Having spent my eight-month-stay between Sydney and Brisbane, respectively State capitals of New South Wales and Queensland, sharing Australians' life, and having also travelled a bit to other cities and States of the East Coast, I feel I must share my affection for this vast, exciting country and help you feel the very heartbeat of its rich and diverse existence. In this report, I am going to analyse and share what I discovered in Oz (Australia) about a country I fell in love with and the culture of its inhabitants. Thanks to this and to the research I made, I am now able to partly explore this fascinating and amazing culture. There were many ways of analysing the Aussie (= Australian) culture. So why did I choose to explore the Australian slang or Strine? Firstly, because what better means to get to know a person and his culture than to discover and learn his language? In psycholinguistics, there are two beliefs; the first one shows that its human experience which shapes a language, whereas the second one tends to think that a language shapes the human mind. Accordingly to these two beliefs, I will first analyse the influences which have shaped the Strine, and then in a second part what are the consequences of the Aussie slang on its speakers in their everyday lives. You could be wondering what makes Australian English (AuE) such an extremely rich and interesting language. Throughout its history it has been influenced and built by four main sources.
[...] Yet, verlan, and more particularly reverlan, terms can be extremely vulgar and low-class and are more used by youngsters, but in Australian English, rhyming slang can sometimes be used in formal conversations and is more used by people from the third generation. Consequently I would suggest using these techniques sparingly when translating. However, as we have already seen, sometimes in addition to the dropping of the second word, Australians add the abbreviation of the first word. For instance, the evolution of septic tank goes to seppo. [...]
[...] Among Aussie (pronounced people, you may see Abos / Boongs (the Australian equivalent of Niggers) who are the Indigenous Australian people (even if they are not, properly speaking, strangers, they are not really integrated into the Australian society), Anglo-Celtic people or Skips / Skippies who are people of English, Scottish, Welsh or Irish descent, Asians who are from East or Southeast Asia, Indians or Curry munchers, who are people from the Indian sub-continent, Lebos or Lebs, who are of Lebanese descent, Poms / Pommies, who are the English, Yanks / Seppos or Septics who are American, a few Frogs / Froggies, who are French men (equivalent of the French term “rosbifs” in order to call English people), Oil Slicks, who are Greeks, and many Wogs, who refers to any immigrant from the Mediterranean. [...]
[...] Consequently, we can say the Australian lifestyle and language's primary basis an Anglo-Celtic low-class (and particularly Cockney) culture, up to the mid-20th century. Hiberno-English influence Hiberno-English is another name for Anglo-Irish or Irish English. Given that many Australians are of Irish descent, Hiberno-English has influenced AuE to a certain extent. One of the most obvious characteristics is the pronunciation of the letter instead of pronouncing as people do in North America, Britain and New Zealand ("aitch", /æɪtʃ/); Australians pronounce it as "haitch", /hæɪtʃ/. [...]
[...] o General Australian English; this is the stereotypical variety; most of the population use it, and it is the English spoken in most of Australian pictures around the world. o Cultivated Australian English; this last one has become extremely rare, and is extremely similar to British accent. Nowadays, it is perceived as “affected” and in Australia. Now, I am going to show the Australian language through different aspects of the everyday life Casual occupations Relation to food One of the things I most loved about Australia was the diversity of food I could find there. [...]
[...] Derived from an Australian Prime Minister, who disappeared while swimming in the sea, in 1967. = éclair Horse's hoof. Poof (homosexual). = tapette, tante Jack and Jill. Restaurant bill or, depending on context, contraceptive pill. = addition = pilule (contraceptive) Joe Blakes. The shakes. Joe(y) Blake. Snake. = serpent Johnny Horner. Corner. = coin, virage Loaf. Head. From loaf of bread. = tête Morton Bay fig. Wig. = perruque Oxford scholar. Dollar. = dollar Plates (of meat). Feet. = pieds Pot of good cheer. [...]
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