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Alexius
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Other
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Other
Alexios Apokaukos, Byzantine statesman
Alexios Aspietes, Byzantine governor
Alexios Branas, Byzantine general
Alexios Halebian, American tennis player
Alexius Meinong, Austrian philosopher
Alexios Mosele (Caesar), Byzantine heir-apparent
Alexios Palaiologos (despot), Byzantine heir-apparent
Alexios Philanthropenos, Byzantine general
Alexios Raoul (protovestiarios), Byzantine general
Alexios Strategopoulos, Byzantine general
Alexios Xiphias, Byzantine Catepan of Italy
Alexios (Assassin's Creed), a fictional character in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey
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Alexius
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Alexius in other languages
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Alexius in other languages
English – Alexis, Aleck
German – Alexius, Alexis
Greek – Αλέξιος [Alexios], Αλέξης [Alexis]
French – Alexis
Italian – Alessio
Spanish – Alejo, Alexis
Portuguese – Aleixo
Latvian – Alexius, Aleksis, Aleksejs
Polish – Aleksy
Czech – Aleš, Alexej
Slovak – Aleš
Estonian – Aleksei
Bulgarian – Алексей [Aleksej]
Serbian – Aleksa
Finnish – Aleksi, Aleksis
Macedonian – Aleksio
Georgian – ალექსი, [Aleksi ]
Belarusian – Аляксей [Aleksiej]
Russian – Алексей [Alexei, Alexey, Aleksei, Aleksey], Алексий [Alexiy], Алёша [Alyosha], Лёша [Lyosha]
Ukrainan – Олексій [Oleksii, Oleksiy], Олекса [Oleksa]
Hungarian – Elek
Category:Given names of Greek language origin
Category:Greek masculine given names
Category:Masculine given names
Category:Given names
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Alexius
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Table of Content
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Infobox given name2
, Rulers, Religious figures, Other, Alexius in other languages
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American English
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Short description
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American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and, since 2025, the official language of the United States. It is also an official language in 32 of the 50 U.S. states and the de facto common language used in government, education, and commerce in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and in all territories except Puerto Rico. Since the late 20th century, American English has become the most influential form of English worldwide.
Varieties of American English include many patterns of pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and particularly spelling that are unified nationwide but distinct from other forms of English around the world. Any American or Canadian accent perceived as lacking noticeably local, ethnic, or cultural markers is known in linguistics as General American; it covers a fairly uniform accent continuum native to certain regions of the U.S. but especially associated with broadcast mass media and highly educated speech. However, historical and present linguistic evidence does not support the notion of there being one single mainstream American accent. The sound of American English continues to evolve, with some local accents disappearing, but several larger regional accents having emerged in the 20th century.
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American English
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History
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History
The use of English in the United States is a result of British colonization of the Americas. The first wave of English-speaking settlers arrived in North America during the early 17th century, followed by further migrations in the 18th and 19th centuries. During the 17th and 18th centuries, dialects from many different regions of England and the British Isles existed in every American colony, allowing a process of extensive dialect leveling and mixing in which English varieties across the Thirteen Colonies became more homogeneous compared with the varieties in the British Isles. English thus predominated in the colonies even by the end of the 17th century's first immigration of non-English speakers from Western Europe and Africa.
Firsthand descriptions of a fairly uniform American English (particularly in contrast to the diverse regional dialects of British English) became common after the mid-18th century, while at the same time speakers' identification with this new variety increased.
Since the 18th century, American English has developed into some new varieties, including regional dialects that retain minor influences from waves of immigrant speakers of diverse languages, primarily European languages.Hickey, R. (2014). Dictionary of varieties of English. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 25.
Some racial and regional variation in American English reflects these groups' geographic settlement, their de jure or de facto segregation, and patterns in their resettlement. This can be seen, for example, in the influence of 18th-century Protestant Ulster Scots immigrants (known in the U.S. as the Scotch-Irish) in Appalachia developing Appalachian English and the 20th-century Great Migration bringing African-American Vernacular English to the Great Lakes urban centers.Mufwene, Salikoko S. (1999). "North American Varieties of English as Byproducts of Population Contacts." The Workings of Language: From Prescriptions to Perspectives. Ed. Rebecca Wheeler Westport, CT: Praeger, 15–37.
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American English
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Phonology
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Phonology
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American English
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General American
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General American
Most American English accents fall under an umbrella known as General American. Rather than one particular accent, General American is a spectrum of those American accents that Americans themselves do not associate with some particular region, ethnicity, or socioeconomic group. General American features are used most by Americans in formal contexts or who are highly educated. Regional accents whose native features are perceived as General American include the accents of the North Midland (parts of the Midwest), Western New England, and the West.
The General American sound system's scope of influence and degree of expansion has been debated by linguists since the term was first used roughly a century ago. Many late-20th and early-21st century studies are showing that it is gradually ousting the regional accents in urban areas of the South and the interior North, New York City, Philadelphia, and many other areas. It can generally be said that younger Americans are avoiding their traditional local features in favor of this more nationwide norm. Furthermore, even General American itself appears to be evolving, with linguists identifying new features in speakers born since the last quarter of the 20th century, like a merger of the low-back vowels and a potentially related vowel shift, that are spreading across the nation.
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American English
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Phonological features
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Phonological features
Phonological (accent) features that are typical of American dialects—in contrast to British dialects—include features that concern consonants, such as rhoticity (pronunciation of all historical sounds), T and D flapping (with metal and medal pronounced the same, as ), velarization of L in all contexts (with filling pronounced , not ), and yod-dropping after alveolar consonants (with new pronounced , not ). Like many British accents, T glottalization is the norm in American accents, though only in particular environments (with satin pronounced , not ).
American features that concern vowel sounds include various vowel mergers before (so that Mary, marry, and merry are all commonly pronounced the same), raising and gliding of pre-nasal (with man having a higher and tenser vowel sound than map), the weak vowel merger (with affecting and effecting often pronounced the same), and at least one of the vowel mergers. Specifically, the – merger is complete among most Americans and the – merger among roughly half. A three-way –– merger is also very common. Most Americans pronounce the diphthong before a voiceless consonant different from that same vowel before a voiced consonant: thus, in price and bright versus in prize and bride. For many, outside the South, the first element of the diphthong is a higher and shorter vowel sound when in pre-voiceless position as opposed to pre-voiced position. All of these phenomena are explained in further detail under General American.
Studies on historical usage of English in both the United States and the United Kingdom suggest that, while spoken American English deviated away from period British English in many ways, it is conservative in a few other ways, preserving certain features 20th- and 21st-century British English has since lost: namely, rhoticity. Unlike American accents, the traditional standard accent of (southern) England has evolved a trap–bath split. Moreover, American accents preserve at the start of syllables, while perhaps a majority of the regional dialects of England participate in /h/ dropping, particularly in informal contexts.
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American English
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Vocabulary
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Vocabulary
The process of coining new lexical items started as soon as English-speaking colonists in North America began borrowing names for unfamiliar flora, fauna, and topography from the Native American languages. Examples of such names are opossum, raccoon, squash, moose (from Algonquian), wigwam, and moccasin. American English speakers have integrated traditionally non-English terms and expressions into the mainstream cultural lexicon; for instance, en masse, from French; cookie, from Dutch; kindergarten from German, and rodeo from Spanish. Landscape features are often loanwords from French or Spanish, and the word corn, used in England to refer to wheat (or any cereal), came to denote the maize plant, the most important crop in the U.S.
Other common differences between UK and American English include: aerial (UK) vs. antenna, biscuit (UK) vs. cookie/cracker, car park (UK) vs. parking lot, caravan (UK) vs. trailer, city centre (UK) vs. downtown, flat (UK) vs. apartment, fringe (UK; for hair hanging over the forehead) vs. bangs, and holiday (UK) vs. vacation.
Most Mexican Spanish contributions came after the War of 1812, with the opening of the West, like ranch (now a common house style). Due to Mexican culinary influence, many Spanish words are incorporated in general use when talking about certain popular dishes: cilantro (instead of coriander), queso, tacos, quesadillas, enchiladas, tostadas, fajitas, burritos, and guacamole. These words usually lack an English equivalent and are found in popular restaurants. New forms of dwelling created new terms (lot, waterfront) and types of homes like log cabin, adobe in the 18th century; apartment, shanty in the 19th century; project, condominium, townhouse, mobile home in the 20th century; and parts thereof (driveway, breezeway, backyard). Industry and material innovations from the 19th century onwards provide distinctive new words, phrases, and idioms through railroading (see further at rail terminology) and transportation terminology, ranging from types of roads (dirt roads, freeways) to infrastructure (parking lot, overpass, rest area), to automotive terminology often now standard in English internationally.A few of these are now chiefly found, or have been more productive, outside the U.S.; for example, jump, "to drive past a traffic signal"; block meaning "building", and center, "central point in a town" or "main area for a particular activity" (cf. Oxford English Dictionary). Already existing English words—such as store, shop, lumber—underwent shifts in meaning; others remained in the U.S. while changing in Britain. Science, urbanization, and democracy have been important factors in bringing about changes in the written and spoken language of the United States. From the world of business and finance came new terms (merger, downsize, bottom line), from sports and gambling terminology came, specific jargon aside, common everyday American idioms, including many idioms related to baseball. The names of some American inventions remained largely confined to North America (elevator [except in the aeronautical sense], gasoline) as did certain automotive terms (truck, trunk).
New foreign loanwords came with 19th and early 20th century European immigration to the U.S.; notably, from Yiddish (chutzpah, schmooze, bupkis, glitch) and German (hamburger, wiener). A large number of English colloquialisms from various periods are American in origin; some have lost their American flavor (from OK and cool to nerd and 24/7), while others have not (have a nice day, for sure); many are now distinctly old-fashioned (swell, groovy). Some English words now in general use, such as hijacking, disc jockey, boost, bulldoze and jazz, originated as American slang.
American English has always shown a marked tendency to use words in different parts of speech and nouns are often used as verbs. Examples of nouns that are now also verbs are interview, advocate, vacuum, lobby, pressure, rear-end, transition, feature, profile, hashtag, head, divorce, loan, estimate, X-ray, spearhead, skyrocket, showcase, bad-mouth, vacation, major, and many others. Compounds coined in the U.S. are for instance foothill, landslide (in all senses), backdrop, teenager, brainstorm, bandwagon, hitchhike, smalltime, and a huge number of others. Other compound words have been founded based on industrialization and the wave of the automobile: five-passenger car, four-door sedan, two-door sedan, and station-wagon (called an estate car in British English). Some are euphemistic (human resources, affirmative action, correctional facility). Many compound nouns have the verb-and-preposition combination: stopover, lineup, tryout, spin-off, shootout, holdup, hideout, comeback, makeover, and many more. Some prepositional and phrasal verbs are in fact of American origin (win out, hold up, back up/off/down/out, face up to and many others).British author George Orwell (in English People, 1947, cited in OED s.v. lose) criticized an alleged "American tendency" to "burden every verb with a preposition that adds nothing to its meaning (win out, lose out, face up to, etc.)".
Noun endings such as -ee (retiree), -ery (bakery), -ster (gangster) and -cian (beautician) are also particularly productive in the U.S. Several verbs ending in -ize are of U.S. origin; for example, fetishize, prioritize, burglarize, accessorize, weatherize, etc.; and so are some back-formations (locate, fine-tune, curate, donate, emote, upholster and enthuse). Among syntactic constructions that arose are outside of, headed for, meet up with, back of, etc. Americanisms formed by alteration of some existing words include notably pesky, phony, rambunctious, buddy, sundae, skeeter, sashay and kitty-corner. Adjectives that arose in the U.S. are, for example, lengthy, bossy, cute and cutesy, punk (in all senses), sticky (of the weather), through (as in "finished"), and many colloquial forms such as peppy or wacky.
A number of words and meanings that originated in Middle English or Early Modern English and that have been in everyday use in the United States have since disappeared in most varieties of British English; some of these have cognates in Lowland Scots. Terms such as fall ("autumn"), faucet ("tap"), diaper ("nappy"; itself unused in the U.S.), candy ("sweets"), skillet, eyeglasses, and obligate are often regarded as Americanisms. Fall, however, came to denote the season in 16th century England, a contraction of Middle English expressions like "fall of the leaf" and "fall of the year". Gotten (past participle of get) is often considered to be largely an Americanism.A Handbook of Varieties of English, Bernd Kortmann & Edgar W. Schneider, Walter de Gruyter, 2004, p. 115. Other words and meanings were brought back to Britain from the U.S., especially in the second half of the 20th century; these include hire ("to employ"), I guess (famously criticized by H. W. Fowler), baggage, hit (a place), and the adverbs overly and presently ("currently"). Some of these, for example, monkey wrench and wastebasket, originated in 19th century Britain. The adjectives mad meaning "angry", smart meaning "intelligent", and sick meaning "ill" are also more frequent in American (and Irish) English than British English.
Linguist Bert Vaux created a survey, completed in 2003, polling English speakers across the United States about their specific everyday word choices, hoping to identify regionalisms.Vaux, Bert and Scott Golder. 2003. The Harvard Dialect Survey . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Linguistics Department. The study found that most Americans prefer the term sub for a long sandwich, soda (but pop in the Great Lakes region and generic coke in the South) for a sweet and bubbly soft drink,Katz, Joshua (2013). "Beyond 'Soda, Pop, or Coke. North Carolina State University. you or you guys for the plural of you (but y'all in the South), sneakers for athletic shoes (but often tennis shoes outside the Northeast), and shopping cart for a cart used for carrying supermarket goods.
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American English
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Grammar and orthography
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Grammar and orthography
American English and British English (BrE) differ in somewhat minor ways in their grammar and writing conventions. The first large American dictionary, An American Dictionary of the English Language, known as Webster's Dictionary, was written by Noah Webster in 1828, codifying several of these spellings.
