G'day Pete M and Alan of Oz,

I concur that most of us mainlanders lengthen Launceston from local pronunciation ~"Lonseston" to "Lawnsesston". I also remember that my wife's grandmother (born 1876, in Hobart, grew up in Kempton and other parts of rural Tasdmania, survived to be oldest living Australian before her death in 1984) always pronounced it "Lonst'n".

Her husband was from the prosperous mercantile family of Ellises (quietly descended from an ancestral Ellis transported from Devon, for embezzling 5 shillings and sixpence). His accent may have influenced hers, as her family, the Stonehouses, had come from Durham.

Still, Tasmania is one of the few places in Australia where a clearly recognisable accent is noticed by the average broad Australian speaker. I well remember hitching up in the north east of Tassie in 1965. I asked a local how much further it was to the next town and was told it was "... a fur piece along the bittuhmen..".

Regards,

Bob Bolton