Fair Dinkum Aussie Phrases - How to Speak 'Straylian

God bless 'Straylia! For keeping local dialect alive and kicking. The Aussies have their own unique vernacular of some five thousand plus expressions, making them the world leaders in non standard linguistics. Or slang. Strewth. 

 

I for one love the local Aussie slang, and think they should use it proudly, before the next generation get consumed by Americanism. You can easily google much more definitive lists than this one, but these are the the most common ones I've heard, and some of the funniest for a pom. Have a read and have a chuckle, especially at the context of when I first heard some of them. 

Yeah - Nah.

Ask an Aussie a question, and don't be surprised when you get a response of 'Yeah - Nah.' You may think that they simply can't be bothered answering, or don't know the answer (which is quite likely if it's a question on anything other than footy.) But it actually could mean one of two things. According to the Age, it's a form of 'non-committal expression', a sort of 'maybe'. Linguistics expert Professor Burridge says "Yeah - Nah" is also a form of verbal cuddling -agreeing to disagree with you but in a nice way. I tend to go with the former, as I've never found an Aussie who is too shy to tell you exactly what 's on their mind. Getting them to do anything about it on the other hand, is a completely different issue. 

'Straylia
Since Australians love shortening words, it is no surprise that they've taken to cutting their own country down to size. Something the Kiwis would also like to do. The city folk would have you believe it's their country cousins and bogan folk who use it, but don't be fooled. The 'Au' bit of Australia is left silent pretty much across the board. Whilst you're musing over to whether to use this, remember that the shortened form for a 'Straylian is an 'Aussie' - always pronounced 'Ozzie'. You'll probably hear this in the unofficial national anthem, "Ozzie, Ozzie, Ozzie... Oi, Oi, Oi." Sung only when drunk.  

Bush
Most people would recognise this as the word for 'the great outdoors.' You know tramping through the wilderness in your hiking boots, loaded down with a fully loaded back pack. Not so the Aussies. They consider a walk in the local park as a 'bush walk' even if it lasts for half an hour. Even when they do venture further afield, they tend to sit on their arses eating and drinking all day. This unwillingness to venture into the real bush could have something to do with the various deadly snakes out there, and may also explain why so few Aussies have ever seen one. We're pretty adventurous bush walkers and have seen six or seven snakes in our four years here. Proof that real Aussies never go out into the bush, or that snakes hate poms.

Feeling Crook
Nothing to do with breaking the law, generally used in the phrase, 'I'm feeling crook.' Translation: 'I'm a spineless lazy bastard, I'm entitled to use my full quota of sick days, and I can't be arsed coming to work today.' Very common behaviour, especially in the twenty to twenty nine year old age group, and working mums. 'I'm feeling crook' is a message generally sent by text.

Hump Day
I was first introduced to this phrase by a young Malaysian girl in the office. 'Happy Hump Day'. She said with a smile. 'Too much info', I replied, as she wandered off with a confused  look. I later realised that Australians didn't actually have a specific day in the week dedicated to shagging. That would get in the way of drinking beer or watching footy. Hump Day is in fact generally a Wednesday, and is referred to as a good sign that the weekend is almost here. Which means drinking beer or watching footy is close.

 

 
 

Footy
The sport originally invented to give locals something to do on an Oval when the cricket season was over, somehow became the local religion. It seems nothing else matters to the majority of Aussies. Young or old. The first question you get asked when you move here is 'who do you barrack for?' Some states even dedicate a day off school for the championship game. Don't confuse it with soccer, ouch, or get your footy codes mixed up in each state. 'Footy' is short for football, but which form of football depends on geography. You don't follow? Then, wait 'til you see a game, you'll be even more baffled.

Hoon

They're all around you by day, indistinguishable from everyone else. 'Hoon' is Aussie for hooligan. Only spotted at night behind the wheel of a V8 Ute, blazing wheel spins, and racing through suburbia. Steer clear of them, and don't be tempted to toot your horn. Road rage here is on a whole other level, hoons get as mad as a cut snake real quick. They will stop their feral Ute, confront you and inflict physical pain. You might be lucky and just get a mouthful of abuse. Which has happened to me more than once (it seems you have to apologise for almost being killed.) Either way, you'll be looking for a change of reg grundies. (That's 'Straylian for underwear.)
 

