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In:The Evolution of Englishes: The Dynamic Model and beyond
Edited by Sarah Buschfeld, Thomas Hoffmann, Magnus Huber and Alexander Kautzsch
[Varieties of English Around the World G49] 2014
► pp. 107–125

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Differentiation in Australian English

Published online: 12 September 2014
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https://doi.org/10.1075/veaw.g49.07pet
The Differentiation Phase (Phase 5 of Schneider’s Dynamic Model) has so far been reached by only a handful of settler Englishes: American English, Australian English, Canadian English, New Zealand English, with internal diversification as well as unique admixtures of indigenized and adstrate varieties. In Australian English this is in its early stages, though there’s little adstrate differentiation in evidence despite continuing waves of immigration. Fully fledged differentiation (including phonological, morphosyntactic and lexical divergences) is however conspicuous in Australian Aboriginal communities, in a distinctive indigenized English (Aboriginal English) which is spoken in widely separated areas especially across the centre and north of Australia. The resilience of AborE poses larger questions of how an indigenized variety can continue to evolve under an established and dominant settler variety.
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