Formant frequencies of /hVd/ vowels in the speech of South Australian females

Various assertions have been made from time to time in the literature about possible regional differences in the pronunciation of Australian English vowels. However, apart from a number of excellent studies of New South Wales speakers, we have very little recent data from other states to substantiate such assertions. This study presents formant frequency data from a group of> 90 young adult female speakers who grew up in South Australia. The results are compared with the most recent data from the most similar subjects in NSW. Amongst the monophthongs very few differences were observed. The major differences appeared amongst the diphthongs. The differences between the two accents are discussed in terms of conservative and innovative trends, without any definite conclusion being reached. 1