A question for the AussIEs

dirtyRU

dirtyRU

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Don't believe I have ever been more acclamated to the good people down under than I have been in the last couple weeks reading this forum.
One thing I've noticed is that you guys can take any word, and make it your own by adding "ie" or "y" to the end of it. Am i the only one that notices this?! Just something i would like to pick your brains on :poke: :iconwink:
 
yeah, I think we do a lot of that. Brisbane is easy. Bloody Melbourne is a problem for us though, just can't do anything with it. Over to the Vics!:iconwink:
 
Yeah, but Canberra has more than that problem- the real problem being the boofheads who we pay so much to get so much wrong
 
^ that's why we call it "Can't berra".

Tassie, Brissie, Rocky; but wadda we do with Perth?

And - if you want to talk Kiwi just interchange "i" and "e" e.g. "sex" is 6. "penny" is "pinny".
 
A few years ago I did a tour of Italy- marvellous place- and I met up with a lot of Americans and Canadians. The Americans had difficulty distinguishing the Ausssie accent fromt the Pommy accent! Then we met a Kiwi with a very thick Kiwi accent, and after he and I both spoke, I expected the Americans to hear the differences in the accents- especially as the Kiwi had such a thick accent. But they could not.

I have spoken to Canadians and even they cannot tell the difference between a Canadian accent and and an American accent- unless the American is from the south. But even I can do that! But I love the British and Irish accents. Meeting or communicating with people from other lands is something I have long enjoyed. I cannot wait to get back to Europe and the UK- the history there is something I seem addicted to
 
haha, why do you think they always get actors from australia or the uk to play our american western movies!? 3:10 to Yuma is a fine example with Russ Crow & Christian Bale. They do it better than half the rednecks in the south!
I did work with a kiwi once, the accent was so thick that you couldn't understand the gibberish coming outta his mouth. I always got a kick out of it when he & the other british guy i worked with would start mouthing off to each other after a couple drinks. great times....
 
When I was touring Canada I thought the town Regina rhymed with Ribena until I heard the locals pronounce it - rhymes with a part of the female anatomy..
 
The other thing we tend to do as aussies is shorten eachother's names for a nickname. In the case that we can't shorten it we will lengthen it :lol:

As for melbourne its either referred to us as simply melbs or the big smoke - cos that's what it is!

Cheers

Bennie
 
my04tone said:
Never called it Melbs or the big smoke, funny that, but then again i live here.
Click to expand...

I still remember in the mid 90's when on a sunny day the city of melbourne would have a dome of brown smog covering the city. I also remember when a southerly wind would pick up after a warm sunny day and blow it up in our direction. Its amazing what you can smell on the wind that's so far away from you. In this case you could see the brown smog around the area much like you can see a bush fire in vic from tassie if the wind is right...

Cheers

Bennie
 
What about that huge dust storm a few years back when you couldn't see the city of Melbourne? Oh, and my location on this forum has long been The Big Smoke, and I'm not in Melbourne!
 
I remember in the 80's when the city got covered in bushfire smoke and it was choking. Same with the last fires that burnt out Marysville on Black Saturday. And the dust storm off the desert was just as bad covered everything.

Its nice on a hot day when that evening Sth Westerly blows in though.
 
dirtyRU said:
Don't believe I have ever been more acclamated to the good people down under than I have been in the last couple weeks reading this forum.
One thing I've noticed is that you guys can take any word, and make it your own by adding "ie" or "y" to the end of it. Am i the only one that notices this?! Just something i would like to pick your brains on :poke: :iconwink:
Click to expand...

Ahh, the great Australian diminutive.

The definitive book on the Australian dialect was written back in the 60's by Afferbeck Lauder. Titled "Let Stalk Strine" (Translation: "Let's Talk Australian") it sought to demistify the Antipodean version of "English". So important was this work that it's still in print nearly 50 years later.

<<https://www.penguin.com.au/products/9781921520853/strine-complete-works-professor-afferbeck-lauder>>

As far as the diminutive is concerned I believe it could come from several origins.

One, as postulated by Lauder and others, is that due to the generally hot climate, excessive physical exertion of any kind is anathema, so words are shortened or abbreviated as much as possible.

Another theory is that it's a way of reinforcing the egalitarian nature of Australian society by abbreviating otherwise pompous (posh) sounding words.

A third is that words are pronounced in a way that avoids opening the mounth too far, thereby reducing the chances of accidentally inhaling bush flies which are abundant in the warmer seasons. The "y" or "ie" sound requires less opening of the mouth (and teeth) than the rounder vowels.

Frankly it's an area that is crying out for serious academic study but it's going to be 40C (104F) today and since it's new year's eve and it's POETS day (Piss Off Early, Tomorrow's Saturday) I simply can't be bothered.

Avagoodweegend....
 
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I think I'll go with #3 also :cool:

I also like that idea about POETS day indeed :quitar:

Regards
Mr Turbo
 
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