Hi all!
I'm
Custos and am here as a guest author of this blog as promised and would like to introduce what I’m going to go into later on.
As you can see up there, around the headline, I’ll run the new AussiEnglish section of this blog and it’s not hard to come to realise that it’s all going to be about Australian English (abbr. AustralE). It’ll be normally only focused on AustralE, but you'll be able to find some New Zealand English (abbr. NZE), too. I’m going to use British English (abbr. BrE) or sometimes North American English (abbr. NAmE), if it’s necessary.
As AustralE grammar is not that different from BrE or NAmE, I’m going to deal with its rich colloquialism (Colloquial Column) (=a word or phrase that is used in conversation but not in formal speech or writing) and some slang (Slang Section).
Probably, there’ll be sometimes short exercises at the end of the posts which you can try to solve and write your answers/questions in comments (Engrossing Exercises).
Well, I’m done. Let’s try it, I’ll give you a taste of things to come. :)
Colloquial Column
AustralE colloquial words and phrases are often only a shortened form of a ‘normal’ word. Sometimes the ending ‘-ie’ or ‘-o’ is then added, e.g. a truckie is ‘a truck or lorry-driver’ and a milko delivers the milk; beaut, short form of ‘beautiful’ means ‘great’ and biggie is ‘a big one’. Oz is short for Australia and an Aussie (also Ozzie) is an Australian.
Slang Section
As this blog is closely connected to and read by a lot of LGBT people, I thought it’d be a great idea to present some AustralE words relating to homosexuality and sexual orientation. Attention: These words can only be found in Australia.
Australians may refer to a male homosexual as poofter, pooftah or poofteroo (also can be woofter or wooftah) which are derogatory (=showing a critical attitude towards somebody; insulting). They’re derived from another slang word for male homosexuals poof, which is used nearly in every type of English. Tonk and wonk are also likely to be found connected to gays but they’re not that offensive. Shirtlifter is another ‘funny’ word which is insulting, however, I find quite interesting how it might have come into being.
A female homosexual may be called a leso, lezo or lezzo.
And finally, a homosexual’s pimp (=a man who controls prostitutes and lives on the money that they earn) can be referred to as a poofter rorter.
Engrossing Exercises
What do you think these examples of Australian colloquialisms mean? They are all formed by abbreviating an English word which you probably know. Good luck! :)
1. I’m exhausted – let’s have a smoko!
2. She wants to be a journo when she leaves uni.
3. We got terribly bitten by mozzies at yesterday’s barbie.
4. He’s planning to do a bit of farming bizzo while he’s in the States.
5. What are you doing this arvo?
6. We decided to have a party as the olds had gone away for the weekend.
(This task is from McCarthy, Michael & Felicity O’Dell: English Vocabulary in Use – Upper-Intermediate, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007, 199.)
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Koala, Australia trip 1984 by Ed Yourdon on flickr
