I've noticed lately when I go to the library that a lot of people are sending or receiving cell phone calls.
Anyhoo, full grown adults will tell the other person that they are at the "liberry".
One word I've always struggled with is February. It should be pronounced Febrooary...but it's much easier to say Feb
uary, and leave out that R.
We often mangle those too but again slightly differently, and if anything even worse!
Not all the time, we can and do 'talk nice' when we have to, (to tourists etc) but tend to get 'casual' among ourselves sometimes.
The usual lazy mispron~s heard are:
Translation: Library = lie bree .... February = Feb ree, Feb yew ree, even Febba ree (My own bad habit is Febra wary
)
For some odd reason January fares better but sometimes it's Janya ree or Jan yew ree.
Weekdays are often dees or even tees, as in Mundee Tyewsdee Wensdee Thersdee Frydee Sattee/Sadda dee and Sundee.
We abbreviate shamelessly too. Everything we possibly can. Dropping half a word or phrase and replacing it with ee or o does the trick.
e.g. Biscuits are bikkies, never cookies (except on deceptive packet labels). We rarely hear the word cookie except pertaining to computers, or as a very brave man's nickname for his wife.
A Service/Gas station is pronounced Servo, a Bowling club is the Bolo.
We transpose double Rs in names to Zs, Barry = Baz or Bazza. Sharron = Shaz or Shazza. It's more a tongue in cheek 'familiarity' tradition than laziness and only spoken that way to those who are well known or friends.
Complicated innit? Gets worse, different States and cities have different quirks and terms. Even different suburbs do. Things have changed.
Back in the early 50s a study found that Australia was one of very few 'Westernised' Countries where it was impossible to tell which region a person had grown up in as it was the most homogenous language and accent around. From Perth to Sydney, country and city we sounded much the same. (Except of course for ABC news readers who talked like toffy Poms.)
It's quite sobering to watch a really old newsreel and hear how very differently we sounded and spoke back then.
I'd hazard a guess that OZ has been the fastest evolving English language changer on the planet.
In 60 years we've progressed from being Nationally homogenous to being able to pinpoint a person's origins to a particular group of suburbs in Sydney, or as coming from Perth 'Pirrith' from their 'accent' alone. We instantly recognise that someone who says muick for milk is from Adelaide, and those who end a sentence with eh? and can still say six, which eliminates Kiwis, have been in Queensland too long.
We've absorbed the various and numerous different cultures/terms/accents/phrasing from immigrants and media and adapted them into our language, for good or bad. So much for multiculturalism, the 'old' Aussies are the ones who have assimilated.
I never understood why people refer to the Aussie drawl because we speak a lot faster than many, Americans and Canadians in particular. We have to slow it down to be comprehended, my Canadian friend was always waving me down to a slower speed.
Now it has speeded up even more and the acronyms and abbreviations make it harder to follow younger conversations than ever sometimes.
It's kind of sad for we older 'ears', but that's how it goes for a 'living' language.
)
Now it has speeded up even more and the acronyms and abbreviations make it harder to follow younger conversations than ever sometimes.
