International Phonetic Alphabet. At the time, ⟨ɜ⟩ was suitable for any mid central vowel, rounded or unrounded. The schwa /ə/ is a highly variable sound. For this Australian English (AuE) accents are the non-rhotic pronunciations of English used by most native-born Australians. Phonologically, Australian English is a relatively regionally homogeneous variety of the English language. Australian English is notable for vowel length contrasts which are absent from some other English dialects. The target for /ɪ/ is closer to cardinal [i] than in other dialects. The phrase fish and chips as pronounced by an Australian (/fɪʃ ən tʃɪps/) can sound a lot like feesh and cheeps to speakers of New Zealand English and other English dialects around the world. Similarly, words such as bit and sit may sound to others like beat and seat, respectively. The sound /ɪə/ in NEAR is usually pronounced as a diphthong (or disyllabically [iːə], like CURE) only in open syllables. In closed syllables, it is distinguished from /ɪ/ primarily by length and from /iː/ by the significant onset in the latter. /e/ tends to be higher than the corresponding vowel in General American or RP. The typical realization is close-mid [e], although for some speakers it may be even closer [e̝] (according to John Wells, this pronunciation can occur only in Broad varieties). A recent change is the lowering of /e/ to the [ɛ] region. For some Victorian speakers, /e/ has merged with the /æ/ of TRAP in pre-lateral environments, and thus the words celery and salary are homophonous as /ˈsæləɹiː/. See salary-celery merger. As with New Zealand English, the PALM/START vowel in words like park /pɐːk/, calm /kɐːm/ and farm /fɐːm/ is central (in the past even front /aː/) in terms of tongue position and non-rhotic. This vowel is only distinguished from the STRUT vowel by length, thus: park /pɐːk/ versus puck /pɐk/. The sound /æː/ is traditionally transcribed and analysed the same as the short /æ/ in TRAP, but minimal pairs exi There exist pairs of long and short vowels with overlapping vowel quality giving Australian English phonemic length distinction. There are two families of phonemic transcriptions of Australian English: revised ones that attempt to more accurately represent the phonetic sounds of Australian English and the Mitchell-Delbridge system, which is minimally distinct from Jones' original transcription for RP. This page uses a revised transcription system from Harrington, Cox, and Fletcher (HCE), but at times it additionally provides the Mitchell-Delbridge equivalents as the latter system is commonly used for example in the Macquarie Dictionary and much of the literature. Similarly, words such as bit and sit may sound to others like beat and seat, respectively. The sound /ɪə/ in NEAR is usually pronounced as a diphthong (or disyllabically [iːə], like CURE) only in open syllables. In closed syllables, it is distinguished from /ɪ/ primarily by length and from /iː/ by the significant onset in the latter. /e/ tends to be higher than the corresponding vowel in General American or RP. The typical realization is close-mid [e], although for some speakers it may be even closer [e̝] (according to John Wells, this pronunciation can occur only in Broad varieties). A recent change is the lowering of /e/ to the [ɛ] region. At the time, ⟨ɜ⟩ was suitable for any mid central vowel, rounded or unrounded. The schwa /ə/ is a highly variable sound. For this reason, it is not shown on the vowel charts to the right. The word-final schwa in comma and letter is often lowered to [ɐ] so that it strongly resembles the STRUT vowel /ɐ/: [ˈkɔmɐ, ˈleɾɐ]. As the latter is a checked vowel (meaning that it cannot occur in a final stressed position) and the lowering of /ə/ is not categorical (meaning that those words can be also pronounced [ˈsəʉfə] and [ˈbeɾə], whereas strut is never pronounced [stɹət]), this sound is considered to belong to the /ə/ phoneme. The word-initial schwa (as in enduring /ənˈdʒʉːɹɪŋ/) is typically mid [ə]: [ənˈdʒʉːɹɪŋ]. In the word-internal position (as in bottom /ˈbɔtəm/), /ə/ is raised to [ɨ̞]: [ˈbɔɾɨ̞m], as in American English roses [ˈɹoʊzɨ̞z]. Thus, the difference between the /ə/ of paddock and the /ɪ/ of panic lies in the backness of the vowels, rather than their height: [ˈpædɨ̞k, ˈpænik]. In the rest of the article, those allophones of /ə/ are all transcribed with the broad symbol ⟨ə⟩: [ˈkɔmə] etc. /ɪ/ is also broadly transcribed with ⟨ɪ⟩: [ˈpænɪk], which does not capture its closeness. As with General American, the weak vowel merger is nearly complete in Australian English: unstressed /ɪ/ is merged with /ə/ (schwa) except before a following velar. New Zealand English takes it a step further and merges all instances of /ɪ/ with /ə/ (even in stressed syllables), which is why the New Zealand pronunciation of the dish name fish and chips as /ˈfəʃ ən ˈtʃəps/ sounds like 'fush and chups' to Australians. In Australian English, /ə/ is restricted to unstressed syllables, as in most dialects. In a few instances the OED example word differs from the others given in this table; these are appended at the end of the second column following a semicolon. == Consonants == Australian English consonants are similar to those of other non-rhotic varieties of English. A table containing the consonant phonemes is given below. Non-rhoticity Australian English is mostly non-rhotic; in other words, the /ɹ/ sound does not appear at the end of a syllable or immediately before a consonant. So the words butter [ˈbɐɾə], For those speakers where /d/ also undergoes the change, there will be homophony, for example, metal and medal or petal and pedal will sound the same ([ˈmeɾl̩] and [ˈpeɾl̩], respectively). In formal speech /t/ is retained. [t] in the cluster [nt] can elide. As a result, in quick speech, words like winner and winter can become homophonous (as [ˈwɪnə]). This is a quality that Australian English shares with New Zealand and North American English.