Variation in Australian English

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Australian English is relatively homogeneous when compared with British and American English. The major varieties of Australian English are sociocultural rather than regional. They are divided into 3 main categories: general, broad and cultivated. There are a number of Australian English based creole languages. Differing significantly from English, these are not considered dialects of English; rather, they are considered separate languages. Notable examples are Torres Strait Creole, spoken on the Torres Strait Islands, Northern Cape York and South Western Coastal Papua; the Norfuk language, spoken by some inhabitants of Norfolk Island, and Australian Kriol, which developed in and around the Sydney region in the days of early settlement, and now exists only in rural areas of the Northern Territory.

The ethnocultural dialects are diverse accents in Australian English that are spoken by the minority groups, which are of non English speaking background. A massive immigration from Asia has made a large increase in diversity and the will for people to show their cultural identity within the Australian context. These ethnocultural varieties contain features of General Australian English as adopted by the children of immigrants blended with some non English language features, such as the Afro Asiatic and Asian languages. It is generally spoken by Australian speakers of Lebanese descent. Closely resembling the general Australian accent, the variety was based on the acoustic phonetic characteristics in the speech of young, Lebanese Australian male university students in Sydney, who speak English as their first language and also use vernacular Arabic. Compared to the standard Australian English, the students had minor vowel motion differences with striking voicing and related timing effects. Other Middle Eastern Australians too, particularly in the Sydney area (in the 2006 census, 72.8% of Lebanese Australians lived in Sydney) have a similar dialect. Among Arab Australians, words such as "shoo" (what's up) and "yallah" (let's go/goodbye). "Habib" has a use similar to mate (meaning friend), but can also be a pejorative word for males who assert themselves aggressively a type of person obsessed with grabbing girls' attention, "hotted up" (meaning modified or hot rodded) cars and loud music. wallah is also used, meaning "I swear to God" or "Really!"

Although relatively homogeneous, some regional variations in Australian English are notable. The dialects of English spoken in the eastern states, where the majority of the population lives, differ somewhat to those spoken in South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia. Another notable dialect is Torres Strait English, spoken by the inhabitants of the Torres Strait Islands. Torres Strait English, as distinct from Torres Strait Creole, developed separately to, but has been significantly influenced by, General Australian English. The regional varieties of English can be distinguished in terms of vocabulary and phonology. With each local dialect taking words from various sources such as British, Irish and American English as well as local Aboriginal languages, it is in vocabulary where regional varieties are most distinct from each other. Regional phonological features may be inherited due to differing settlement patterns or may have developed locally.