Differences in grammar are relatively minor, and do not normally affect mutual intelligibility; these include: typically a lack of differentiation between adjectives and adverbs, employing the equivalent adjectives as adverbs he ran quick/he ran quickly; different use of some auxiliary verbs; formal (rather than notional) agreement with collective nouns; different preferences for the past forms of a few verbs (for example, AmE/BrE: learned/learnt, burned/burnt, snuck/sneaked, dove/dived) although the purportedly "British" forms can occasionally be seen in American English writing as well; different prepositions and adverbs in certain contexts (for example, AmE in school, BrE at school); and whether or not a definite article is used, in very few cases (AmE to the hospital, BrE to hospital; contrast, however, AmE actress Elizabeth Taylor, BrE the actress Elizabeth Taylor). Often, these differences are a matter of relative preferences rather than absolute rules; and most are not stable since the two varieties are constantly influencing each other,Algeo, John (2006). British or American English?. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. . and American English is not a standardized set of dialects.
Differences in orthography are also minor. The main differences are that American English usually uses spellings such as flavor for British flavour, fiber for fibre, defense for defence, analyze for analyse, license for licence, catalog for catalogue and traveling for travelling. Noah Webster popularized such spellings in America, but he did not invent most of them. Rather, "he chose already existing options on such grounds as simplicity, analogy or etymology."Algeo, John. "The Effects of the Revolution on Language", in A Companion to the American Revolution. John Wiley & Sons, 2008. p.599 Other differences are due to the francophile tastes of the 19th century Victorian era Britain (for example they preferred programme for program, manoeuvre for maneuver, cheque for check, etc.).Peters, Pam (2004). The Cambridge Guide to English Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. , pp. 34 and 511. AmE almost always uses -ize in words like realize. BrE prefers -ise, but also uses -ize on occasion (see: Oxford spelling).
There are a few differences in punctuation rules. British English is more tolerant of run-on sentences, called "comma splices" in American English, and American English prefers that periods and commas be placed inside closing quotation marks even in cases in which British rules would place them outside. American English also favors the double quotation mark ("like this") over the single ('as here').
AmE sometimes favors words that are morphologically more complex, whereas BrE uses clipped forms, such as AmE transportation and BrE transport or where the British form is a back-formation, such as AmE burglarize and BrE burgle (from burglar). However, while individuals usually use one or the other, both forms will be widely understood and mostly used alongside each other within the two systems.
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American English
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Subvarieties
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Subvarieties
While written American English is largely standardized across the country and spoken American English dialects are highly mutually intelligible, there are still several recognizable regional and ethnic accents, alongside mostly minor distinctions in vocabulary, grammatical structures, and other features.
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American English
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Regional accents
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Regional accents
The regional sounds of present-day American English are reportedly engaged in a complex phenomenon of "both convergence and divergence": some accents are homogenizing and leveling, while others are diversifying and deviating further away from one another. In 2010, William Labov noted that Great Lakes, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and West Coast accents have undergone "vigorous new sound changes" since the mid-nineteenth century onwards, so they "are now more different from each other than they were 50 or 100 years ago", while other accents, like those of New York City and Boston, have remained stable in that same timeframe.
Having been settled longer than the American West Coast, the East Coast has had more time to develop unique accents, and it currently comprises three or four linguistically significant regions, each of which possesses English varieties both different from each other as well as quite internally diverse: New England, the Mid-Atlantic states (including a New York accent as well as a unique Philadelphia–Baltimore accent), and the South. As of the 20th century, the middle and eastern Great Lakes area, Chicago being the largest city with these speakers, also ushered in certain unique features, including the fronting of the vowel in the mouth toward and tensing of the vowel wholesale to . These sound changes have triggered a series of other vowel shifts in the same region, known by linguists as the "Inland North". The Inland North shares with the Eastern New England dialect (including Boston accents) a backer tongue positioning of the vowel (to ) and the vowel (to ) in comparison to the rest of the country. Ranging from northern New England across the Great Lakes to Minnesota, another Northern regional marker is the variable fronting of before , for example, appearing four times in the stereotypical Boston shibboleth Park the car in Harvard Yard.
thumb|upright=1.15|The red dots show every U.S. metropolitan area where over 50% non-rhotic speech was documented among some of that area's white speakers in the 1990s. Non-rhoticity may be heard among black speakers throughout the whole country.Labov, p. 48.
Several other phenomena serve to distinguish regional U.S. accents. Boston, Pittsburgh, Upper Midwestern, and Western U.S. accents have fully completed a merger of the vowel with the vowel ( and , respectively): a cot–caught merger, which is rapidly spreading throughout the whole country. However, the South, Inland North, and a Northeastern coastal corridor passing through Rhode Island, New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore typically preserve an older cot–caught distinction. For that Northeastern corridor, the realization of the vowel is particularly marked, as depicted in humorous spellings, like in tawk and cawfee (talk and coffee), which intend to represent it being tense and diphthongal: . A split of into two separate phonemes, using different a pronunciations for example in gap versus gas , further defines New York City as well as Philadelphia–Baltimore accents.
Most Americans preserve all historical sounds, using what is known as a rhotic accent. The only traditional r-dropping (or non-rhoticity) in regional U.S. accents variably appears today in eastern New England, New York City, and some of the former plantation South primarily among older speakers (and, relatedly, some African-American Vernacular English across the country), though the vowel-consonant cluster found in "bird", "work", "hurt", "learn", etc. usually retains its r pronunciation, even in these non-rhotic American accents. Non-rhoticity among such speakers is presumed to have arisen from their upper classes' close historical contact with England, imitating London's r-dropping, a feature that has continued to gain prestige throughout England from the late 18th century onwards, but which has conversely lost prestige in the U.S. since at least the early 20th century. Non-rhoticity makes a word like car sound like cah or source like sauce.
New York City and Southern accents are the most widely recognized regional accents in the country, as well as the most stigmatized and socially disfavored. Southern speech, strongest in southern Appalachia and certain areas of Texas, is often identified by Americans as a "country" accent,Hayes, 2013, p. 51. and is defined by the vowel losing its gliding quality: , the initiation event for a complicated Southern vowel shift, including a "Southern drawl" that makes short front vowels into distinct-sounding gliding vowels. The fronting of the vowels of , , , and tends to also define Southern accents as well as the accents spoken in the "Midland": a vast band of the country that constitutes an intermediate dialect region between the traditional North and South. Western U.S. accents mostly fall under the General American spectrum.
Below, ten major American English accents are defined by their particular combinations of certain vowel sounds:
Accent name Most populous city Strong fronting Strong fronting Strong fronting Strong fronting Cot–caught merger Pin–pen merger /æ/ raising system General American pre-nasal Inland Northern Chicago general Midland Indianapolis pre-nasal New York City New York City split North-Central (Upper Midwestern) Minneapolis pre-nasal & pre-velar Boston pre-nasal Philadelphia/Baltimore Philadelphia split Southern San Antonio Southern Western Los Angeles pre-nasal Western Pennsylvania Pittsburgh pre-nasal
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American English
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Other varieties
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Other varieties
Although no longer region-specific, African-American Vernacular English, which remains the native variety of most working- and middle-class African Americans, has a close relationship to Southern dialects and has greatly influenced everyday speech of many Americans, including hip hop culture. Hispanic and Latino Americans have also developed native-speaker varieties of English. The best-studied Latino Englishes are Chicano English, spoken in the West and Midwest, and New York Latino English, spoken in the New York metropolitan area. Additionally, ethnic varieties such as Yeshiva English and "Yinglish" are spoken by some American Orthodox Jews, Cajun Vernacular English by some Cajuns in southern Louisiana, and Pennsylvania Dutch English by some Pennsylvania Dutch people. American Indian Englishes have been documented among diverse Indian tribes. The island state of Hawaii, though primarily English-speaking, is also home to a creole language known commonly as Hawaiian Pidgin, and some Hawaii residents speak English with a Pidgin-influenced accent. American English also gave rise to some dialects outside the country, for example, Philippine English, beginning during the American occupation of the Philippines and subsequently the Insular Government of the Philippine Islands; Thomasites first established a variation of American English in these islands.
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American English
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Nationwide usage and status
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Nationwide usage and status
thumb|upright=2.1|Percentage of Americans aged 5+ speaking English at home in each Public Usage Microdata Area (PUMA) of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico according to the 2016–2021 five-year American Community Survey
thumb|upright=1.35 |alt=Map of United States Official Language Status By State|Map of U.S. official language status by state.
In 2021, about 245 million Americans, aged 5 or above, spoke English at home: a majority of the United States total population of roughly 330 million people.
Of the 50 states, 32 have adopted legislation granting official (or co-official) status to English within their jurisdictions, in some cases as part of what has been called the English-only movement."Official English". U.S. English, 2022. Typically only "English" is specified, not a particular variety like American English. (From 1923 to 1969, the state of Illinois recognized its official language as "American", meaning American English.)
While English has always been the language used at the federal and state levels, no official language had been designated at the federal level before 2025, when English was made the official language of the United States by Executive Order 14224.
Puerto Rico is the only United States territory in which another language – Spanish – is the common language at home, in public, and in government.
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American English
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See also
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See also
American and British English spelling differences
Canadian English
Dictionary of American Regional English
International English
Sound correspondences between English accents
International Phonetic Alphabet chart for the English Language
List of English words from Indigenous languages of the Americas
Phonological history of English
Regional accents of English
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American English
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Notes
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Notes
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American English
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References
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References
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American English
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Bibliography
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Bibliography
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American English
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Further reading
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Further reading
Bailey, Richard W. (2012). Speaking American: A History of English in the United States 20th–21st-century usage in different cities
Garner, Bryan A. (2003). Garner's Modern American Usage. New York: Oxford University Press.
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American English
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History of American English
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History of American English
Bailey, Richard W. (2004). "American English: Its origins and history". In E. Finegan & J. R. Rickford (Eds.), Language in the USA: Themes for the twenty-first century (pp. 3–17). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Finegan, Edward. (2006). "English in North America". In R. Hogg & D. Denison (Eds.), A history of the English language (pp. 384–419). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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American English
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External links
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External links
Do You Speak American: PBS special
Dialect Survey of the United States, by Bert Vaux et al., Harvard University.
Linguistic Atlas Projects
Phonological Atlas of North America at the University of Pennsylvania
Speech Accent Archive
Dictionary of American Regional English
Dialect maps based on pronunciation
Category:Dialects of English
Category:North American English
Category:Languages attested from the 17th century
Category:17th-century establishments in North America
Category:English language in the United States
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American English
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Table of Content
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Short description, History, Phonology, General American, Phonological features, Vocabulary, Grammar and orthography, Subvarieties, Regional accents, Other varieties, Nationwide usage and status, See also, Notes, References, Bibliography, Further reading, History of American English, External links
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Albert Spalding
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Short description
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thumb|Albert Spalding on a 1871 Boston Red Stockings baseball card.
Albert Goodwill Spalding (September 2, 1849 – September 9, 1915) was an American pitcher, manager, and executive in the early years of professional baseball, and the co-founder of the Spalding sporting goods company. He was born and raised in Byron, Illinois, yet graduated from Rockford Central High School in Rockford, Illinois. He played major league baseball between 1871 and 1878. Spalding set a trend when he started wearing a baseball glove.
After his retirement as a player, Spalding remained active with the Chicago White Stockings as president and part-owner. In the 1880s, he took players on the first world tour of baseball. With William Hulbert, Spalding organized the National League. He later called for the commission that investigated the origins of baseball and falsely credited Abner Doubleday with creating the game.
He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939.
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Albert Spalding
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Baseball career
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Baseball career
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Albert Spalding
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Player
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Player
Having played baseball throughout his youth, Spalding first played competitively with the Rockford Pioneers, a youth team, which he joined in 1865. After pitching his team to a 26–2 victory over a local men's amateur team (the Mercantiles), he was approached at the age of 15 by the Rockford Forest Citys, for whom he played for five years. Following the formation of baseball's first professional organization, the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (which became known as the National Association, the Association, or NA) in 1871, Spalding joined the Boston Red Stockings (precursor club to the modern Atlanta Braves) and was highly successful; winning 206 games (and losing only 53) as a pitcher and batting .323 as a hitter.
William Hulbert, principal owner of the Chicago White Stockings, did not like the loose organization of the National Association and the gambling element that influenced it, so he decided to create a new organization, which he dubbed the National League of Baseball Clubs. To aid him in this venture, Hulbert enlisted the help of Spalding. Playing to the pitcher's desire to return to his Midwestern roots and challenging Spalding's integrity, Hulbert convinced Spalding to sign a contract to play for the White Stockings (now known as the Chicago Cubs) in 1876. Spalding then coaxed teammates Deacon White, Ross Barnes and Cal McVey, as well as Philadelphia Athletics players Cap Anson and Bob Addy, to sign with Chicago. This was all done under complete secrecy during the playing season because players were all free agents in those days and they did not want their current club and especially the fans to know they were leaving to play elsewhere the next year. News of the signings by the Boston and Philadelphia players leaked to the press before the season ended and all of them faced verbal abuse and physical threats from the fans of those cities.
He was "the premier pitcher of the 1870s", leading the league in victories for each of his six full seasons as a professional. During each of those years he was his team's only pitcher. In 1876, Spalding won 47 games as the prime pitcher for the White Stockings and led them to win the first-ever National League pennant by a wide margin.
In 1877, Spalding began to use a glove to protect his catching hand. People had used gloves previously, but they were not popular, and Spalding himself was skeptical of wearing one at first. However, once he began donning gloves, he influenced other players to do so.
Spalding retired from playing baseball in 1878 at the age of 27, although he continued as president and part owner of the White Stockings and a major influence on the National League. Spalding's .796 career winning percentage (from an era when teams played about once or twice a week) is the highest ever by a baseball pitcher, .058 ahead of Negro league star Dave Brown's .738.Major league pitcher statistics at Baseball Reference Spalding was the first pitcher to reach 200 wins.
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Albert Spalding
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Organizer and executive
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Organizer and executive
In the months after signing for Chicago, Hulbert and Spalding organized the National League by enlisting the two major teams in the East and the four other top teams in what was then considered to be the West, also known as the jungle. Joining Chicago initially were the leading teams from Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis. The owners of these western clubs accompanied Hulbert and Spalding to New York where they secretly met with owners from New York City, Philadelphia, Hartford, and Boston. Each signed the league's constitution, and the National League was officially born. "Spalding was thus involved in the transformation of baseball from a game of gentlemen athletes into a business and a professional sport." Although the National Association held on for a few more seasons, it was no longer recognized as the premier organization for professional baseball. Gradually, it faded out of existence and was replaced by myriad minor leagues and associations around the country.
