A first look at declarative rises as markers of ethnicity in Sydney

This paper investigates the differing distributions and phonetic properties of declarative rises in the English of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australian speakers from Sydney. Declarative rises in both varieties can be divided into 5 broad contour types based on f0 trajectory. It is shown that Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal speakers use very similar amounts of declarative rises, both overall and within the 5 rise types. However, there is a robust difference in the height of the rises, with Aboriginal speakers consistently producing rises 2 semitones below the standard Australian English speakers. This makes declarative rises a potential marker of ethnicity for the Aboriginal speakers, and highlights the need to look beyond linguistic features that are stereotypically associated with a variety when determining group differences.