Australian English is the major national variety of English spoken across Australia, where it has served as the de facto national language since British colonization began in 1788 and is now the native tongue of roughly 18.5 million people, with a further 5 million speaking it as a second language. Recognizably distinct from British and Irish speech by as early as the 1820s according to contemporary observers, it is marked by non-rhotic pronunciation, a distinctive system of vowel-length contrasts, and a vocabulary drawing on Aboriginal Australian languages for words like kangaroo and boomerang alongside homegrown coinages such as outback, arvo and barbie, the last two reflecting the dialect's fondness for informal -o and -ie word endings.
Facts
RegionAustralia, spoken nationwide as the country's de facto national language 1 Speaker Communityroughly 18.5 million native speakers as of 2021, with a further 5 million second-language speakers; it has functioned as the de facto national language since British settlement began in 1788 1 Distinguishing Featuresnon-rhoticity, with /r/ absent at the end of a syllable, combined with a distinctive vowel system marked by phonemic vowel-length contrasts and a merger of weak vowels; vocabulary drawn partly from Aboriginal Australian languages, including kangaroo, boomerang and cooee, alongside homegrown terms such as outback, bush, g'day and mate; frequent hypocoristic -o and -ie endings, as in arvo for afternoon and barbie for barbecue 1 Classification
Variety Kind Connections
Descends From
Source Wikipedia: Australian English
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Australian English
Wikimedia FoundationHistory section
By the 1820s, the native-born colonists' speech was recognisably distinct from speakers in Britain and Ireland.
Variety kind, Australian English entity page
Australian English is the major national variety of English spoken across Australia, where it has served as the de facto national language since British colonization began in 1788 and is now the native tongue of roughly 18.5 million people, with a further 5 million speaking it as a second language.
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