In 1886, with Spalding as president of the franchise, the Chicago White Stockings (today's Chicago Cubs), began holding spring training in Hot Springs, Arkansas, which subsequently has been called the "birthplace" of spring training baseball. The location and the training concept was the brainchild of Spalding and his player/manager Cap Anson, who saw that the city and the natural springs created positives for their players. They first played in an area called the Hot Springs Baseball Grounds. Many other teams followed the concept and began training in Hot Springs and other locations.
In 1905, after Henry Chadwick wrote an article saying that baseball grew from the British sports of cricket and rounders, Spalding called for a commission to find out the real source of baseball. The commission called for citizens who knew anything about the founding of baseball to send in letters. After three years of searching, on December 30, 1907, Spalding received a letter that (erroneously) declared baseball to be the invention of Abner Doubleday. The commission was biased, as Spalding would not appoint anyone to the commission if they believed the sport was somewhat related to rounders or cricket. Just before the commission issued its findings, in a letter to sportswriter Tim Murnane, Spalding noted, "Our good old American game of baseball must have an American Dad." The project, later called the Mills Commission, concluded that "Base Ball had its origins in the United States" and "the first scheme for playing baseball, according to the best evidence available to date, was devised by Abner Doubleday at Cooperstown, N.Y., in 1839."
Receiving the archives of Henry Chadwick in 1908, Spalding combined these records with his own memories (and biases) to write America's National Game (published 1911) which, despite its flaws, was probably the first scholarly account of the history of baseball.
In 1912, Spalding wrote "Neither our wives, our sisters, our daughters, our sweethearts, may play Base Ball on the field... they may play Basket Ball, and achieve laurels; they may play Golf, and receive trophies, but Base Ball is too strenuous for womankind, except as she may take part in grandstands, with applause for the brilliant play, with waiving kerchief to the hero of the three-bagger."Playing America's Game, by Adrian Burgos Jr.
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Albert Spalding
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Businessman
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Businessman
In 1876 while Spalding was playing and organizing the league, Spalding and his brother Walter began a sporting goods store in Chicago, which grew rapidly (14 stores by 1901) and expanded into a manufacturer and distributor of all kinds of sporting equipment. The company became "synonymous with sporting goods" and is still a going concern.
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Albert Spalding
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Spalding Athletic Library
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Spalding Athletic Library
Spalding, from 1892Library of Congress. Retrieved Oct. 23, 2020 to 1941, sold books under the name Spalding Athletic Library on many different sports.
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Albert Spalding
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World Tour
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World Tour
In 1888–1889, Spalding took a group of major league players around the world to promote baseball and Spalding sporting goods. This was the first-ever world baseball tour. Playing across the western U.S., the tour made stops in Hawaii (although no game was played), New Zealand, Australia, Ceylon, Egypt, Italy, France, and England. The tour returned to grand receptions in New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago. The tour included future Hall of Famers Cap Anson and John Montgomery Ward.
The tour was also touted by Spalding as a launching point for baseball to reach the global stage. At a celebratory dinner in Manhattan, he celebrated the tour – perhaps prematurely – for establishing “our national game throughout the world.” Following Spalding's statements, Mark Twain proclaimed that the tour “carried the American name to the outermost parts of the earth, and covered it with glory every time.”
While Spalding and company gushed about their schlep around the world, waxing lyrical about baseball's future as a global sport, in reality, the tour had very little impact on the sport's hold overseas. Sports like soccer, rugby, and cricket had already been established in many other countries due to the presence of European imperialism so baseball had a difficult time gaining popularity in these regions. While baseball did reach a wider global audience, it was due to a larger scale diffusion of the sport rather than the efforts of one magnate, like Spalding envisioned.
While the players were on the tour, the National League instituted new rules regarding player pay that led to a revolt of players, led by Ward, who started the Players' League the following season (1890). The league lasted one year, partially due to the anti-competitive tactics of Spalding to limit its success. The tour and formation of the Player's League is depicted in the 2015 movie Deadball.
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Albert Spalding
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1900 Olympics
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1900 Olympics
In 1900 Spalding was appointed by President McKinley as the USA's Commissioner at that year's Summer Olympic Games.
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Albert Spalding
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Other activities
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Other activities
Spalding had been a prominent member of the Theosophical Society under William Quan Judge. In 1900, Spalding moved to San Diego having recently married his second wife, Elizabeth and became a prominent member and supporter of the Theosophical community Lomaland, which was being developed on Point Loma by Katherine Tingley. He built an estate in the Sunset Cliffs area of Point Loma where he lived with Elizabeth for the rest of his life. The Spaldings raised race horses and collected Chinese fine furniture and art.
The Spaldings had an extensive library which included many volumes on Theosophy, art, and literature. In 1907–1909 he was the driving force behind the development of a paved road, known as the "Point Loma boulevard," from downtown San Diego to Point Loma and Ocean Beach; the road also provided good access to Lomaland. It later provided the basis for California State Route 209. He proposed the project, supervised it on behalf of the city, and paid a portion of the cost out of his own pocket. He joined with George Marston and other civic-minded businessmen to purchase the site of the original Presidio of San Diego, which they developed as a historic park and eventually donated to the city of San Diego. He ran unsuccessfully for the United States Senate in 1911 as a Republican, but lost to eventual winner John D. Works by a vote of 92–21 in the California legislature. He helped to organize the 1915 Panama–California Exposition, serving as second vice-president.
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Albert Spalding
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Death
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Death
He died of a stroke on September 9, 1915, in San Diego, one week after his 66th birthday. His ashes were scattered at his request.
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Albert Spalding
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Legacy
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Legacy
He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1939, as one of the first inductees from the 19th century at that summer's opening ceremonies. His plaque in the Hall of Fame reads "Albert Goodwill Spalding. Organizational genius of baseball's pioneer days. Star pitcher of Forest City Club in late 1860s, 4-year champion Bostons 1871–75 and manager-pitcher of champion Chicagos in National League's first year. Chicago president for 10 years. Organizer of baseball's first round-the-world tour in 1888."
His nephew, also named Albert Spalding, was a renowned violinist.
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Albert Spalding
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See also
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See also
List of Major League Baseball career wins leaders
List of Major League Baseball annual wins leaders
List of Major League Baseball annual ERA leaders
List of Major League Baseball player-managers
Major League Baseball titles leaders
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Albert Spalding
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References
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References
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Albert Spalding
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Further reading
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Further reading
Bales, Jack (2019). Before They Were the Cubs: The Early Years of Chicago’s First Professional Baseball Team. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
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Albert Spalding
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External links
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External links
Official webpage of Spalding's company
Category:Baseball executives
Category:Sports equipment makers
Category:1849 births
Category:1915 deaths
Category:19th-century baseball players
Category:19th-century American sportsmen
Category:American Theosophists
Category:Baseball players from Rockford, Illinois
Category:Boston Red Stockings players
Category:Chicago White Stockings (original) managers
Category:Chicago White Stockings players
Category:Major League Baseball pitchers
Category:Major League Baseball player-managers
Category:National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees
Category:National League (baseball) wins champions
Category:Point Loma, San Diego
Category:People from Byron, Illinois
Category:Rockford Forest Citys (NABBP) players
Category:Chicago Cubs owners
Category:American company founders
Category:Presidents of the United States Olympic Committee
Category:Baseball players from San Diego
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Albert Spalding
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Table of Content
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Short description, Baseball career, Player, Organizer and executive, Businessman, Spalding Athletic Library, World Tour, 1900 Olympics, Other activities, Death, Legacy, See also, References, Further reading, External links
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Africa Alphabet
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Short description
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The Africa Alphabet (also International African Alphabet or IAI alphabet) is a set of letters designed as the basis for Latin alphabets for the languages of Africa. It was initially developed in 1928 by the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures from a combination of the English alphabet and the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Development was assisted by native speakers of African languages and led by Diedrich Hermann Westermann, who served as director of the organization from 1926 to 1939. The aim of the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures, later renamed the International African Institute (IAI), was to enable people to write for practical and scientific purposes in all African languages without the need of diacritics.
The Africa Alphabet influenced the development of orthographies of many African languages, serving "as the basis for the transcription" of about 60 by one count. Discussion of how to harmonize these with other systems led to several largely abortive proposals such as the African Reference Alphabet and the World Orthography.
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Africa Alphabet
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Overview
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Overview
The Africa Alphabet was built from the consonant letters of the English alphabet and the vowel letters, and any additional consonants, of the IPA. Capital forms of IPA letters were invented as necessary. Thus J and Y are pronounced and as in English, while Ɔ, Ɛ and Ŋ are pronounced , and as in the IPA.
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Africa Alphabet
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Characters
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Characters
+International African Alphabet
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Africa Alphabet
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See also
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See also
African Reference Alphabet
Latin-script alphabet
Dinka alphabet
ISO 6438
Pan-Nigerian alphabet
Lepsius Standard Alphabet
Writing systems of Africa
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Africa Alphabet
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Notes
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Notes
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Africa Alphabet
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References
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References
Category:Latin alphabets
Category:Writing systems of Africa
Category:Writing systems introduced in 1928
Category:Orthography
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Africa Alphabet
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Table of Content
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Short description, Overview, Characters, See also, Notes, References
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Acquire
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short description
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Acquire is a board game published by 3M in 1964 that involves multi-player mergers and acquisitions. It was one of the most popular games in the 3M Bookshelf games series published in the 1960s, and the only one still published in the United States.
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Acquire
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Description
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Description
Acquire is a board game for 2–6 players in which players attempt to earn the most money by developing and merging hotel chains. When a chain in which a player owns stock is acquired by a larger chain, players earn money based on the size of the acquired chain. At the end of the game, all players liquidate their stock in order to determine which player has the most money. It is played with play money, stock certificates, and tiles representing hotels that are arranged on the board. The components of the game have varied over the years. In particular, the tiles have been made from wood, plastic, and cardboard in various editions of the game.
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Acquire
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Set up
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Set up
Before play begins, the players must decide whether the numbers of players' shares will be public or private information. Keeping this information private can greatly extend the game since players will be less certain of their status, and therefore less willing to end the game.
Each player receives play cash and a small random set of playing tiles and becomes the founder of a nascent hotel chain by drawing and placing a tile representing a hotel on the board. Tiles are ordered, and correspond to spaces on the board. Position of the starting tiles determines order of play.
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Acquire
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Gameplay
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Gameplay
Play consists of placing a tile on the board and optionally buying stock. The placed tile may found a new hotel chain, grow an existing one or merge two or more chains. Chains are sets of edge-wise adjacent tiles. Founders receive a share of stock in new chains. A chain can become "safe", immune to acquisition, by attaining a specified size. Following placement of a tile, the player may then buy a limited number of shares of stock in existing chains. Shares have a market value determined by the size and stature of the hotel chain. At the end of his or her turn, the player receives a new tile to replace the one played.
When mergers occur, the smaller chain becomes defunct, and its tiles are then part of the acquiring chain. The two largest shareholders in the acquired chain receive cash bonuses; players may sell their shares in the defunct chain, trade them in for shares of the acquiring chain, or keep them. Mergers between 3 or more chains are handled in order from larger to smaller.
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Acquire
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Ending the game
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Ending the game
A player during their turn may declare the game at an end if the largest chain exceeds a specified size (about 40% of the board), or all chains on the board are too large to be acquired. When the game ends, shareholder bonuses
are paid to the two largest shareholders of each chain, and players cash out their shares at market price (shares in any defunct chains are worthless). The player with the most money wins.
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Acquire
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Publication history
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Publication history
When Sid Sackson was a child, he played a Milton Bradley gambling-themed board game titled Lotto. When he became a game designer, Sackson reworked the game into a wargame he called Lotto War. In 1962, Sackson and Alex Randolph were commissioned by 3M to start a new games division. When Sackson submitted Lotto War to 3M the following year, he retitled the game Vacation. 3M suggested changing the name to Acquire, and Sackson agreed. The game was test marketed in several U.S. cities in 1963, and production began in 1964 as a part of the 3M Bookshelf games series.
In 1976, the 3M game division was sold to Avalon Hill and Acquire became part of their bookcase game series. Four years later, Avalon Hill published the computer game Computer Acquire for the PET, Apple II, and TRS-80.
thumb|Example of Acquire game play, Wizards of the Coast edition
In 1998, Avalon Hill became part of Hasbro. The new owners reissued a slightly revised version of Acquire in 2000, in which the hotel chains were replaced by fictitious corporations, though the actual gameplay was unchanged. Hasbro soon thereafter discontinued it. In the mid-2000s, the game was transferred to a Hasbro subsidiary, Wizards of the Coast (WotC). In 2008, WotC celebrated "50 years of Avalon Hill Games" with the release of a new edition of Acquire, although the game was not yet 50 years old. In 2016, the game was transferred back to the Hasbro games division and republished in 2016 under the Avalon label, with hotels chains reinstated.
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Acquire
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Reception
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Reception
In The Playboy Winner's Guide to Board Games, game designer Jon Freeman compared Cartel (A Gamut of Games) and Acquire, noting that both were "better games which focus on the joining of companies into conglomerates." Freeman thought Acquire had an edge over Cartel "in the quality of its components [...] Acquires higher price is unquestionably reflected in its packaging and presentation [and deserves] a place in your game library."
Games Magazine included Acquire in their "Top 100 Games" in four consecutive years:
In 1980 the editors praised it as a "classic game of getting in on the ground floor" and "proof that you need money to make money", noting that "a delicate sense of timing is important, but greed and a lust for power also help."
In 1981, the editors noted that it "combines the flavors of Monopoly and the stock market" and cautioned that "Since the object is to acquire cash, careful timing of investments (and raids on competitors' chains!) is critical to winning".
In 1982, the editors commented that "Among family games, this is one of the most strategic."
In 1983, the editors commented "Adding to chains increases their value, but you must anticipate mergers, which occur when someone plays the right connecting tile at the right time."
In the December 1993 edition of Dragon (Issue 200), Allen Varney advised readers to ignore the hotel theme: "Supposedly a game of hotel acquisitions and mergers, this is actually a superb abstract game of strategy and capital." Varney called the game "An early masterpiece from [Sid] Sackson, game historian and one of the great designers of our time."