Gaytime

A colleague of mine stood up in a meeting and proudly proclaimed that 'I used to love Gaytime when I was at school'. He did it without any hint of irony. Wow, the school system must really be liberal to have it on the timetable. Hang on a minute. Gaytime is actually a popular icy pole? What's an icy pole? Oh, you mean ice lolly. No a lolly is a sweet. Holy crap, what's any of it got to do with being gay? Nothing? Thank goodness for that.    

How Ya Goin'?
This is one phrase you need to adopt if you don't want to stand out. It's often used simply to start a conversation, and nobody really expects you to respond, with anything other than a simple 'Hello.' It's the equivalent of 'How are you today?' or 'Alright?' in the UK or 'What's Up?' in the states. To truly to say it like a 'Straylian - it's pronounced more like 'how ya goyin'. More common, believe it or not, than 'G'Day', especially in the cities. This is a phrase that confuses a lot of non-english speakers, who have been known to answer it literally, and when asked 'How ya goyin?', they answer 'In my car.' Oh dear.  

Manchester
Normally associated with a cool urban music scene, a dance club culture, or even mega rich and glamorous football clubs. Not here. Manchester = bed linen. And crap polyester bed linen at that. Generally, found in huge piles at your local Target department store, at extortionate prices. No, I'm not twisting your melons, man. It's true.  

 

Shortening Words
Aussies  wear boardies, eat bickies, drink coldies and have barbies. They are posties and pollies, ambos, vegos, Salvos, tradies and journos. Not all of the diminutives are exclusive to Australia, but with more than 4300 recorded in their lexicon, Aussies use more clipped words than any other English speakers. Laziness or just can't spell? You decide. Probably the latter.

 

Good Onya.

'Good Onya' is the local way to say 'good on you' and is the equivalent of a simple phrase such as 'nice one' or 'well done'. Much to annoyance of my wife, 'good onya' and 'how ya goyin' have both crept into my own vocabulary. She thinks they sound stupid unless you have an Aussie accent, which I don't . There are plenty that think they sound stupid anyway. She is at least grateful that they have replaced 'howzit' and 'ay' in my repertoire, words I picked up after several visits to our Johannesburg office in my last job.

 

She'll Be Right.
If they're not sure about something, but they hope it will work out ok, then the Aussies will always say "She'll be right, mate." Word of warning: it's not often well thought through. If the last person on the Titanic had been an Australian, and seen all fifteen hundred people perish and was looking the iceberg right in the face, he or she would still say 'she'll be right mate.' So yes, it's generally used as an expression of hopeless optimism rather than one with insightful judgement.

One to avoid...
 

Wog

You'll be shocked, even speechless, when you first hear this word casually dropped into conversation. It went out with the gollywog dolls as acceptable in most civilised cultures. In Australia, it refers to immigrants, especially Greeks who arrived after the Second World War. Even if one of the most popular films in recent times was called 'Wogboy', it's still a word best left to die shamefully, and never used. The Greeks will use it amongst themselves in a humorous way, and I heard it used only last week. But leave it strictly to them.

And finally....

Americanisms

The fear of Aussie historians. Is the US infiltration killing off Aussie slang? Officially Mandarin is the second most common language behind English, but you could argue it's actually American. 'Guys' is becoming more common than 'blokes' and 'Sheila's'; 'buddy' is occasionally replacing the cherished 'mate'. I rarely hear fair dinkum, 'cobber' or 'bonzer'? Worse. Aussie schools accept both the US and English spelling of words like 'rumor' and 'rumour'. Whose language is it anyway? If they start dropping 'like' in every other sentence. I'm leaving. 'Maybe the National Trust can do something about protecting our language instead of worrying all the time about old buildings' asked The Age, with their tongue planted firmly in their cheek. I don't think that was such a bad idea.