Australian English

Grudgingly, Australians have to admit that ‘g’day’ is not a Hollywood stereotype. We really do greet each other that way. And men really do use the word ‘mate’ – when they can’t remember a name, or they want an alternative to ‘um’, or they’re about to stab someone in the back. The traditional Australian concept of ‘mateship’ (loyalty to fellow drinkers) and the requirement that men do favours for each other ‘under the Old Mates’ Act have become tainted in recent times by being used to rationalise corruption in politics and the police force.

Usages that now seem unique to Australian English most often came from obscure dialects spoken by the convicts – like swag (knapsack), larrikin (an amusingly mischievous person), open slather (complete freedom), shout (buy a round of drinks) and skerrick (tiny particle). The original Australians gave us hundreds of place names, and contributed about 100 words to everyday modern conversation – from kangaroo and dingo to ‘gone bung’ (broken), ‘hard yakka’ (work) and ‘within cooee’ (shouting distance).

But many traditional usages are being replaced by Americanisms. Hardly anybody calls women ‘sheilas’ any more, ‘fair dinkum’ and ‘true blue’ would be confined to older denizens of rural areas, and ’cobber’ and ‘bonzer’ went out with the arrival of television in 1956. Sadly, our congratulatory ‘goodonya’ is giving way to ‘go for it’. But we still mystify Americans by referring to an unfashionable person as ‘a dag’ (literal meaning: a bit of wool from around a sheep’s bottom), a pretentious person as a ‘wanker’ and self-indulgent behaviour as ‘a big wank’ (the American translation is ‘jerk-off’).

We’d never throw a shrimp on the barbie (since we call that crustacean a prawn) but we do still like our diminutives. The garbos are likely to have a smoko in the arvo. Unless they’re taking a sickie. And no-one would be surprised to receive an invitation to a poolside party in these terms: ‘We thought we’d give the kiddies their Chrissie pressies by the barbie this year, so bring some tinnies, your cossie and something to stop the mossies’.