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Acquire
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Awards
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Awards
The game was short-listed for the first Spiel des Jahres board game awards in 1979.Spiel des Jahres page for Acquire in German
GAMES magazine inducted Acquire into their buyers' guide Hall of Fame.GAMES Magazine Hall of Fame . Retrieved 2010-07-26 The magazine's stated criteria for the Hall of Fame encompasses "games that have met or exceeded the highest standards of quality and play value and have been continuously in production for at least 10 years; i.e., classics."
Acquire was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design's Hall of Fame, along with game designer Sid Sackson, in 2011.Origins Awards Hall of Fame for Acquire Academy Hall of Fame It is also one of the Mind Sports Olympiad games.
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Acquire
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Reviews
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Reviews
Jeux & Stratégie #1 (as "Trust")
Jeux & Stratégie #6
Jeux & Stratégie #51
Games & Puzzles #11
Games & Puzzles #69
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Acquire
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References
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References
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Acquire
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External links
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External links
Acquire Wizards of the Coast page
Acquire Webnoir page
"The Origin of ACQUIRE" Acquisition Games page
Category:3M bookshelf game series
Category:Avalon Hill games
Category:Board games introduced in 1964
Category:Economic simulation board games
Category:Multiplayer games
Category:Sid Sackson games
Category:Stock market in popular culture
Category:Tile-laying board games
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Acquire
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Table of Content
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short description, Description, Set up, Gameplay, Ending the game, Publication history, Reception, Awards, Reviews, References, External links
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Australian English
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Short description
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thumb|341x341px|The percentage of people who speak only the English language at home, 2021
Australian English (AusE, AusEng, AuE, AuEng, en-AU) is the set of varieties of the English language 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 the onset of British settlement, being the only language spoken in the home for 72% of Australians in 2021. 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, though its most significant influences were the dialects of South East England. By the 1820s, the native-born colonists' speech was recognisably distinct from speakers in Britain and Ireland.
Australian English differs from other varieties in its phonology, pronunciation, lexicon, idiom, grammar and spelling. 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.
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Australian English
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History
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History
Similar to early American English, Australian English passed through a process of extensive dialect levelling and mixing which produced a relatively homogeneous new variety of English which was easily understood by all.
The earliest Australian English was spoken by the first generation of native-born colonists in the Colony of New South Wales from the end of the 18th century. These native-born children were exposed to a wide range of dialects from across the British Isles. The dialects of South East England, including most notably the traditional Cockney dialect of London, were particularly influential on the development of the new variety and constituted "the major input of the various sounds that went into constructing" Australian English. All the other regions of England were represented among the early colonists. A large proportion of early convicts and colonists were from Ireland (comprising the 25% of the total convict population), and many of them spoke Irish as a sole or first language. They were joined by other non-native speakers of English from the Scottish Highlands and Wales. Peter Miller Cunningham's 1827 book Two Years in New South Wales described the distinctive accent and vocabulary that had developed among the native-born colonists.
The first of the Australian gold rushes in the 1850s began a large wave of immigration, during which about two percent of the population of the United Kingdom emigrated to the colonies of New South Wales and Victoria. The Gold Rushes brought immigrants and linguistic influences from many parts of the world. An example was the introduction of vocabulary from American English, including some terms later considered to be typically Australian, such as bushwhacker and squatter. This American influence was continued with the popularity of American films from the early 20th century and the influx of American military personnel that settled in Australia and New Zealand during World War II; seen in the enduring persistence of such universally-accepted terms as okay and guys.
The publication of Edward Ellis Morris's Austral English: A Dictionary Of Australasian Words, Phrases And Usages in 1898, which extensively catalogued Australian English vocabulary, started a wave of academic interest and codification during the 20th century which resulted in Australian English becoming established as an endonormative variety with its own internal norms and standards. This culminated in publications such as the 1981 first edition of the Macquarie Dictionary, a major English language dictionary based on Australian usage, and the 1988 first edition of The Australian National Dictionary, a historical dictionary documenting the history of Australian English vocabulary and idiom.
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Australian English
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Phonology and pronunciation
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Phonology and pronunciation
The most obvious way in which Australian English is distinctive from other varieties of English is through its unique pronunciation. It shares most similarity with New Zealand English.Trudgill, Peter and Jean Hannah. (2002). International English: A Guide to the Varieties of Standard English, 4th ed. London: Arnold. , p. 4. Like most dialects of English, it is distinguished primarily by the phonetic quality of its vowels.
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Australian English
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Vowels
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Vowels
thumb|right|Australian English monophthongs
thumb|right|Part 1 of Australian English diphthongs
thumb|right|Part 2 of Australian English diphthongs
The vowels of Australian English can be divided according to length. The long vowels, which include monophthongs and diphthongs, mostly correspond to the tense vowels used in analyses of Received Pronunciation (RP) as well as its centring diphthongs. The short vowels, consisting only of monophthongs, correspond to the RP lax vowels.
There exist pairs of long and short vowels with overlapping vowel quality giving Australian English phonemic length distinction, which is also present in some regional south-eastern dialects of the UK and eastern seaboard dialects in the US. An example of this feature is the distinction between ferry and fairy .
As with New Zealand English and General American English, the weak-vowel merger is complete in Australian English: unstressed is merged into (schwa), unless it is followed by a velar consonant. Examples of this feature are the following pairings, which are pronounced identically in Australian English: Rosa's and roses, as well as Lennon and Lenin. Other examples are the following pairs, which rhyme in Australian English: abbott with rabbit, and dig it with bigot.
Most varieties of Australian English exhibit only a partial trap-bath split. The words bath, grass and can't are always pronounced with the "long" of father. Throughout the majority of the country, the "flat" of man is the dominant pronunciation for the a vowel in the following words: dance, advance, plant, example and answer. The exception is the state of South Australia, where a more advanced trap-bath split is found, and where the dominant pronunciation of all the preceding words incorporates the "long" of father.
monophthongsdiphthongsshort vowelslong vowelsIPAexamplesIPAexamplesIPAexamplesfoot, hood, chookʉːThe vowel /ʉː/ is diphthongised in all the major Australian accents; in General Australian, the most widespread Australian accent, the vowel is pronounced as [ɪ̈ɯ]. See Australian English phonology for a more detailed analysis.goose, boo, who'dnear, beard, hearThe boundary between monophthongs and diphthongs is somewhat fluid: , for example, is commonly realised as , particularly in closed syllables, though also found in open syllables such as we're, here, and so on. In open syllables particularly, the pronunciation varies from the bisyllabic , through the diphthong , to the long vowel .ɪkit, bid, hid,The vowel /iː/ has an onset [ɪi̯], except before laterals. The onset is often lowered to [əi], so that "beat" is [bəit] for some speakers.fleece, bead, heatmouth, bowed, how'de/ɛdress, led, head/ɛːsquare, bared, hairedgoat, bode, hoedəcomma, about, winternurse, bird, heardface, bait, madetrap, lad, hadæːbad, sad, madprice, bite, hidestrut, bud, hudstart, palm, bathchoice, boy, oillot, cloth, hotoːthought, north, force
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Australian English
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Consonants
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Consonants
There is little variation in the sets of consonants used in different English dialects but there are variations in how these consonants are used. Australian English is no exception.
+ Australian English consonant phonemes Labial Dental Alveolar Post-alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal Nasal Plosive Affricate Fricative Approximant
Australian English is uniformly non-rhotic; that is, the sound does not appear at the end of a syllable or immediately before a consonant. As with many non-rhotic dialects, linking can occur when a word that has a final in the spelling comes before another word that starts with a vowel. An intrusive may similarly be inserted before a vowel in words that do not have in the spelling in certain environments, namely after the long vowel and after word final . This can be heard in "law-r-and order", where an intrusive R is voiced between the AW and the A.
As with North American English, intervocalic alveolar flapping is a feature of Australian English: prevocalic and surface as the alveolar tap after sonorants other than as well as at the end of a word or morpheme before any vowel in the same breath group. Examples of this feature are that the following pairs are pronounced similarly or identically: latter and ladder, as well as rated and raided.
Yod-dropping generally occurs after , , , but not after , and . Accordingly, suit is pronounced as , lute as , Zeus as and enthusiasm as . Other cases of and , as well as and , have coalesced to , , and respectively for many speakers. is generally retained in other consonant clusters.
In common with most varieties of Scottish English and American English, the phoneme is pronounced by Australians as a "dark" (velarised) l () in almost all positions, unlike other dialects such as Received Pronunciation, Hiberno (Irish) English, etc.
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Australian English
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Pronunciation
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Pronunciation
Differences in stress, weak forms and standard pronunciation of isolated words occur between Australian English and other forms of English, which while noticeable do not impair intelligibility.
The affixes -ary, -ery, -ory, -bury, -berry and -mony (seen in words such as necessary, mulberry and matrimony) can be pronounced either with a full vowel () or a schwa (). Although some words like necessary are almost universally pronounced with the full vowel, older generations of Australians are relatively likely to pronounce these affixes with a schwa as is typical in British English. Meanwhile, younger generations are relatively likely to use a full vowel.
Words ending in unstressed -ile derived from Latin adjectives ending in -ilis are pronounced with a full vowel, so that fertile sounds like fur tile rather than rhyming with turtle .
In addition, miscellaneous pronunciation differences exist when compared with other varieties of English in relation to various isolated words, with some of those pronunciations being unique to Australian English. For example:
As with American English, the vowel in yoghurt and the prefix homo- (as in homosexual or homophobic) are pronounced with rather than ;
Vitamin, migraine and privacy are all pronounced with in the stressed syllable () rather than ;
Dynasty and patronise, by contrast, are usually subject to trisyllabic laxing () like in Britain, alongside US-derived ;
The prefix paedo- (as in paedophile) is pronounced rather than ;
In loanwords, the vowel spelled with is often nativized as the vowel (), similar to American English (), rather than the vowel (), as in British English. For example, pasta is pronounced , analogous to American English , rather than , as in British English.
Urinal is stressed on the first syllable and with the schwa for I: ;
Harass and harassment are pronounced with the stress on the second, rather than the first syllable;
The suffix -sia (as in Malaysia, Indonesia and Polynesia, but not Tunisia) is pronounced rather than ;
The word foyer is pronounced , rather than ;
Tomato, vase and data are pronounced with instead of : , with being uncommon but acceptable;
Zebra and leisure are pronounced and rather than and , both having disyllabic laxing;
Status varies between British-derived with the vowel and American-derived with the vowel;
Conversely, precedence, precedent and derivatives are mainly pronounced with the vowel in the stressed syllable, rather than : ;
Basil is pronounced , rather than ;
Conversely, cache is usually pronounced , rather than the more conventional ;
Buoy is pronounced as (as in boy) rather than ;
The E in congress and progress is not reduced: ;
Conversely, the unstressed O in silicon, phenomenon and python stands for a schwa: ;
In Amazon, Lebanon, marathon and pantheon, however, the unstressed O stands for the vowel, somewhat as with American English: ;
The colour name maroon is pronounced with the vowel: .
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Australian English
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Variation
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Variation
+ Variation in Australian closing diphthongs updated to match the HCE system Phoneme Lexical set Phonetic realization Cultivated General Broad
Relative to many other national dialect groupings, Australian English is relatively homogeneous across the country. Some relatively minor regional differences in pronunciation exist. A limited range of word choices is strongly regional in nature. Consequently, the geographical background of individuals may be inferred if they use words that are peculiar to particular Australian states or territories and, in some cases, even smaller regions. In addition, some Australians speak creole languages derived from Australian English, such as Australian Kriol, Torres Strait Creole and Norfuk.
Academic research has also identified notable sociocultural variation within Australian English, which is mostly evident in phonology.
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Australian English
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Regional variation
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Regional variation
Although Australian English is relatively homogeneous, there are some regional variations. The dialects of English spoken in the various states and territories of Australia differ slightly in vocabulary and phonology.
Most regional differences are in word usage. Swimming clothes are known as cossies, togs or swimmers in New South Wales, togs in Queensland, and bathers in Victoria, Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia. What Queensland calls a stroller is usually called a pram in Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, and Tasmania.Pauline Bryant (1985): Regional variation in the Australian English lexicon, Australian Journal of Linguistics, 5:1, 55–66
Preference for some synonymous words also differ between states. Garbage (i.e., garbage bin, garbage truck) dominates over rubbish in New South Wales and Queensland, while rubbish is more popular in Victoria, Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia.
Additionally, the word footy generally refers to the most popular football code in an area; that is, rugby league or rugby union depending on the local area, in most of New South Wales and Queensland. More commonly "rugby" is used to distinguish rugby union from "footy" which refers to the more popular rugby league. Footy commonly is used for Australian rules football elsewhere however the term refers to the both prominent codes, rugby league and Australian rules football, interchangeably, depending on context of usage outside of regional perrameters. In some pockets of Melbourne & Western Sydney "football" and more rarely "footy" will refer to Association football although unlike more common international terminology, Australian English uses the term soccer and not football or footy. Beer glasses are also named differently in different states. Distinctive grammatical patterns exist such as the use of the interrogative eh (also spelled ay or aye), which is particularly associated with Queensland. Secret Santa () and Kris Kringle are used in all states, with the former being more common in Queensland.
South Australia
The most pronounced variation in phonology is between South Australia and the other states and territories. The trap–bath split is more complete in South Australia, in contrast to the other states. Accordingly, words such as dance, advance, plant, example and answer are pronounced with (as in father) far more frequently in South Australia while the older (as in mad) is dominant elsewhere in Australia. L-vocalisation is also more common in South Australia than other states.
Centring diphthongs
In Western Australian and Queensland English, the vowels in near and square are typically realised as centring diphthongs (), whereas in the other states they may also be realised as monophthongs: .
Salary–celery merger
A feature common in Victorian English is salary–celery merger, whereby a Victorian pronunciation of Ellen may sound like Alan and Victoria's capital city Melbourne may sound like Malbourne to speakers from other states. There is also regional variation in before (as in school and pool).
Full-fool allophones
In some parts of Australia, notably Victoria, a fully backed allophone of , transcribed , is common before . As a result, the pairs full/fool and pull/pool differ phonetically only in vowel length for those speakers. The usual allophone for is further forward in Queensland and New South Wales than Victoria.
