Australian English

Australian English
Australian English
Native to	Australia
Native speakers	18.5 million in Australia (2021); 5 million L2 speakers of English in Australia (approx. 2021)
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic North Sea Germanic Anglo-Frisian Anglic English British English Australian English; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Early forms	Old English Middle English Early Modern English Modern English 18th century British English ; ; ; ;
Writing system	Latin (English alphabet); Unified English Braille
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	aust1314
IETF	en-AU
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Australian English (AusE, AusEng, AuE, AuEng, en-AU) is the set of varieties of the English language based off the British dialect native to Australia. It is the country's common language and de facto national language; while Australia has no official language, English is the first language of the majority of the population, and has been entrenched as the de facto national language since British settlement, being the only language spoken in the home for 72% of Australians.^[5] It is also the main language used in compulsory education, as well as federal, state and territorial legislatures and courts.

Australian English began to diverge from British and Hiberno-English after the First Fleet established the Colony of New South Wales in 1788. Australian English arose from a dialectal melting pot created by the intermingling of early settlers who were from a variety of dialectal regions of Great Britain and Ireland,^[6] though its most significant influences were the dialects of South East England.^[7] By the 1820s, the native-born colonists' speech was recognisably distinct from speakers in Britain and Ireland.^[8]

Australian English differs from other varieties in its phonology, pronunciation, lexicon, idiom, grammar and spelling.^[9] Australian English is relatively consistent across the continent, although it encompasses numerous regional and sociocultural varieties. "General Australian" describes the de facto standard dialect, which is perceived to be free of pronounced regional or sociocultural markers and is often used in the media.

^ English (Australia) at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016)
^ "Unified English Braille". Australian Braille Authority. 18 May 2016. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
^ "English". IANA language subtag registry. 16 October 2005. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
^ "Australia". IANA language subtag registry. 16 October 2005. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
^ "2021 Australia, Census All persons QuickStats | Australian Bureau of Statistics".
^ Burridge, Kate (2020). "Chapter 11: History of Australian English". In Willoughby, Louisa (ed.). Australian English Reimagined: Structure, Features and Developments. Routledge. pp. 178¬–181. ISBN 978-0-367-02939-5.
^ Moore, Bruce (2008). Speaking our Language: the Story of Australian English. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-19-556577-5.
^ Burridge, Kate (2020). "Chapter 11: History of Australian English". In Willoughby, Louisa (ed.). Australian English Reimagined: Structure, Features and Developments. Routledge. pp. 181, 183. ISBN 978-0-367-02939-5.
^ Cox, Felicity (2020). "Chapter 2: Phonetics and Phonology of Australian English". In Willoughby, Louisa (ed.). Australian English Reimagined: Structure, Features and Developments. Routledge. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-367-02939-5.