Australian Slang
Created | Updated Mar 5, 2007
there is a certain way of speaking that australians, whether we like it or not, are famous for, infamous for and sometimes fairly and sometimes not associated with.
the thriving culture that is australian slang has become stuff of legend, feeding off the people in the outer suburbs of cities, thriving around the barbeque and growing ever stronger in the beer gardens of the country towns.
it is revered as being 'our own' language by those that encourage, embrace or simply can't see anything beyond it, and despised and avoided by many in the art and theatre industries, seeing this way of communication as being 'low brow' and 'redneck', which is, i suppose, often fair enough.
but there is a time and many places when all australians cannot help it. when even the most 'well spoken' folk slip into the howsitgahn? orright ay? side of things. a simple creation that is the obvious lowest common denominator.
beer.
and any other sort of alcohol, but we're dealing in stereotypes anyway, so beer it is.
after a few 'four x golds, nice and cold' (an old australian attempt at haiku), when the tongue is swelling and the goggles are in place, a strange and unspoken competition often takes place.
at some point in any evening at any decent bar in this reasonably large country, people will be attempting to make as many words as they can, and especially more than the person next to them, into one, glorious conglomerative lump of noise that can only often be understood by them, and only then with a helluva lot of concentration, and only in a very small window of opportunity. tourists to australia will have noticed this and hopefully at some point attempted it, as i truly is one of the great unsung artforms of all time.
my best friends wife is a texan. thats texan, not american. she is a wonderful lady and of course we have had many laughs over slight or great language differences and pronunciations, and this led to a realisation of this said artform and a bringing of it to a conscious level.
i hereby challenge ANYONE to link, whether sober or drunk, more words than is our current champion-holding record. i give permission for this to be used as a starting point for drunken slobbering and dribbling of nonsense noise. its magic, its gold, its an example of the very heart of australian language. we made it up pissed as newts, laughin' like galahs, shrimpin' on the barbie, she'll be right cobbering, sheilas, blokes, sheep and guns and all.
the words as spoken in 'proper' or as we now know it 'unimaginative' english are:
you'd better eat a raw egg.
but in true australian they become:
yoodbettaeatarawegg, followed by a closing sentiment along the lines of 'ya w****r'.
try it. it makes me laugh so much it hurts.
and if not, then whatever, you probably think john howards a great 'little aussie battler' with all of us supporting him...
the thriving culture that is australian slang has become stuff of legend, feeding off the people in the outer suburbs of cities, thriving around the barbeque and growing ever stronger in the beer gardens of the country towns.
it is revered as being 'our own' language by those that encourage, embrace or simply can't see anything beyond it, and despised and avoided by many in the art and theatre industries, seeing this way of communication as being 'low brow' and 'redneck', which is, i suppose, often fair enough.
but there is a time and many places when all australians cannot help it. when even the most 'well spoken' folk slip into the howsitgahn? orright ay? side of things. a simple creation that is the obvious lowest common denominator.
beer.
and any other sort of alcohol, but we're dealing in stereotypes anyway, so beer it is.
after a few 'four x golds, nice and cold' (an old australian attempt at haiku), when the tongue is swelling and the goggles are in place, a strange and unspoken competition often takes place.
at some point in any evening at any decent bar in this reasonably large country, people will be attempting to make as many words as they can, and especially more than the person next to them, into one, glorious conglomerative lump of noise that can only often be understood by them, and only then with a helluva lot of concentration, and only in a very small window of opportunity. tourists to australia will have noticed this and hopefully at some point attempted it, as i truly is one of the great unsung artforms of all time.
my best friends wife is a texan. thats texan, not american. she is a wonderful lady and of course we have had many laughs over slight or great language differences and pronunciations, and this led to a realisation of this said artform and a bringing of it to a conscious level.
i hereby challenge ANYONE to link, whether sober or drunk, more words than is our current champion-holding record. i give permission for this to be used as a starting point for drunken slobbering and dribbling of nonsense noise. its magic, its gold, its an example of the very heart of australian language. we made it up pissed as newts, laughin' like galahs, shrimpin' on the barbie, she'll be right cobbering, sheilas, blokes, sheep and guns and all.
the words as spoken in 'proper' or as we now know it 'unimaginative' english are:
you'd better eat a raw egg.
but in true australian they become:
yoodbettaeatarawegg, followed by a closing sentiment along the lines of 'ya w****r'.
try it. it makes me laugh so much it hurts.
and if not, then whatever, you probably think john howards a great 'little aussie battler' with all of us supporting him...
