Palatalization of /t, d, s, z/

AusE shares with a number of other English dialects a possible realization of /t, d, s, z/ preceding the GOOSE vowel [u] either as the as [t^j, d^j, s^j, z^j] or the corresponding palatals /ʧ, ʤ, ʃ, Ʒ/. Thus the following variants regularly occur:

Horvath (1985) found that the palatalized consonants occurred more frequently when the following [u] was in an unstressed syllable (attitude, fortune, educate, insulate) than when it was stressed, as in the preceding list of words. In examining the lexicon, a great deal of variability is found: in some cases, e.g., fortune and educate, the Macquarie Dictionary lists only the [ʧ] and [ʤ], respectively, and these are certainly not only the standard AusE pronunciations but also the most usual. However, for attitude the dictionary shows only [t^j] and for insulate only the palatal [ʃ] and these do tend to vary across the speech community, although ['ætətʃud] may well be heard more often than ['ɪns^jleɪt]. The makers of the Macquarie Dictionary recognized the high degree of variability in the pronunciations of /tj/ and /dj/ and chose to record the way the words would most likely be pronounced by speakers of Cultivated Australian. The results of Horvath’s study suggested that men, young people, and the speakers from the working class were most likely to use the palatals.