Yeah I know the official language of Australia is English, but the Queen's English it is not. We are such a multicultural country and have been right from the beginning, it's only natural we adopt words and in turn these same words evolve into others. Everyday words like kangaroo, dingo, boomerang, cooee and yakka all come from Aboriginal languages. Sheila comes from an Irish girl's name Sile and dinkum is rumoured to have been derived from Hokkien.
So we have all these different words - naturally phrases evolve from these. Stone the crows and starve the lizards (meaning = incredulence) ! My dad and people of that era used these and many others.
Kel Richards calls this OBV - Old Bush Vernacular. He says "Flowing quietly beneath the surface of even the most urban and streetwise Australians is a deep reservoir of what I call OBV - Old Bush Vernacular. This reservoir is there to be dipped into and employed when the need is felt." See part 2!
2 comments:
I have to admit that when I hear Australians talking, it does sound like they are speaking a different language! The people from our east coast here also have their own 'language'!
LOL Jane, there are differences between our states too. I am ashamed to admit I can't tell the difference between Canadian and American accents (and I would hate to call a Canadian an American!). Any pointers?
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