Australian Accent

But then Australians won't say "fate" to sound like "fight" for an American accent put-on.

When people (outsiders), who are familiar with Canadian English mock the Canadian pronunciation of "out", in jest, I doubt they truly believe it's just like "oat".

Australian pronunciation sounds like a low class Southern English pronunciation. They should hire an accent coach.

You're welcome, lordsox.

And yes, by itself an Australian's "fate" would sound like "fight" to an American. Luckily we have the gift of context in conversation, and after a few words an American would retune their ears to compensate for the differences between the accents.

>> When people (outsiders), who are familiar with Canadian English mock the Canadian pronunciation of "out", in jest, I doubt they truly believe it's just like "oat". <<

It is just like "oat" if you have, say a Pennsylvanian accent. Canadians tend to have a very back and rounded [o] sound, so "oat" to them would not sound anything like how they say "out", which has a diphthong. Some American accents however, have a diphthong for /o/ which in some dialects is [@U], which is exactly how a Canadian would say "out".

>> But then Australians won't say "fate" to sound like "fight" for an American accent put-on.
<<

I should hope not. Then they would sound like they were saying "foit" for "fate", which is even further from an American accent than their own odd pronunciation of "fate"

You misunderstood. An Australian "fate" [æI] won't be used to parody an American "fight" [aI].