Final particle but
A final particle but, where "but" is the concluding word in a sentence, has also evolved as a distinctive feature in Australian English, particularly in Western Australia and Queensland. In conversational Australian English it is thought to be a turn-yielding particle that marks contrastive content in the utterance it closes. It is a linguistic trait sometimes employed in Australian literature to indicate that the character is quintessentially Australian. Mulder, Jean & Thompson, Sandra & Penry Williams, Cara. (2009) in Peters, Pam, Collins, Peter and Smith, Adam. Comparative Studies in Australian and New Zealand English: Grammar and beyond, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1075/veaw.g39
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Australian English
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Sociocultural variation
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Sociocultural variation
The General Australian accent serves as the standard variety of English across the country. According to linguists, it emerged during the 19th century.Bruce Moore (Australian Oxford Dictionary) and Felicity Cox (Macquarie University) [interviewed in]: Sounds of Aus (television documentary) 2007; director: David Swann; Writer: Lawrie Zion, Princess Pictures (broadcaster: ABC Television). General Australian is the dominant variety across the continent, and is particularly so in urban areas. Edition 34, 2007 (23 August 2007) – The Macquarie Globe The increasing dominance of General Australian reflects its prominence on radio and television since the latter half of the 20th century.
Recent generations have seen a comparatively smaller proportion of the population speaking with the Broad sociocultural variant, which differs from General Australian in its phonology. The Broad variant is found across the continent and is relatively more prominent in rural and outer-suburban areas.
A largely historical Cultivated sociocultural variant, which adopted features of British Received Pronunciation and which was commonplace in official media during the early 20th century, had become largely extinct by the onset of the 21st century.
Australian Aboriginal English is made up of a range of forms which developed differently in different parts of Australia, and are said to vary along a continuum, from forms close to Standard Australian English to more non-standard forms. There are distinctive features of accent, grammar, words and meanings, as well as language use.
Academics have noted the emergence of numerous ethnocultural dialects of Australian English that are spoken by people from some minority non-English speaking backgrounds. 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 Afro-Asiatic languages and languages of Asia. Samoan English is also influencing Australian English. Other ethnolects include those of Lebanese and Vietnamese Australians.
A high rising terminal in Australian English was noted and studied earlier than in other varieties of English. The feature is sometimes called Australian questioning intonation. Research published in 1986, regarding vernacular speech in Sydney, suggested that high rising terminal was initially spread by young people in the 1960s. It found that the high rising terminal was used more than twice as often by young people than older people, and is more common among women than men. In the United Kingdom, it has occasionally been considered one of the variety's stereotypical features, and its spread there is attributed to the popularity of Australian soap operas.
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Australian English
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Vocabulary
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Vocabulary
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Australian English
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Intrinsic traits
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Intrinsic traits
thumb|right|upright|Bush poets such as Banjo Paterson captured the Australian vocabulary of the 19th century in their bush ballads.
Australian English has many words and idioms which are unique to the dialect.
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Australian English
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Commonly known
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Commonly known
Internationally well-known examples of Australian terminology include outback, meaning a remote, sparsely populated area, the bush, meaning either a native forest or a country area in general, and g'day, a greeting. Dinkum, or fair dinkum means "true", "legitimate" or "is that true?", among other things, depending on context and inflection.. Access date: 5 November 2007. The derivative dinky-di means "true" or devoted: a "dinky-di Aussie" is a "true Australian".
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Australian English
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Historical references
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Historical references
Australian poetry, such as "The Man from Snowy River", as well as folk songs such as "Waltzing Matilda", contain many historical Australian words and phrases that are understood by Australians even though some are not in common usage today.
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Australian English
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British English similarities and differences
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British English similarities and differences
Australian English, in common with British English, uses the word mate to mean friend, as well as the word bloody as a mild expletive or intensifier. "Mate" is also used in multiple ways including to indicate "mateship" or formally call out the target of a threat or insult, depending on internation and context.
Several words used by Australians were at one time used in the UK but have since fallen out of usage or changed in meaning there. For example, creek in Australia, as in North America, means a stream or small river, whereas in the UK it is typically a watercourse in a marshy area; paddock in Australia means field, whereas in the UK it means a small enclosure for livestock; bush or scrub in Australia, as in North America, means a natural, uncultivated area of vegetation or flora, whereas in England they are commonly used only in proper names (such as Shepherd's Bush and Wormwood Scrubs).
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Australian English
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Aboriginal-derived words
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Aboriginal-derived words
Some elements of Aboriginal languages have been adopted by Australian English—mainly as names for places, flora and fauna (for example dingo) and local culture. Many such are localised, and do not form part of general Australian use, while others, such as kangaroo, boomerang, budgerigar, wallaby and so on have become international. Other examples are cooee and hard yakka. The former is used as a high-pitched call, for attracting attention, (pronounced ) which travels long distances. Cooee is also a notional distance: "if he's within cooee, we'll spot him". Hard yakka means "hard work" and is derived from yakka, from the Jagera/Yagara language once spoken in the Brisbane region.
The word bung, meaning "dead" was originally a Yagara word which was used in the pidgin widely spoken across Australia. Also here
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Australian English
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Places
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Places
Many towns or suburbs of Australia have also been influenced or named after Aboriginal words. The best-known example is the capital, Canberra, named after a local Ngunnawal language word thought to mean "women's breasts" or "meeting place".
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Australian English
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Figures of speech and abbreviations
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Figures of speech and abbreviations
Litotes, such as "not bad", "not much" and "you're not wrong", are also used.
Diminutives and hypocorisms are common and are often used to indicate familiarity. Some common examples are arvo (afternoon), barbie (barbecue), smoko (cigarette break), Aussie (Australian) and Straya (Australia). This may also be done with people's names to create nicknames (other English speaking countries create similar diminutives). For example, "Gazza" from Gary, or "Smitty" from John Smith. The use of the suffix -o originates in , which is both a postclitic and a suffix with much the same meaning as in Australian English.
In informal speech, incomplete comparisons are sometimes used, such as "sweet as" (as in "That car is sweet as."). "Full", "fully" or "heaps" may precede a word to act as an intensifier (as in "The waves at the beach were heaps good."). This was more common in regional Australia and South Australia but has been in common usage in urban Australia for decades. The suffix "-ly" is sometimes omitted in broader Australian English. For instance, "really good" can become "real good".
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Australian English
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Measures
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Measures
Australia's switch to the metric system in the 1970s changed most of the country's vocabulary of measurement from imperial to metric measures. Since the switch to metric, heights of individuals are listed in centimetres on official documents and distances by road on signs are listed in terms of kilometres and metres.
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Australian English
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Comparison with other varieties
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Comparison with other varieties
Where British and American English vocabulary differs, sometimes Australian English shares a usage with one of those varieties, as with petrol (AmE: gasoline) and mobile phone (AmE: cellular phone) which are shared with British English, or truck (BrE: lorry) and eggplant (BrE: aubergine) which are shared with American English.
In other circumstances, Australian English sometimes favours a usage which is different from both British and American English as with:"The Macquarie Dictionary", Fourth Edition. The Macquarie Library Pty Ltd, 2005.
Differences exist between Australian English and other varieties of English, where different terms can be used for the same subject or the same term can be ascribed different meanings. Non-exhaustive examples of terminology associated with food, transport and clothing is used below to demonstrate the variations which exist between Australian English and other varieties:
Food – capsicum (BrE: (red/green) pepper; AmE: bell pepper); (potato) chips (refers both to BrE crisps and AmE French fries); chook (sanga) (BrE and AmE: chicken (sandwich)); coriander (shared with BrE. AmE: cilantro); entree (refers to AmE appetizer whereas AmE entree is referred to in AusE as main course); eggplant (shared with AmE. BrE: aubergine); fairy floss (BrE: candy floss; AmE: cotton candy); ice block or icy pole (BrE: ice lolly; AmE: popsicle); jelly (refers to AmE Jell-o whereas AmE jelly refers to AusE jam); lollies (BrE: sweets; AmE: candy); marinara (sauce) (refers to a tomato-based sauce in AmE and BrE but a seafood sauce in AusE); mince or minced meat (shared with BrE. AmE: ground meat); prawn (which in BrE refers to large crustaceans only, with small crustaceans referred to as shrimp. AmE universally: shrimp); snow pea (shared with AmE. BrE mangetout); pumpkin (AmE: squash, except for the large orange variety – AusE squash refers only to a small number of uncommon species; BrE: marrow); tomato sauce (also used in BrE. AmE: ketchup); zucchini (shared with AmE. BrE: courgette)
Transport – aeroplane (shared with BrE. AmE: airplane); bonnet (shared with BrE. AmE: hood); bumper (shared with BrE. AmE: fender); car park (shared with BrE. AmE: parking lot); convertible (shared with AmE. BrE: cabriolet); footpath (BrE: pavement; AmE: sidewalk); horse float (BrE: horsebox; AmE: horse trailer); indicator (shared with BrE. AmE: turn signal); peak hour (BrE and AmE: rush hour); petrol (shared with BrE. AmE: gasoline); railway (shared with BrE. AmE: railroad); sedan (car) (shared with AmE. BrE: saloon (car)); semitrailer (shared with AmE. BrE: artic or articulated lorry); station wagon (shared with AmE. BrE: estate car); truck (shared with AmE. BrE: lorry); ute (BrE and AmE: pickup truck); windscreen (shared with BrE. AmE: windshield)
Clothing – gumboots (BrE: Wellington boots or Wellies; AmE: rubber boots or galoshes); jumper (shared with BrE. AmE: sweater); nappy (shared with BrE. AmE: diaper); overalls (shared with AmE. BrE: dungarees); raincoat (shared with AmE. BrE: mackintosh or mac); runners or sneakers (footwear) (BrE: trainers. AmE: sneakers); sandshoe (BrE: pump or plimsoll. AmE: tennis shoe); singlet (BrE: vest. AmE: tank top or wifebeater); skivvy (BrE: polo neck; AmE: turtleneck); swimmers or togs or bathers (BrE: swimming costume. AmE: bathing suit or swimsuit); thongs (refers to BrE and AmE flip-flops (footwear). In BrE and AmE refers to g-string (underwear))
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Australian English
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Terms with different meanings in Australian English
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Terms with different meanings in Australian English
There also exist words which in Australian English are ascribed different meanings from those ascribed in other varieties of English, for instance:
Asian in Australian (and American) English commonly refers to people of East Asian ancestry, while in British English it commonly refers to people of South Asian ancestry
Biscuit in Australian (and British) English refers to AmE cookie and cracker, while in American English it refers to a leavened bread product
(potato) Chips refers both to British English crisps (which is not commonly used in Australian English) and to American English French fries (which is used alongside hot chips)
Football in Australian English most commonly refers to Australian rules football, rugby league or rugby union. In British English, football is most commonly used to refer to association football, while in North American English football is used to refer to gridiron
Pants in Australian (and American) English most commonly refers to British English trousers, but in British English refers to Australian English underpants
Nursery in Australian English generally refers to a plant nursery, whereas in British English and American English it also often refers to a child care or daycare for pre-school age children
Paddock in Australian English refers to an open field or meadow whereas in American and British English it refers to a small agricultural enclosure
Premier in Australian English refers specifically to the head of government of an Australian state, whereas in British English it is used interchangeably with Prime Minister
Public school in Australian (and American) English refers to a state school. Australian and American English use private school to mean a non-government or independent school, in contrast with British English which uses public school to refer to the same thing
Pudding in Australian (and American) English refers to a particular sweet dessert dish, while in British English it often refers to dessert (the food course) in general
Thongs in Australian English refer to British and American English flip-flop (footwear), whereas in both American and British English it refers to Australian English G-string (underwear) (in Australian English the singular "thong" can refer to one half of a pair of the footwear or to a G-string, so care must be taken as to context)
Vest in Australian (and American) English refers to a padded upper garment or British English waistcoat but in British English refers to Australian English singlet
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Australian English
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Idioms taking different forms in Australian English
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Idioms taking different forms in Australian English
In addition to the large number of uniquely Australian idioms in common use, there are instances of idioms taking different forms in Australian English than in other varieties, for instance:
A drop in the ocean (shared with BrE usage) as opposed to AmE a drop in the bucket
A way to go (shared with BrE usage) as opposed to AmE a ways to go
Home away from home (shared with AmE usage) as opposed to BrE home from home
Take (something) with a grain of salt (shared with AmE usage) as opposed to BrE take with a pinch of salt
Touch wood (shared with BrE usage) as opposed to AmE knock on wood
Wouldn't touch (something) with a ten-foot pole (shared with AmE usage) as opposed to BrE wouldn't touch with a barge pole
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Australian English
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British and American English terms not commonly used in Australian English
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British and American English terms not commonly used in Australian English
There are extensive terms used in other varieties of English which are not widely used in Australian English. These terms usually do not result in Australian English speakers failing to comprehend speakers of other varieties of English, as Australian English speakers will often be familiar with such terms through exposure to media or may ascertain the meaning using context.
Non-exhaustive selections of British English and American English terms not commonly used in Australian English together with their definitions or Australian English equivalents are found in the collapsible table below:"The Macquarie Dictionary", Fourth Edition. The Macquarie Library Pty Ltd, 2005. Note: Entries with Chiefly British usage note in the Macquarie Dictionary and reference to corresponding Australian entry.The Macquarie Dictionary, Fourth Edition. The Macquarie Library Pty Ltd, 2005. Note: Entries with Chiefly US usage note in the Macquarie Dictionary and reference to corresponding Australian entry.
British English terms not widely used in Australian English
Allotment (gardening): A community garden not connected to a dwelling
Artic or articulated lorry (vehicle): Australian English semi-trailer
Aubergine (vegetable): Australian English eggplant
Bank holiday: Australian English public holiday
Barmy: Crazy, mad or insane.
