Considering that both American and Australian English are the same language, it might seem very strange how different the 2 dialects are. Both derive from British English, and are largely similar. Yet, there’s no denying that there are some very obvious differences. It can be said that the main reason is due to the fact that Australian English (as with other varieties, such as New Zealand English) have had less time to come into its own form as compared to America English. Hence, while Australian English has some features very close to British English, American English is much more dissimilar.
While culture and history play a large role in the differences between American English and Australian English, this explanation alone is insufficient …show more content…
The word stress in American English and Australian English has some differences, with the Australian version sounding far closer to the British version. There are a couple of specific situations where the word stress almost always differs, but there are also some miscellaneous words for which the stress differs. When it comes to French loanwords for example, American English keeps the original French final syllable stress, while Australian English stresses an earlier syllable. Words such as ‘ballet’, and ‘beret’ are stressed on the first syllable in Australian English, but are stressed on the last syllable for American English. Another case, is for most 2-syllable verbs ending in –ate, which have first-syllable stress in American English and second-syllable stress in Australian English. This includes castrate, cremate. There are also some other miscellaneous words with differing stress, such as adult, with Australians stressing the first syllable, and Americans stressing the second syllable. The difference in word stress changes the rhythm of the sentence, making the two sounds very different. Australian English also has a tendency to drop syllables, which doesn’t really happen in American …show more content…
For example, in American English, prepositions before days can be omitted, such as ‘She’s leaving Tuesday.’ In Australian English however, the prepositions aren’t omitted, ‘She’s leaving on Tuesday’.
Another difference between American and Australian English, is the past tense and participle. Australian English, similar to British English, tends to use the irregular form, ‘learnt’ in comparison to the regular form used in American English, ‘learned’. This however, is just in general, and some have noted that it also depends on the speaker. For example, the older generation Australians are more likely to say ‘learnt’, while some of they younger Australians might say ‘learned’.
One other aspect of the two languages, that is often much debated, is spelling. American spelling is usually closer to the pronunciation of the word as compared to Australian English. The spelling in Australian English is closer to British spelling than American spelling, with a tendency to favour ‘our’ endings rather than ‘or’, as in ‘labour’ and ‘honour’, and ‘ise’ rather than ‘ize’, such as in
While culture and history play a large role in the differences between American English and Australian English, this explanation alone is insufficient …show more content…
The word stress in American English and Australian English has some differences, with the Australian version sounding far closer to the British version. There are a couple of specific situations where the word stress almost always differs, but there are also some miscellaneous words for which the stress differs. When it comes to French loanwords for example, American English keeps the original French final syllable stress, while Australian English stresses an earlier syllable. Words such as ‘ballet’, and ‘beret’ are stressed on the first syllable in Australian English, but are stressed on the last syllable for American English. Another case, is for most 2-syllable verbs ending in –ate, which have first-syllable stress in American English and second-syllable stress in Australian English. This includes castrate, cremate. There are also some other miscellaneous words with differing stress, such as adult, with Australians stressing the first syllable, and Americans stressing the second syllable. The difference in word stress changes the rhythm of the sentence, making the two sounds very different. Australian English also has a tendency to drop syllables, which doesn’t really happen in American …show more content…
For example, in American English, prepositions before days can be omitted, such as ‘She’s leaving Tuesday.’ In Australian English however, the prepositions aren’t omitted, ‘She’s leaving on Tuesday’.
Another difference between American and Australian English, is the past tense and participle. Australian English, similar to British English, tends to use the irregular form, ‘learnt’ in comparison to the regular form used in American English, ‘learned’. This however, is just in general, and some have noted that it also depends on the speaker. For example, the older generation Australians are more likely to say ‘learnt’, while some of they younger Australians might say ‘learned’.
One other aspect of the two languages, that is often much debated, is spelling. American spelling is usually closer to the pronunciation of the word as compared to Australian English. The spelling in Australian English is closer to British spelling than American spelling, with a tendency to favour ‘our’ endings rather than ‘or’, as in ‘labour’ and ‘honour’, and ‘ise’ rather than ‘ize’, such as in