The difference between the English accent and the Australian accent
Even within a country where English is the native language there are great differences in the accent. The various states, provinces and counties each have unique accents that identify them as living in a specific location. Linquists identify different English accents as belonging to the countries of the United Kingdom and Ireland, but there are great differences across Canada and the Unites States as well. In England, there are certain characteristics of the accent that identify speakers as being from a certain region. This is why the regional accents are so different in countries where English is the official language.
Australian accents are different from all others. This is because the English language that is spoken in this country focuses on accentuating the vowels in a word. This concentration on vowel pronunciation is really the main difference between the English accent of Australia and that of Britain. In the Australian accent words that end in “ay” are pronounced as “ie” and the long /a/ sound is pronounced as “ae”.
There is not much variation in the Australian accent from region to region, but there have been some differences recorded. Linguists say that those who live in Victoria pronounce the sound of short /e/ in words as “dress” and “bed” is pronounced as “ae”. Celery and salary sound alike. In Western Australia, the word “beer” is pronounced in two syllables (be – er), but in Sydney the /r/ at the end is silent so the word sounds like ”bee”.
Many of the same words used in Britain are also used in Australia. For example a lift is an elevator and the trunk of a car is a boot. One of the main reasons for the difference between the English accent that you would hear in Britain and the Australian accent is that the people of Australia use the back of their tongue in the pronunciation of words. This means that they do not move their lips a lot when they speak.
The people of Britain do move their lips when they speak and they don’t use the back of the tongue to pronounce words. Australians keep the tip of their tongue quite close to the palate when they speak, but the English do not do this.