Bedsit: Australian English studio (apartment)
Belisha beacon: A flashing light atop a pole used to mark a pedestrian crossing
Bin lorry: Australian English: rubbish truck or garbage truck
Bobby: A police officer, particularly one of lower rank
Cagoule: A lightweight raincoat or windsheeter
Candy floss (confectionery): Australian English fairy floss
Cash machine: Australian English automatic teller machine
Chav: Lower socio-economic person comparable to Australian English bogan
Child-minder: Australian English babysitter
Chivvy: To hurry (somebody) along. Australian English nag
Chrimbo: Abbreviation for Christmas comparable to Australian English Chrissy
Chuffed: To be proud (especially of oneself)
Cleg (insect): Australian English horsefly
Clingfilm: A plastic wrap used in food preparation. Australian English Glad wrap/cling wrap
Community payback: Australian English community service
Comprehensive school: Australian English state school or public school
Cooker: A kitchen appliance. Australian English stove and/or oven
Coppice: An area of cleared woodland
Council housing: Australian English public housing
Counterpane: A bed covering. Australian English bedspread
Courgette: A vegetable. Australian English zucchini
Creche: Australian English child care centre
(potato) Crisps: Australian English (potato) chips
Current account: Australian English transaction account
Dell: A small secluded hollow or valley
Do: Australian English party or social gathering
Doddle: An easy task
Doss (verb): To spend time idly
Drawing pin: Australian English thumb tack
Dungarees: Australian English overalls
Dustbin: Australian English garbage bin/rubbish bin
Dustcart: Australian English garbage truck/rubbish truck
Duvet: Australian English doona
Elastoplast or plaster: An adhesive used to cover small wounds. Australian English band-aid
Electrical lead: Australian English electrical cord
Estate car: Australian English station wagon
Fairy cake: Australian English cupcake
Father Christmas: Australian English Santa Claus
Fen: A low and frequently flooded area of land, similar to Australian English swamp
Free phone: Australian English toll-free
Gammon: Meat from the hind leg of pork. Australian English makes no distinction between gammon and ham
Git: A foolish person. Equivalent to idiot or moron
Goose pimples: Australian English goose bumps
Hacked off: To be irritated or upset, often with a person
Hairgrip: Australian English hairpin or bobbypin
Half-term: Australian English school holiday
Haulier: Australian English hauler
Heath: An area of dry grass or shrubs, similar to Australian English shrubland
Hoover (verb): Australian English to vacuum
Horsebox: Australian English horse float
Ice lolly: Australian English ice block or icy pole
Juicy bits: Small pieces of fruit residue found in fruit juice. Australian English pulp
Kip: To sleep
Kitchen roll: Australian English paper towel
Landslip: Australian English landslide
Lavatory: Australian English toilet (lavatory is used in Australian English for toilets on aeroplanes)
Lido: A public swimming pool
Lorry: Australian English truck
Loudhailer: Australian English megaphone
Mackintosh or mac: Australian English raincoat
Mangetout: Australian English snow pea
Marrow: Australian English squash
Minidish: A satellite dish for domestic (especially television) use
Moggie: A domestic short-haired cat
Moor: A low area prone to flooding, similar to Australian English swampland
Nettled: Irritated (especially with somebody)
Nosh: A meal or spread of food
Off-licence: Australian English bottle shop/Bottle-o
Pak choi: Australian English bok choy
Pavement: Australian English footpath
Pelican crossing: Australian English pedestrian crossing or zebra crossing
Peaky: Unwell or sickly
(red or green) Pepper (vegetable): Australian English capsicum
People carrier (vehicle): Australian English people mover
Pikey: An itinerant person. Similar to Australian English tramp
Pillar box: Australian English post box
Pillock: A mildly offensive term for a foolish or obnoxious person, similar to idiot or moron. Also refers to male genitalia
Plimsoll (footwear): Australian English sandshoe
Pneumatic drill: Australian English jackhammer
Polo neck (garment): Australian English skivvy
Poorly: Unwell or sick
Press-up (exercise): Australian English push-up
Pushchair: A wheeled cart for pushing a baby. Australian English: stroller or pram
Pusher: A wheeled cart for pushing a baby. Australian English: stroller or pram
Rodgering: A mildly offensive term for sexual intercourse, similar to Australian English rooting
Saloon (car): Australian English sedan
Scratchings (food): Solid material left after rendering animal (especially pork) fat. Australian English crackling
Sellotape: Australian English sticky tape
Shan't: Australian English will not
Skive (verb): To play truant, particularly from an educational institution. Australian English to wag
Sleeping policeman: Australian English speed hump or speed bump
Snog (verb): To kiss passionately, equivalent to Australian English pash
Sod: A mildly offensive term for an unpleasant person
Spinney: A small area of trees and bushes
Strimmer: Australian English whipper snipper or line trimmer
Swan (verb): To move from one plact to another ostentatiously
Sweets: Australian English lollies
Tailback: A long queue of stationary or slow-moving traffic
Tangerine: Australian English mandarin
Tipp-Ex: Australian English white out or liquid paper
Trainers: Athletic footwear. Australian English runners or sneakers.
Turning (noun): Where one road branches from another. Australian English turn
Utility room: A room containing washing or other home appliances, similar to Australian English laundry
Value-added tax (VAT): Australian English goods and services tax (GST)
Wellington boots: Australian English gumboots
White spirit: Australian English turpentine
American English terms not widely used in Australian English
Acclimate: Australian English acclimatise
Airplane: Australian English aeroplane
Aluminum: Australian English aluminium
Baby carriage: Australian English stroller or pram
Bangs: A hair style. Australian English fringe
Baseboard (architecture): Australian English skirting board
Bayou: Australian English swamp/billabong
Bell pepper: Australian English capsicum
Bellhop: Australian English hotel porter
Beltway: Australian English ring road
Boondocks: An isolated, rural area. Australian English the sticks or Woop Woop or Beyond the black stump
Broil (cooking technique): Australian English grill
Bullhorn: Australian English megaphone
Burglarize: Australian English burgle
Busboy: A subclass of (restaurant) waiter
Candy: Australian English lollies
Cellular phone: Australian English mobile phone
Cilantro: Australian English coriander
Comforter: Australian English doona
Condominium: Australian English apartment
Counter-clockwise: Australian English anticlockwise
Coveralls: Australian English overalls
Crapshoot: A risky venture
Diaper: Australian English nappy
Downtown: Australian English central business district
Drapes: Australian English curtains
Drugstore: Australian English pharmacy or chemist
Drywall: Australian English plasterboard
Dumpster: Australian English skip bin
Fall (season): Australian English autumn
Fanny pack: Australian English bum bag
Faucet: Australian English tap
Flashlight: Australian English torch
Freshman: A first year student at a highschool or university
Frosting (cookery): Australian English icing
Gasoline: Australian English petrol
Gas pedal: Australian English accelerator
Gas Station: Australian English service station or petrol station
Glove compartment: Australian English glovebox
Golden raisin: Australian English sultana
Grifter: Australian English con artist
Ground beef: Australian English minced beef or mince
Hood (vehicle): Australian English bonnet
Hot tub: Australian English spa or spa bath
Jell-o: Australian English jelly
Ladybug: Australian English ladybird
Mail-man: Australian English postman or postie
Mass transit: Australian English public transport
Math: Australian English maths
Mineral spirits: Australian English turpentine
Nightstand: Australian English bedside table
Out-of-state: Australian English interstate
Pacifier: Australian English dummy
Parking lot: Australian English car park
Penitentiary: Australian English prison or jail
Period (punctuation): Australian English full stop
Play hooky (verb): To play truant from an educational institution. Equivalent to Australian English (to) wag
Popsicle: Australian English ice block or icy pole
Railroad: Australian English railway
Railroad ties: Australian English Railway sleepers
Rappel: Australian English abseil
Realtor: Australian English real estate agent
Root (sport): To enthusiastically support a sporting team. Equivalent to Australian English barrack
Row house: Australian English terrace house
Sales tax: Australian English goods and services tax (GST)
Saran wrap: Australian English plastic wrap or cling wrap
Scad: Australian English a large quantity
Scallion: Australian English spring onion
Sharpie (pen): Australian English permanent marker or texta or felt pen
Shopping cart: Australian English shopping trolley
Sidewalk: Australian English footpath
Silverware or flatware: Australian English cutlery
Soda pop: Australian English soft drink
Streetcar: Australian English tram
Sweater:Australian English jumper
Sweatpants: Australian English tracksuit pants/trackies
Tailpipe: Australian English exhaust pipe
Takeout: Australian English takeaway
Trash can: Australian English garbage bin or rubbish bin
Trunk (vehicle): Australian English boot
Turn signal: Australian English indicator
Turtleneck: Australian English skivvy
Upscale and downscale: Australian English upmarket and downmarket
Vacation: Australian English holiday
Windshield: Australian English windscreen
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Australian English
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Grammar
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Grammar
The general rules which apply to Australian English are described at English grammar. Grammatical differences between varieties of English are minor relative to differences in phonology and vocabulary and do not generally affect intelligibility. Examples of grammatical differences between Australian English and other varieties include:
Collective nouns are generally singular in construction, e.g., the government was unable to decide as opposed to the government were unable to decide or the group was leaving as opposed to the group were leaving. This is in common with American English.
Australian English has an extreme distaste for the modal verbs shall (in non-legal contexts), shan't and ought (in place of will, won't and should respectively), which are encountered in British English. However, shall is found in the Australian Constitution, Acts of Parliament, and other formal or legal documents such as contracts, and ought sees use in some academic contexts (such as philosophy).
Using should with the same meaning as would, e.g. I should like to see you, encountered in British English, is almost never encountered in Australian English and is often contracted to I'd.
River follows the name of the river in question, e.g., Brisbane River, rather than the British convention of coming before the name, e.g., River Thames. This is also the case in North American and New Zealand English. In South Australian English however, the reverse applies when referring to the following three rivers: Murray, Darling and Torrens. The Derwent in Tasmania also follows this convention.
While prepositions before days may be omitted in American English, i.e., She resigned Thursday, they are retained in Australian English: She resigned on Thursday. This is shared with British English.
The institutional nouns hospital and university do not take the definite article: She's in hospital, He's at university. This is in contrast to American English where the is required: In the hospital, At the university.
On the weekend is used in favour of the British at the weekend which is not encountered in Australian English.
Ranges of dates use to, i.e., Monday to Friday, rather than Monday through Friday. This is shared with British English and is in contrast to American English.
When speaking or writing out numbers, and is always inserted before the tens, i.e., one hundred and sixty-two rather than one hundred sixty-two. This is in contrast to American English, where the insertion of and is acceptable but nonetheless either casual or informal.
The preposition to in write to (e.g. "I'll write to you") is always retained, as opposed to American usage where it may be dropped.
Australian English does not share the British usage of read (v) to mean "study" (v). Therefore, it may be said that "He studies medicine" but not that "He reads medicine".
When referring to time, Australians will refer to 10:30 as half past ten and do not use the British half ten. Similarly, a quarter to ten is used for 9:45 rather than (a) quarter of ten, which is sometimes found in American English.
Australian English does not share the British English meaning of sat to include sitting or seated. Therefore, uses such as I've been sat here for an hour are not encountered in Australian English.
To have a shower or have a bath are the most common usages in Australian English, in contrast to American English which uses take a shower and take a bath.
The past participle of saw is sawn (e.g. sawn-off shotgun) in Australian English, in contrast to the American English sawed.
The verb visit is transitive in Australian English. Where the object is a person or people, American English also uses visit with, which is not found in Australian English.
An outdoor event which is cancelled due to inclement weather is rained out in Australian English. This is in contrast to British English where it is said to be rained off."The Macquarie Dictionary", Fourth Edition. The Macquarie Library Pty Ltd, 2005"Collins English Dictionary", 13th Edition. HarperCollins, 2018
In informal speech, sentence-final but may be used, e.g. "I don't want to go but" in place of "But I don't want to go". This is also found in Scottish English.
In informal speech, the discourse markers yeah no (or yeah nah) and no yeah (or nah yeah) may be used to mean "no" and "yes" respectively. Extended discourse markers of this nature are sometimes used for comedic effect, but the meaning is generally found in the final affirmative/negative.
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Australian English
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Spelling and style
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Spelling and style
As in all English-speaking countries, there is no central authority that prescribes official usage with respect to matters of spelling, grammar, punctuation or style.
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Australian English
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Spelling
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Spelling
There are several dictionaries of Australian English which adopt a descriptive approach. The Macquarie Dictionary and the Australian Oxford Dictionary are most commonly used by universities, governments and courts as the standard for Australian English spelling.
Australian spelling is significantly closer to British than American spelling, as it did not adopt the systematic reforms promulgated in Noah Webster's 1828 Dictionary. Notwithstanding, the Macquarie Dictionary often lists most American spellings as acceptable secondary variants.
The minor systematic differences which occur between Australian and American spelling are summarised below:"The Macquarie Dictionary", 8th Edition. Macquarie Dictionary Publishers, 2020.
French-derived words which in American English end with or, such as color, honor, behavior and labor, are spelt with our in Australian English: colour, honour, behaviour and labour. Exceptions are the Australian Labor Party and some (especially South Australian) placenames which use Harbor, notably Victor Harbor.
Words which in American English end with ize, such as realize, recognize and apologize are spelt with ise in Australian English: realise, recognise and apologise. The British Oxford spelling, which uses the ize endings, remains a minority variant. The Macquarie Dictionary says that the -ise form as opposed to -ize sits at 3:1. The sole exception to this is capsize, which is used in all varieties.
Words which in American English end with yze, such as analyze, paralyze and catalyze are spelt with yse in Australian English: analyse, paralyse and catalyse.
French-derived words which in American English end with er, such as fiber, center and meter are spelt with re in Australian English: fibre, centre and metre (the unit of measurement only, not physical devices; so gasometer, voltmeter).
Words which end in American English end with log, such as catalog, dialog and monolog are usually spelt with logue in Australian English: catalogue, dialogue and monologue; however, the Macquarie Dictionary lists the log spelling as the preferred variant for analog.
A double-consonant l is retained in Australian English when adding suffixes to words ending in l where the consonant is unstressed, contrary to American English. Therefore, Australian English favours cancelled, counsellor, and travelling over American canceled, counselor and traveling.
Where American English uses a double-consonant ll in the words skillful, willful, enroll, distill, enthrall, fulfill and installment, Australian English uses a single consonant: skilful, wilful, enrol, distil, enthral, fulfil and instalment. However, the Macquarie Dictionary has noted a growing tendency to use the double consonant.
The American English defense and offense are spelt defence and offence in Australian English.
In contrast with American English, which uses practice and license for both nouns and verbs, practice and licence are nouns while practise and license are verbs in Australian English.
Words with ae and oe are often maintained in words such as oestrogen and paedophilia, in contrast to the American English practice of using e alone (as in estrogen and pedophilia). The Macquarie Dictionary has noted a shift within Australian English towards using e alone, and now lists some words such as encyclopedia, fetus, eon or hematite with the e spelling as the preferred variant and hence Australian English varies by word when it comes to these sets of words.
