Introduction

Scholars speculating on the origins of Australian English (henceforth: AusE) focus mostly on two issues: what dialects served as the ‘parents’ for AusE, and how did this variety become so uniform throughout the continent, compared to other colonial dialects, especially those in North America? In this chapter I will revisit these questions by using some of the tools and theoretical constructs of modern sociolinguistics, information on settlement patterns in Australia, and a comparison of modern and early modern dialects.

While I mostly concur with the generally accepted view that the London English variety probably had the most influence in the formation of AusE, I disagree that we can do no more than speculate about the origin of most features of AusE. I suggest that, instead of inheriting a large number of features from a single south of England dialect, AusE reflects a levelling of most common dialects, with subsequent later changes, perhaps following the principles outlined by Labov (1994:601).

These changes would account for the adoption, albeit slight, of some AusE features in the varieties spoken by the upper classes. In terms of social variability, I believe it likely that there was always a ‘middle’ social stratum of dialect speakers that grew out of the initial levelling process.