features of AusE and analyze if and to what extent they can be identified in BrIEs. At last, I will focus on a certain prosodic feature that AusE and BrIEs have in common. Taking all the outcomes into consideration, the analysis shall result in a substantial and reliable account of to what extent phonological traces of the different British varieties can still be identified in AusE.