Case study: Arnott's Shapes and the parma/parmi debate

News.com.au - Spelling of Arnott's new chicken parmigiana-flavoured shapes causes heated debate

In August 2020, Arnott's Shapes released two different versions of their chicken parmigiana-flavoured biscuits.

There is a long-standing debate in Australia regarding the two different shortenings, 'parma' and 'parmi', and Arnott's took the opportunity to add a linguistic twist to their marketing campaign.

While the parma/parmi divide is a great example of regional variation in Australian English, the geographical lines are not as clear-cut as you might think. Stereotypically, 'parma' is the Victorian variation and 'parmi' is used in New South Wales, but once you venture outside the major cities, this rule does not always hold true.