Minor systematic difference which occur between Australian and British spelling are as follows:"The Macquarie Dictionary", 8th Edition. Macquarie Dictionary Publishers, 2020.
Words often ending in eable in British English end in able in Australian English. Therefore, Australian English favours livable over liveable, sizable over sizeable, movable over moveable, etc., although both variants are acceptable.
Words often ending in eing in British English end in ing in Australian English. Therefore, Australian English favours aging over ageing, or routing over routeing, etc., although both variants are acceptable.
Words often ending in mme in British English end in m in Australian English. Therefore, Australian English favours program over programme (in all contexts) and aerogram over aerogramme, although both variants are acceptable. Similar to Canada, New Zealand and the United States, (kilo)gram is the only spelling.
Other examples of individual words where the preferred spelling is listed by the Macquarie Dictionary as being different from current British spellings include analog as opposed to analogue, guerilla as opposed to guerrilla, verandah as opposed to veranda, burqa as opposed to burka, pastie (noun) as opposed to pasty, neuron as opposed to neurone, hicup as opposed to hicough, annex as opposed to annexe, raccoon as opposed to racoon etc."The Macquarie Dictionary", 8th Edition. Macquarie Dictionary Publishers, 2020. Unspaced forms such as onto, anytime, alright and anymore are also listed as being equally as acceptable as their spaced counterparts."The Macquarie Dictionary", 8th Edition. Macquarie Dictionary Publishers, 2020.
There is variation between and within varieties of English in the treatment of -t and -ed endings for past tense verbs. The Macquarie Dictionary does not favour either, but it suggests that leaped, leaned or learned (with -ed endings) are more common but spelt and burnt (with -t endings) are more common."The Macquarie Dictionary", 8th Edition. Macquarie Dictionary Publishers, 2020.
Different spellings have existed throughout Australia's history. What are today regarded as American spellings were popular in Australia throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the Victorian Department of Education endorsing them into the 1970s and The Age newspaper until the 1990s. This influence can be seen in the spelling of the Australian Labor Party and also in some place names such as Victor Harbor. The Concise Oxford English Dictionary has been credited with re-establishing the dominance of the British spellings in the 1920s and 1930s. For a short time during the late 20th century, Harry Lindgren's 1969 spelling reform proposal (Spelling Reform 1 or SR1) gained some support in Australia and was adopted by the Australian Teachers' Federation and minister Doug Everingham in personal correspondence.
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Australian English
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Punctuation and style
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Punctuation and style
Prominent general style guides for Australian English include the Cambridge Guide to Australian English Usage, the Australian Government Style Manual (formerly the Style Manual: For Authors, Editors and Printers), the Australian Handbook for Writers and Editors and the Complete Guide to English Usage for Australian Students.
Both single and double quotation marks are in use, with single quotation marks preferred for use in the first instance, with double quotation marks reserved for quotes of speech within speech. Logical (as opposed to typesetter's) punctuation is preferred for punctuation marks at the end of quotations. For instance, Sam said he 'wasn't happy when Jane told David to "go away. is used in preference to Sam said he "wasn't happy when Jane told David to 'go away.
The DD/MM/YYYY date format is followed and the 12-hour clock is generally used in everyday life (as opposed to service, police, and airline applications).
With the exception of screen sizes, metric units are used in everyday life, having supplanted imperial units upon the country's switch to the metric system in the 1970s, although imperial units persist in casual references to a person's height. Tyre and bolt sizes (for example) are defined in imperial units where appropriate for technical reasons.
In betting, decimal odds are used in preference to fractional odds, as used in the United Kingdom, or moneyline odds in the United States.
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Australian English
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Keyboard layout
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Keyboard layout
There are two major English language keyboard layouts, the United States layout and the United Kingdom layout. Keyboards and keyboard software for the Australian market universally uses the US keyboard layout, which lacks the pound (£), euro and negation symbols and uses a different layout for punctuation symbols from the UK keyboard layout.
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Australian English
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See also
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See also
The Australian National Dictionary
Australian English vocabulary
New Zealand English
South African English
Zimbabwean English
Falkland Islands English
Commonwealth English
Diminutives in Australian English
Sound correspondences between English accents
Strine
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Australian English
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References
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References
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Australian English
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Citations
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Citations
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Australian English
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Works cited
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Works cited
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Australian English
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Further reading
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Further reading
Mitchell, Alexander G. (1995). The Story of Australian English. Sydney: Dictionary Research Centre.
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Australian English
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External links
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External links
Aussie English, The Illustrated Dictionary of Australian English
Australian National Dictionary Centre
free newsletter from the Australian National Dictionary Centre, which includes articles on Australian English
Australian Word Map at the ABC—documents regionalisms
R. Mannell, F. Cox and J. Harrington (2009), An Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology , Macquarie University
Aussie English for beginners—the origins, meanings and a quiz to test your knowledge at the National Museum of Australia.
Category:Languages attested from the 18th century
Category:Dialects of English
Category:Sociolinguistics
Category:Languages of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Category:Oceanian dialects of English
Category:Languages of Australia
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Australian English
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Table of Content
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Short description, History, Phonology and pronunciation, Vowels, Consonants, Pronunciation, Variation, Regional variation, Sociocultural variation, Vocabulary, Intrinsic traits, Commonly known, Historical references, British English similarities and differences, Aboriginal-derived words, Places, Figures of speech and abbreviations, Measures, Comparison with other varieties, Terms with different meanings in Australian English, Idioms taking different forms in Australian English, British and American English terms not commonly used in Australian English, Grammar, Spelling and style, Spelling, Punctuation and style, Keyboard layout, See also, References, Citations, Works cited, Further reading, External links
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American Airlines Flight 77
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Short description
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American Airlines Flight 77 was a scheduled domestic transcontinental passenger flight from Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia to Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles. The Boeing 757-200 aircraft serving the flight was hijacked by five al-Qaeda terrorists on the morning of September 11, 2001, as part of the September 11 attacks. The hijacked airliner was deliberately crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, killing all 64 aboard and another 125 in the building.
Flight 77 became airborne at 08:20 ET. Thirty-one minutes after takeoff, the attackers stormed the cockpit and forced the passengers and crew to the rear of the cabin, threatening the hostages but initially sparing all of them. Lead hijacker Hani Hanjour assumed control of the aircraft after having undergone extensive flight training as part of his preparation for the attack. In the meantime, two people aboard discreetly made phone calls to family members and relayed information on the situation without the knowledge of their assailants.
Hanjour flew the airplane into the west side of the Pentagon at 09:37. Many people witnessed the impact, and news sources began reporting on the incident within minutes, but no clear footage of the crash itself is available to the public. The 757 severely damaged an area of the Pentagon and caused a large fire that took several days to extinguish. By 10:10, the damage inflicted by the aircraft and ignited jet fuel led to a localized collapse of the Pentagon's western flank, followed forty minutes later by another five stories of the structure. Flight 77 was the third of four passenger jets to be commandeered by terrorists that morning, and the last to reach a target intended by al-Qaeda. The hijacking was to be coordinated with that of United Airlines Flight 93, which was flown in the direction of Washington, D.C., the U.S. capital. The terrorists on Flight 93 had their sights set on a federal government building not far from the Pentagon, but were forced to crash the plane in a Pennsylvania field when the passengers fought for control after being alerted to the previous suicide attacks, including Flight 77's.
The damaged sections of the Pentagon were rebuilt in 2002, with occupants moving back into the completed areas that August. The 184 victims of the attack are memorialized in the Pentagon Memorial adjacent to the crash site. The park contains a bench for each of the victims, arranged according to their year of birth.
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American Airlines Flight 77
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Background
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Background
The flight was commandeered as part of the September 11 attacks. The attacks themselves cost somewhere in the region of $400,000 and $500,000 to execute, but the source of this financial support remains unknown. Led by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was described as being the "principal architect" of the attacks in the 9/11 Commission Report, al-Qaeda was motivated by several factors, not least of which was anti-Americanism and anti-Western sentiment. Because al-Qaeda only had the resources to commandeer four passenger jets, there was disagreement between Mohammed and Osama bin Laden over which targets should be prioritized. Mohammed favored striking the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center complex in New York City, while bin-Laden was bent on toppling the United States federal government, a goal he believed could be accomplished by destroying the Pentagon, the White House and the United States Capitol. Though bin Laden himself expressed a preference for the destruction of the White House over the Capitol, his subordinates disagreed, citing its difficulty in striking from the air. Hani Hanjour―likely while in the presence of fellow Flight 77 accomplice Nawaf al-Hazmi―scoped out the Washington metropolitan area on July 20, 2001, by renting a plane and taking a practice flight from Fairfield, New Jersey to Gaithersburg, Maryland in order to determine the feasibility of each of the possible candidates.
In the end, 19 terrorists participated in the attacks against the United States, consisting of three groups of five men each and one group of four. The nine hijackers on Flight 77 and United Airlines Flight 93 were assigned the task of striking governmental structures in or near the national capital of Washington, D.C., and as such, the objective was for the two hijackings to be coordinated insofar as both planes being aimed towards targets in the Washington metropolitan area. Significant complications faced by the four terrorists on Flight 93 ensured that Flight 77 was the only one to successfully attack a target intended by al-Qaeda when it struck the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia at 09:37, while a passenger uprising forced the hijackers aboard Flight 93 to crash the plane in rural Pennsylvania.
Regardless, the degree of coordination between Flight 77 and Flight 93 was evidently less than that of American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, the two airliners that were flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center 17 minutes apart in a joint attack on New York City. Flights 11 and 175 both departed from Logan International Airport in Boston for Los Angeles International Airport, and crashed into targets that stood next to each other, in contrast to the Pentagon and the federal government building Flight 93 was set to crash into, which were simply located in the same general area.
One noteworthy difference between the attacks in the National Capital Region and those in New York is that the teams on Flights 77 and 93 did not follow suit with their counterparts on Flights 11 and 175 by booking planes from the same airport with the same California destination in mind. Flight 77's group hijacked a plane out of Dulles International Airport in Virginia, conveniently situated near the Pentagon and consequently the capital, on a flight path destined for LAX. Conversely, Flight 93 departed from Newark International Airport in New Jersey, nearly 200 miles northeast of D.C., bound for San Francisco International Airport. There was also no contact between Hanjour and Flight 93 hijacker pilot Ziad Jarrah on the day of the attacks, whereas Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi spoke over the phone while preparing to board their respective flights, apparently to confirm the attacks were ready to begin.
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American Airlines Flight 77
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Hijackers
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Hijackers
The hijackers on American Airlines Flight77 were five Saudi men between the ages of 20 and 29. They were led by Hanjour, who piloted the aircraft into the Pentagon. Hanjour first arrived in the United States in 1990.
Hanjour trained at the CRM Airline Training Center in Scottsdale, Arizona, earning his FAA commercial pilot's certificate in April 1999. He had wanted to be a commercial pilot for Saudia but was rejected when he applied to the civil aviation school in Jeddah in 1999. Hanjour's brother later explained that, frustrated at not finding a job, Hanjour "increasingly turned his attention toward religious texts and cassette tapes of militant Islamic preachers." Hanjour returned to Saudi Arabia after being certified as a pilot, but left again in late 1999, telling his family he was going to the United Arab Emirates to work for an airline. Hanjour likely went to Afghanistan, where Al-Qaeda recruits were screened for special skills they might have. Already having selected the Hamburg cell members, Al Qaeda leaders selected Hanjour to lead the fourth team of hijackers.
In December 2000, Hanjour arrived in San Diego, joining "muscle" hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, who had been there since January of that year. Alec Station, the CIA's unit dedicated to tracking Osama bin Laden, had discovered that al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar had multiple-entry visas to the United States. An FBI agent inside the unit and his supervisor Mark Rossini (Former Federal Bureau of Investigation Supervisory Agent) sought to alert FBI headquarters, but the CIA officer supervising Rossini at Alec Station rebuffed him on the grounds that the FBI lacked jurisdiction.The Spy Factory, PBS Frontline episode based on James Bamford's book, Shadow Factory
Soon after arriving in San Diego, Hanjour and Hazmi left for Mesa, Arizona, where Hanjour began refresher training at Arizona Aviation. In April 2001, they relocated to Falls Church, Virginia, where they awaited the arrival of the remaining "muscle" hijackers. One of these men, Majed Moqed, arrived on May 2, 2001, with Flight175 hijacker Ahmed al-Ghamdi from Dubai at Dulles International Airport. They moved into an apartment with Hazmi and Hanjour.
On May 21, 2001, Hanjour rented a room in Paterson, New Jersey, where he stayed with other hijackers through the end of August. The last Flight77 "muscle" hijacker, Salem al-Hazmi, arrived on June 29, 2001, with Abdulaziz al-Omari (a hijacker of Flight11) at John F. Kennedy International Airport from the United Arab Emirates. They stayed with Hanjour.
Hanjour received ground instruction and did practice flights at Air Fleet Training Systems in Teterboro, New Jersey, and at Caldwell Flight Academy in Fairfield, New Jersey. Hanjour moved out of the room in Paterson and arrived at the Valencia Motel in Laurel, Maryland, on September 2, 2001. While in Maryland, Hanjour and fellow hijackers trained at Gold's Gym in Greenbelt. On September 10, he completed a certification flight, using a terrain recognition system for navigation, at Congressional Air Charters in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
On September 10 Nawaf al-Hazmi, accompanied by other hijackers, checked into the Marriott in Herndon, Virginia, near Dulles Airport.
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American Airlines Flight 77
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Suspected accomplices
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Suspected accomplices
According to a U.S. State Department cable leaked in the WikiLeaks dump in February 2010, the FBI has investigated another suspect, Mohammed al-Mansoori. He had associated with three Qatari citizens who flew from Los Angeles to London (via Washington) and Qatar on the eve of the attacks, after allegedly surveying the World Trade Center and the White House. U.S. law enforcement officials said the data about the four men was "just one of many leads that were thoroughly investigated at the time and never led to terrorism charges." An official added that the three Qatari citizens had never been questioned by the FBI. Eleanor Hill, the former staff director for the congressional joint inquiry on the September 11 attacks, said the cable reinforces questions about the thoroughness of the FBI's investigation. She also said that the inquiry concluded the hijackers had a support network that helped them in different ways.
