A is for Aussie…
December 16, 2006
Filed under Distractions
Ok, an admission: I’m Australian. And proud of it. This means that in a global medium like a blog, if I write like I speak, I’m prone to drop in Aussie idioms that mean nothing (& sound wierd) to blokes (men) from other countries.
So let’s slowly work our way through the Australian language a letter at a time. Then you’ll have something to refer to when decoding my stories…
A is for -
- Aussie: pronounced Ozzie (as in Osbourne) not Ossie as I often hear it pronounced in the USA. As I’ll show you at the other end of the alphabet, we Aussies love the “z” sound and put it in as many words as possible (e.g. mozzies rather than mosquitos). To be Aussie, you have to speak a form of English, shun class-consciousness, believe in egalitarianism, drop the “r” at the end of any word (replacing it with “ah”), use the word ”mate” for people you like and dislike, AND eat Vegemite and like it!
- Ankle-biter: small child. I’m not sure if this is exclusively Australian but we use it a lot anyway.
Any Aussies out there feel free to contribute a couple more that are terms Australian Dads are likely to use.
Reason 2 I couldn’t be an Aussie. I couldn’t eat vegemite and like it no matter how hard I tried. Of course the first being obvious…I’m buried in a snow storm in Colorado where I was born and raised. Although I did go through a stage where I sounded like a Canadian with “Eh?” on the end of everything.
That’s understandable, eh? But I have to ask – have you tried Vegemite? I mean, I tried Pecan pie and pumpkin pie and peanut butter & jelly sandwiches – once. Wouldn’t do any of them again but I gave them a try.
Ah well, one person’s poison is another’s vegemite.