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neitizens

I notice in another stem there was mention of POHM and other things regarding the early Australia and differences between the Motherland. A while ago now, I did a series of broadcasts on common and shared vernacular between English and Australian . I later put this into a blog called entitled Talking Australia <http://talkingaustralian.blogspot.com.au/>

As a New Australian I was inquisitive to common phrases and their provenance. To be honest I was not altogether convinced these were Australian. To my great surprise over the 13 weeks the series ran, I discovered many interesting things about talking Australian. If you are interested I invite you to read through the blog. However the two main points which fascinated me was; Flash Talk (Prison talk by POHMs), historically predates Cockney Slang (which is commonly thought to be the origin of Flash Talk); and due to the prevalence of media barons such as, Rupert Murdoch and Co., ubiquitous Australian Soaps such as Neighbours and Home and Away have taken Australian phrases and colloquialisms into the lexicon of the English language. In effect we all talk Australian.


toeslayer

 

My wife's theatre company are performing a play entitled 'Dig for The Diggers' shortly. Great play incidentally; a tribute to the WWI Aussie troops who died on our (UK) behalf. As director, I had to research much of the slang used by the main character, and as pointed out above, many Australian terms such as 'cobber', 'chook' and 'tucker' derived from English whilst others, such as 'mate' are in common dual usage. However, 'jumbuck', 'billabong', 'wombat's arse' (as in face like a ...) are pure Aussie. The favour is returned in 'budgerigar'. However, many 'Australianisms' accepted by the UK audience were actually invented by the comedian Barry Humphries aka Dame Edna Everage. The really interesting thing is that his inventions went back to Australia and became accepted as genuine Down Under.

Language is flexible and these additions make it interesting and appealing - long may they continue and supplant the excruciating, ungrammatical or unnecessary 'a moment in time', 'for free' and the 'verbing of nouns'

Bill Liggins

 

Bill

Good on ya bloo and break a leg. ;-)
C