So Does Anyone Speak Like An Aussie Anymore

I see that one of the trending items on Facebook today is a video titled “How To Talk Like An Aussie”.

Watching it made me realize that not as many people do speak like Aussies anymore, and I am wondering if this is a result of our being part of a more ‘global’ community these days?

For years our television watching has been dominated by shows from the US, and to a lesser extent Great Britain, and I am guessing that this has been part of the process.

It’s nothing new of course, I can still remember playing cowboys as a youngster and arguing with my brother about who was going to be “Jim” or “Bill” and what we should call our horses (nowadays of course, I’d call them broom sticks!).

The video referred to above talks about Aussies calling St Vincent de Paul Vinnies, the Salvation Army the Salvos, and a can of beer a tinny (also the name for a metal dinghy).

But is that all there is to Australian slang?

In fact, are these Australian words at all?

The reason I’m asking that is that the origins of a lot of our sayings are in fact British and Irish.

Anyone from Australia would quickly identify sayings and slang from those countries, which is only natural, as they provided the bulk of migrants during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Now, wouldn’t that rip the fork out of your nightie?

I wrote about this topic here back in 2008. Might be worth a look while you’re here!