The Acoustic Characteristics of /hVd/ Vowels in the Speech of some Australian Teenagers*I wish to thank Sallyanne Palethorpe for advice on acoustic and statistical techniques and for assistance with interjudge reliability. I am also grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions and to the 120 teenagers who offered their voices for this analysis.

The study presents an acoustic examination of the 18 stressed monophthongs and diphthongs of Standard Australian English, detailing the frequency and durational characteristics of these vowels produced in the hVd context by 60 male and 60 female adolescent talkers from Sydney. It entails a rigorous acoustic analysis using objective signal processing techniques to detail vowel structure in a strictly controlled fashion. The paper additionally provides the first large-scale published analysis of vowels produced by Australian females and compares vowel formant and durational characteristics across the sexes. The results provide a point of reference for those who require detailed acoustic information about Standard Australian English vowel production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]