wofa -

MUST be a Bronx thang.

The 'o' sound in "hot" and "cross" is the same in Australian English - and in English English I believe.

As I am fond of saying, Strine is a dialect of short cuts. Don't make a vowel any longer than necessary is the fundamental tenet around here. Other rules are:

- Don't waste time or brainpower acknowledging the sound changes implied by trailing vowels - use them only when absolutely necessary. Hence "here" is oft-pronounced (in Sydney especially) "he" and (in extreme cases) "change" becomes "chain".

- When you barely open your mouth and don't move your lips to talk it's too difficult to draw breath - so don't waste what you've got. Hence it is not usual practice to insert momentary pauses between words. Far better to run them all together. (A well known advertising campaign years ago tapped into this by urging Aussies to "avagoodweegend" by remembering to apply a certain brand of insect repellant. To this day, many of us associate that "one word" with the product.)

stales