Bish and Hutch: much of our slang in Aussie is derived from the Brits. After all, up until the end of WWII, Britain was very much ‘the mother country’. Since then the American influence has changed much. Terms like ‘buddy’, ‘french fries’, ‘patio’ and ‘lounge room’, etc have now become common place and the pre 1950’s Aussie idiom has become very watered down.
The reason I use the term ‘American influence’ is because, since the 1950’s, Australia has embraced much American culture. Supermarkets, rock’n roll, fast food, etc, were all unknown in Oz before then. What I don’t understand and personally dislike intensely, is the more recent fascination of our kids with American gang culture, its violence, ‘dress codes’ and sub-culture. To me it is so alien to our way of life, but a lot of the kids in the cities are drinking it up.
Yes, when I met my Kentucky wife (I am from New England), it was like she spoke her own language of Kentucky-ese. When she and her sister-in-law spoke, I could barely follow along.
A work, a Puerto Rican woman who speaks mainly Spanish could not understand one of the managers from Alabama. I would have to translate for her.
One of my brothers had a strong New England accent and i had trouble understanding him sometimes. He had never been past N.Y.C. or Penn, until he went to college ouit in N.M. He took care of the language barrier problem with me. If I didn’t do what he said, he would just knock me down.
Speaking of ‘knocking someone down’, I once saw an American sailor call an Auzzie a ‘POME’ . . . for a second there I thought the OZ-man was gonna kill him. I intervened with a fresh beer and probably saved the guys life.
I’m from Vermont and went to college on Long Island, everyone there sounded like My Cousin Vinny and Marisa Tomei.
“Yous” short for “you guys” pronounced “use” is the New York version of “you all” or y’all.
If the student was from farther east on the Island like Nassau County or Suffolk County, their accent was less pronounced than those from the border towns of Nassau County and Queens or Brooklyn.
It can sometimes drive you crazy with the different dialects.
Question…When and how did the name for Australia become OZ? It must have happened sometime when I was in Okinawa or not long thereafter. I have asked some of the people I know but nobody seems to have any idea. That’s what I get for hanging around colonials I guess.
In Chicago, “you guys” is pronounced youz. Such as, “Are youz goin’ toda Jewel?” ( Are you guys going to the Jewel Food Store). The g is always dropped in words ending in “ing”. Obama does that all the time.
Lt. Christopher Herrmann on Chicago Fire has a typical Chicago accent.
We Aussies have a tendency to abbreviate or contract almost every other word, sometimes tacking an “o” or “a” on the end.
Eg:
Woolworths (supermarket) - Woolies
Service (gas) station - Servo
Bottle (liquor) shop - Bottlo (pronounced “bottle-oh”)
McDonalds - Maccas
Afternoon - Arvo
People’s names get a similar treatment
Damien - Damo
David - Davo
John (or surname Johnson) - Johnno
One thing I did find that confused American shop assistants is the typical Aussie reply to the simple “Can I help you?”. If you ask an Australian “Can I help you?”, they may reply No, I’m right thanks. Right about what? Well nothing really, it’s simply a contraction of alright.
I grew up in the Chicago area…but as a transplant from Cleveland, where the accent isn’t quite so ‘mixed’ Midwestern.
The first time I had occasion to see a drop-dead, supermodel-beautiful woman…talking like ‘da coach’ D*ck Butkus…my mind was just sort of rudely crowbarred out of its happy place… [:S]
(Of course, I got over it… [6])
And now I live in Bawl’mer…where everybody tocks normal, Hon, and we sometimes warsh our cloves in the zink…