The three Qatari men were booked to fly from Los Angeles to Washington on September 10, 2001, on the same plane that was hijacked and piloted into the Pentagon on the following day. Instead, they flew from Los Angeles to Qatar, via Washington and London. While the cable said Mansoori was currently under investigation, U.S. law enforcement officials said there was no active investigation of him or of the Qatari citizens mentioned in the cable.
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American Airlines Flight 77
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Flight
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Flight
The aircraft involved in the hijacking was a Boeing 757-223 registered as On September 11, the total flight duration was 77 minutes. The crew included Captain Charles Burlingame (51) (a Naval Academy graduate and former fighter pilot), First Officer David Charlebois (39), purser Renee May and flight attendants Michele Heidenberger, Jennifer Lewis and Kenneth Lewis. The capacity of the aircraft was 188 passengers, but with 58 passengers on September 11, the load factor was 33 percent. American Airlines said Tuesdays were the least-traveled day of the week, with the same load factor seen on Tuesdays in the previous three months for Flight77. Passenger Barbara Olson, whose husband Theodore Olson served as the 42nd Solicitor General of the United States, was en route to a recording of the TV show Politically Incorrect. A group of three 11-year-old children, their chaperones, and two National Geographic Society staff members were also on board, embarking on an educational trip west to the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary near Santa Barbara, California. Former Georgetown University basketball coach John Thompson had originally booked a ticket on Flight77. As he would tell the story many times in the following years, including a September 12, 2011 interview on Jim Rome's radio show, he had been scheduled to appear on that show on September 12, 2001. Thompson was planning to be in Las Vegas for a friend's birthday on September 13, and initially insisted on traveling to Rome's Los Angeles studio on the 11th. However, this did not work for the show, which wanted him to travel on the day of the show. After a Rome staffer personally assured Thompson he would be able to travel from Los Angeles to Las Vegas immediately after the show, Thompson changed his travel plans. He would later feel the impact from the crash at his home near the Pentagon.
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American Airlines Flight 77
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Boarding and departure
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Boarding and departure
thumb|Nawaf and Salem in Dulles airport
On the morning of September 11, 2001, the five hijackers arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport. At 07:15 AM ET, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Majed Moqed checked in at the American Airlines ticket counter for Flight77, arriving at the passenger security checkpoint a few minutes later at 07:18. Both men set off the metal detector and were put through secondary screening. Moqed continued to set off the alarm, so he was searched with a hand wand. The Hazmi brothers checked in together at the ticket counter at 07:29. Hani Hanjour checked in separately and arrived at the passenger security checkpoint at 07:35. Hanjour was followed minutes later at the checkpoint by Salem and Nawaf al-Hazmi, who also set off the metal detector's alarm. The screener at the checkpoint never resolved what set off the alarm. As seen in security footage later released, Nawaf al-Hazmi appeared to have an unidentified item in his back pocket. Utility knives up to four inches were permitted at the time by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as carry-on items. The passenger security checkpoint at Dulles International Airport was operated by Argenbright Security, under contract with United Airlines.
The hijackers were all selected for extra screening of their checked bags. Hanjour, al-Mihdhar, and Moqed were chosen by the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS) criteria, while the brothers Nawaf and Salem al-Hazmi were selected because they did not provide adequate identification and were deemed suspicious by the airline check-in agent. Hanjour, Mihdhar, and Nawaf al-Hazmi did not check any bags for the flight. Checked bags belonging to Moqed and Salem al-Hazmi were held until they boarded the aircraft.
During the boarding process a National Geographic employee took a group photograph of the teachers and students going on the Channel Islands trip and the two employees accompanying them, as well as a picture of the airplane, inadvertently capturing the last images of both the victims and N644AA. Visible in the background of the group photograph is a man whose haircut and dress shirt match that of Nawaf al-Hazmi from Dulles security footage, indicating it may also be the last photograph of any of the Flight 77 hijackers while alive, but this has not been definitely confirmed.
Flight 77 was scheduled to depart for Los Angeles at 08:10; 58 passengers boarded through Gate D26, including the five hijackers. The 53 other passengers on board excluding the hijackers were 26 men, 22 women, and five children ranging in age from three to eleven. On the flight, Hani Hanjour was seated up front in 1B, while Salem and Nawaf al-Hazmi were likewise seated in first class, in seats 5E and 5F. Majed Moqed and Khalid al-Mihdhar were seated farther back in 12A and 12B, in economy class. Flight77 left the gate on time and took off from Runway 30 at Dulles at 08:20. The attacks were already underway by this point, as American Airlines Flight 11 had been hijacked six minutes earlier. Shortly after Flight 77 became airborne, FAA flight controller Danielle O'Brien made a routine handoff of the flight to a colleague at the FAA's Indianapolis Center. For reasons she could not explain and would never fully understand, O'Brien did not use one of her normal sendoffs to the pilots: "Good day," or "Have a nice flight." Instead, she wished them, "Good luck."
Flight 77 reached its assigned cruising altitude of at 8:46 a.m., four minutes after the hijacking of United Airlines Flight 175 commenced and the very same minute Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The final communication between Flight 77 and controllers on the ground occurred four minutes later at 08:50:51, as Hanjour and his team prepared to strike.
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American Airlines Flight 77
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Hijacking
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Hijacking
thumb|alt=Refer to caption|Three frames from the security camera video of Flight77 hitting the Pentagon, the aircraft can be made out on Frame 2 just above the tan post furthest from the building.
The terrorists launched their assault at 08:51, by which point the North Tower had been on fire for around five minutes and Flight 175 was within 12 minutes of striking the South Tower. Flight 93 had also become airborne from Newark at 08:42, but had been delayed on the runway for as long as 42 minutes and would not be seized until 09:28, preventing al-Qaeda's idea to synchronize its takeover with that of Flight 77. Three minutes after the hijacking began, according to the commission, the attackers on Flight 77 were in full control of the aircraft. The modus operandi of Hanjour's group was in stark contrast to the other three teams, in that while the victims were threatened with knives and box cutters, there were no reports of any injuries or deaths prior to the crash; both pilots were spared when the cockpit was breached, and the use of chemical weapons or bomb threats was not reported by either of the two people who made phone calls from the rear of the cabin. At 08:54, as the plane flew in the vicinity over Pike County, Ohio, it began deviating from its normal assigned flight path and turned south. Two minutes later, the plane's transponder was switched off. The flight's autopilot was promptly engaged and set on a course heading eastbound towards Washington, D.C.
The FAA was aware at this point there was an emergency on board the airplane. After learning of a second hijacking involving an American Airlines aircraft and the hijacking of a United Airlines jet, American Airlines' executive vice president Gerard Arpey ordered a nationwide ground stop for the airline. For several minutes, Indianapolis Air Route Traffic Control Center and dispatchers for American Airlines made several failed attempts to contact the hijacked airliner, giving up just as Flight 175 flew into the World Trade Center's South Tower at 09:03. The plane had been flying over an area of limited radar coverage at the time of its hijacking. With air controllers unable to contact the flight by radio, an Indianapolis official declared that it had possibly crashed at 09:09, twenty-eight minutes before it actually did. Sometime between 09:17 and 09:22, Hanjour broadcast a deceptive announcement via the cabin's public address system, advising those aboard that the plane was being hijacked and that their best chance of survival was by not resisting. This tactic was used on Flight 11 and on Flight 93 with the aim of deceiving the passengers and crew into believing the plan was to land the plane after securing a ransom; in both cases, however, the terrorists’ understanding of the internal communication systems used aboard aircraft was evidently not as good as Hanjour's, as they keyed the wrong microphone and broadcast their message to the ground instead. No passengers aboard Flight 11 reported hearing any intercom messages.
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American Airlines Flight 77
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Calls
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Calls
Two people on board the aircraft made a total of three phone calls to contacts on the ground. At 09:12, flight attendant Renee May made a phone call lasting just under two minutes to her mother, Nancy May, in Las Vegas. During the phone call, she made the erroneous claim that "six persons" had forced "us" to the rear of the airplane, but did not explain whether the people crowded together were crew members, passengers, or both. May asked her mother to contact American Airlines, which she and her husband promptly did, although the company was well aware of the hijacking by this point.
At 09:16, Barbara Olson made a call to her husband Ted, quietly explaining that the plane had been hijacked and that those responsible were armed with knives and box cutters. She revealed that everyone, including the pilots, had been moved to the back of the cabin and that the call was being made without the knowledge of the hostage takers. The connection dropped a minute into the conversation. Theodore Olson contacted the command center at the Department of Justice, and tried unsuccessfully to contact Attorney General John Ashcroft. Barbara Olson called again five minutes later, informing her husband of the announcement Hanjour―"the pilot"―made over the loudspeaker, and asked him, "What do I tell the pilot to do?" Inquired of her whereabouts, Barbara replied saying that they were flying low over a residential area. In the background, Ted overheard another passenger mentioning that the plane was flying northeast. He then made his wife aware of the suicide attacks on the World Trade Center, causing her to go quiet; Ted wondered if this meant she had been shocked into silence. After expressing their feelings and reassuring one another, the call cut off for the last time, at 9:26 a.m.
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American Airlines Flight 77
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Crash
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Crash
thumb|right|thumbtime=91|alt=Security footage of Flight 77 hitting the Pentagon at one minute, 27 seconds|Security camera footage of Flight77 hitting the Pentagon. Impact is at 01:27.
At 9:29 a.m., one minute after Flight 93 was hijacked, the terrorists aboard Flight 77 disengaged the autopilot and took manual control of the plane. Turning and descending rapidly as it made its final approach toward Washington, the airplane was detected again on radar screens by controllers at Dulles, who mistook it for a military fighter at first glance due to its high speed and maneuvering.
While Flight77 was west-southwest of the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, it made a 330-degree spiral turn clockwise. By the end of the revolution, the 757 was descending , pointed toward the Pentagon and downtown Washington. Advancing the throttles to full power, Hanjour rapidly began diving toward his target. The wings clipped five street lights as the plane flew level above the ground, while the right wing in particular struck a portable generator, creating a smoke trail seconds before smashing into the Pentagon.
Flying at a speed of over the Navy Annex Building adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery,Goldberg et al., p. 14. Flight77 crashed into the Pentagon's western flank at 09:37:46. The plane struck the establishment at the first-floor level and was rolled slightly to the left, with the right wing elevated as it crashed. The front part of the fuselage immediately disintegrated upon impact, while the mid and tail sections continued moving for another fraction of a second, with tail section debris penetrating farthest into the building. In total, the aircraft took eight-tenths of a second to pass through the three outermost of the structure's five rings and unleashed a fireball that rose above the building. The 64 people aboard the flight were killed instantly, while a further 125 people in the Pentagon were either killed outright or fatally injured.
In the minutes leading up to the crash, Reagan Airport controllers had asked a passing Air National Guard Lockheed C-130 Hercules to identify and follow the aircraft. The pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Steven O'Brien, told them he believed it was either a Boeing757 or 767, observing that its silver fuselage meant it was most likely an American Airlines jet. O'Brien mentioned having difficulty picking out the airplane in the "East Coast haze", but moments later reported seeing a "huge" fireball. His initial assumption as he approached the crash site was that the plane had simply hit the ground, but upon closer inspection he saw the damage done to the Pentagon's west side and relayed to Reagan control, "Looks like that aircraft crashed into the Pentagon, sir."
thumb|left|alt=Refer to caption|Debris from Flight77 scattered near the Pentagon
At the time of the attacks, approximately 18,000 people worked in the Pentagon, 4,000 fewer than before renovations began in 1998.Goldberg et al., p. 3. The section of the Pentagon that was struck, which had recently been renovated at a cost of $250million (~$ in ), housed the Naval Command Center.
right|thumb|upright|alt=Refer to caption|A fire at the Pentagon, with police and EMS in the foreground
The fatalities in the Pentagon included 55 military personnel and 70 civilians. Of those 125 killed, 92 were on the first floor, 31 were on the second floor, and two were on the third.Goldberg et al., pp. 23–24. Seven Defense Intelligence Agency civilian employees were killed while the Office of the Secretary of Defense lost one contractor. The U.S. Army suffered 75 fatalities53 civilians (47 employees and six contractors) and 22 soldierswhile the U.S. Navy suffered 42 fatalitiesnine civilians (six employees and three contractors) and 33 sailors.Goldberg, Alfred, Pentagon 9/11, pp. 208–212. Lieutenant General Timothy Maude, an Army deputy chief of staff, was the highest-ranking military officer killed at the Pentagon; also killed was retired Rear Admiral Wilson Flagg, a passenger on the plane. LT Mari-Rae Sopper, JAGC, USNR, was also on board the flight, and was the first Navy Judge Advocate ever to be killed in action. Another 106 were injured on the ground and were treated at area hospitals.
On the side where the plane hit, the Pentagon is bordered by Interstate 395 and Washington Boulevard. Motorist Mary Lyman, who was on I-395, saw the airplane pass over at a "steep angle toward the ground and going fast" and then saw the cloud of smoke from the Pentagon. Omar Campo, another witness, was on the other side of the road:
Afework Hagos, a computer programmer, was on his way to work and stuck in a traffic jam near the Pentagon when the airplane flew over. "There was a huge screaming noise and I got out of the car as the plane came over. Everybody was running away in different directions. It was tilting its wings up and down like it was trying to balance. It hit some lampposts on the way in." Daryl Donley witnessed the crash and took some of the first photographs of the site.
thumb|left|alt=Refer to caption|Aerial view of the collapsed area and subsequent fire damage
USA Today reporter Mike Walter was driving on Washington Boulevard when he witnessed the crash:
Terrance Kean, who lived in a nearby apartment building, heard the noise of loud jet engines, glanced out his window, and saw a "very, very large passenger jet". While he watched, "it just plowed right into the side of the Pentagon. The nose penetrated into the portico. And then it sort of disappeared, and there was fire and smoke everywhere." Tim Timmerman, who is a pilot himself, noticed American Airlines markings on the aircraft as he saw it hit the Pentagon. Other drivers on Washington Boulevard, Interstate 395, and Columbia Pike witnessed the crash, as did people in Pentagon City, Crystal City, and other nearby locations.
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