Which is interesting, since the first thing that sprang to my mind on seeing the word was an old interview with John Lennon, where he talked about being “raised by my aunty.” Based on that incredibly thorough survey of English usage :), I would have guessed “aunty” to be commonly spoken in England as well.
It is.
I’d spell it “auntie” though.
Using aunty instead of aunt is very common in Northern England at least. Using aunt sounds incredibly formal, (same with calling your mum your mother).
It is; I’m English, and my Great-Aunt, who lived with us when I was little, was universally known as Aunty, even by people who were no relation.
Personally, I refer to my aunts as ‘aunt’ if I’m not naming them, as in ‘I’m visiting my aunt at the weekend’, but if I’m naming them ‘I’m visiting Aunty [name] at the weekend’; Aunt [name] sounds weird and over formal.
Or if you’re in the south it’s “aint”. “Imma visit my aint Sibyl this weekend”
That’s exactly what The Story of English noted about the rising inflection - that it was a vocal feature of younger women. Since those younger women that they portrayed back in 1986 are now middle-aged women, it would be interesting to see if they still had the inflection.
Just out of interest, how do you pronounce aunt?
I’ve always said “Ant” however there are “Awnt” people out there. They’re wrong, of course. So how do you pronounce it? (Even with the unacceptable “Y” on the end.) 
So your Ant is Anty?
All the Arnts in my family are Arnties
You should hear it when we cache our auntie’s data. Hilarity ensues.
This is probably funny, but I’ve no idea what it means. 
Australian pronunciations:
Cache = kaysh
Auntie = ahhnty
Data = dahtah
Data used to be “da-ta” in Canada decades ago, but we lost that battle to “day-ta” long ago.
Next thing you know we’ll be spelling colour without a “u.”
Jeesh!
And once that happens we will no longer be friends…oh who am I kidding everyone knows Aussies and Canadians are cousins. (does that make Queen Liz our Aunty?)
Yeah, considering we’re almost globally opposed we seem to have a lot in common.
Strange really for countries at the opposite end of the planet.
Cheers!
It wasn’t until 1997 that the Toronto Star even spelled it with a u
As I recall my Canadian Press and Globe and Mail style guides in the early 1980s, American spellings (color, harbor, etc.) were preferred because they tended to be shorter, and thus could be transmitted by wire quicker. Dig into the archives of the Star, Globe, Vancouver Sun, Calgary Herald, and so on, and you’d be amazed at how many American spellings appeared in Canadian print media. Heck, when “smoking area” laws started being passed in the late 1970s/early 1980s, the Globe was notorious for spelling “cigarette” as “cigaret.”
Today, with the Internet, that no longer makes sense. The Star and the Globe and the other Canadian newspapers can use Canadian spellings.
Is Australian uptalk/rising inflection derived from valleyspeak or are they separate phenomena? The adoption of rising inflection by Irish youths has often been blamed on either the popularity of American TV shows and movies that have people talking valley or the popularity of Australian soap operas.
I find their language entertaining and amusing, but sometimes baffling. The one that always stumps me is the word, “chuff”. I can never tell, just from the context, what the hell they mean. It’s often employed right at the end of the sentence, like a crowning glory. I’m never sure, when they use it if it’s a good thing or a bad thing. I always have to ask!
“I’m chuffed” means “I’m pleased”.
And is used in the UK as well.