Friday, September 17, 2010

How to speak Australian

Tonight's language lesson:
In 1965, in a noble attempt to help the rest of us understand Australians, Alistair Morrison published Let Stalk Strine, a glossary of terms used Down Under:

air fridge: average

bandry: boundary

dismal guernsey: decimal currency

egg nishner: air conditioner

garbler mince: a couple of minutes

marmon dead: Mom and Dad

rise up lides: razor blades

sag rapes: sour grapes

split nair dyke: splitting headache

stewnce: students

tiger look: take a look

“Aorta mica laura genst all these cars cummer ninner Sinny. Aorta have more buses. An aorta put more seats innem so you doan tefter stan aller toym — you carn tardly move innem air so crairded.”

The book went through 17 impressions in one year, a sign the problem had gotten completely out of hand. Just a few months before it appeared, the English author Monica Dickens had been signing copies of her latest book in a Sydney shop when a woman handed her a copy and said, “Emma Chisit.” Dickens inscribed the volume “To Emma Chisit” and handed it back. “No,” said the woman, leaning forward: “Emma Chisit?”

[via Will Zone]

No comments: