Australian English vocabulary

Australian English is a major variety of the English language spoken throughout Australia. Most of the vocabulary of Australian English is shared with British English, though there are notable differences. The vocabulary of Australia is drawn from many sources, including various dialects of British English as well as Gaelic languages, some Indigenous Australian languages, and Polynesian languages.

One of the first dictionaries of Australian slang was Karl Lentzner's Dictionary of the Slang-English of Australia and of Some Mixed Languages in 1892. The first dictionary based on historical principles that covered Australian English was E. E. Morris's Austral English: A Dictionary of Australasian Words, Phrases and Usages (1898). In 1981, the more comprehensive Macquarie Dictionary of Australian English was published. Oxford University Press published their own Australian Oxford Dictionary in 1999, as a joint effort with the Australian National University. Oxford University Press also published The Australian National Dictionary.

Words of Australian origins

Australian English term Outback means a "remote, sparsely-populated area". Jackaroo is a type of agricultural worker.

Battler is a term that means a person with few natural advantages, who works doggedly and with little reward, who struggles for a livelihood and who displays courage. The first citation for this comes from Henry Lawson in While the Billy Boils (1896): `I sat on him pretty hard for his pretensions, and paid him out for all the patronage he'd worked off on me.. and told him never to pretend to me again he was a battler'.

The origins of other terms are not as clear, or are disputed. Dinkum or fair dinkum means "true", "the truth", "speaking the truth", "authentic" and related meanings, depending on context and inflection. The Evening News (Sydney, NSW) 23 August 1879 has one of the earliest references to fair dinkum. It originated with a now-extinct dialect word from the East Midlands in England, where dinkum (or dincum) meant "hard work" or "fair work", which was also the original meaning in Australian English.

Digger is an Australian soldier. The term was applied during the First World War to Australian and New Zealand soldiers because so much of their time was spent digging trenches. An earlier Australian sense of digger was ‘a miner digging for gold ’. Billy Hughes, prime minister during the First World War, was known as the Little Digger. First recorded in this sense 1916.

Fair go - a reasonable chance, a fair deal. Australia often sees itself as an egalitarian society, the land of the fair go, where all citizens have a right to fair treatment.

A "Yobo," also spelled Yobbo, is someone who tends to be loud and obnoxious, lacks in social skills and general behaviour. A Yobbo can also apply to someone who over indulges in alcohol and may have little or no regard for his/her appearance. Historically (1970-1990) Yobbos have also been known to have hairstyles such as the ' Mullet' or 'Rattails'. May also be shortened to Yob.

A bogan is another term for describing someone who is a Yobbo, although may have subtle regional differences such as "Bevan" in and around Brisbane, and "Boonah" around Canberra.

Words of Australian Aboriginal origin

Main article: List of English words of Australian Aboriginal origin

Some elements of Aboriginal languages have been incorporated into Australian English, mainly as names for flora and fauna (for example koala, dingo, kangaroo).

Some examples are cooee and Hard yakka. The former is a high-pitched call (pronounced /kʉː.iː/) which travels long distances and is used to attract attention. Cooee has also become a notional distance: if he's within cooee, we'll spot him. Hard yakka means work, strenuous labour, and is derived from yakka. It comes from yaga meaning ‘work’ in the Yagara indigenous language of the Brisbane region. Yakka found its way into nineteenth-century Australian pidgin, and then passed into Australian English. First recorded 1847.

Boomerang is an Australian word which has moved into International English. It was borrowed from Dharuk, the Aboriginal language spoken in the Sydney region.

Didgeridoo is a wind instrument that was originally found only in Arnhem Land in northern Australia. It is a long, wooden, tubular instrument that produces a low-pitched, resonant sound with complex, rhythmic patterns but little tonal variation.

Words of British and Irish origin

Many such words, phrases or usages originated with British and Irish settlers to Australia from the 1780s until the present. For example: a creek in Australia (as in North America), is any "stream or small river", whereas in England it is a small watercourse flowing into the sea; paddock is the Australian word for "field", while in England it is a small enclosure for livestock. Bush (as in North America) or scrub means "wooded areas" or "country areas in general" in Australia, while in England they are commonly used only in proper names (such as Shepherd's Bush and Wormwood Scrubs). Australian English and several British English dialects (e.g. Cockney, Scouse, Geordie) use the word mate to mean a friend, rather than the conventional meaning of "a spouse", although this usage has also become common in some other varieties of English.

G'day, a greeting, meaning 'good day'.

Sheila, Australian slang for "woman", is derived from the Irish girls' name Síle (IPA: /ʃiːlʲə/, anglicised Sheila).

Bludger – A person who avoids working, or doing their share of work, a loafer, a hanger-on, one who does not pull his weight. Originally, a pimp.

Billy - a tin or enamel cooking pot with a lid and wire handle, used outdoors, especially for making tea. It comes from the Scottish dialect word billy meaning ‘cooking utensil’.

Diminutives and abbreviations

See Diminutives in Australian English

Australian English vocabulary draws heavily on diminutives and abbreviations. These may be confusing to foreign speakers when they are used in everyday conversations.

There are over 5,000 identified diminutives in use. While other English dialects use diminutives in a similar way, none are so prolific or diverse. A large number of these are widely recognised and used by Australian English speakers. However, many are used only by specific demographic groups or in localised areas. Researchers are now beginning to study what psychological motivations cause Australians to abbreviate so many words.

Colloquial phrases

Numerous idiomatic phrases occur in Australian usage, some more historical than contemporary in usage. Send her down, Hughie is an example.

Alcohol

Amber; generic term for any beer (lager/stout/ale) in general, but especially cold and on-tap.

Not only has there been a wide variety of measures in which beer is served in pubs in Australia, the names of these glasses differ from one area to another. However, the range of glasses has declined greatly in recent years.

Names of beer glasses in various Australian cities
Capacity	Sydney	Canberra	Darwin	Brisbane	Adelaide	Hobart	Melbourne	Perth
115 ml (4 fl oz)	–	–	–	–	-	small beer	foursie	shetland
140 ml (5 fl oz)	pony	–	–	pony	pony	–	horse/pony	pony
170 ml (6 fl oz)	–	–	–	–	–	six (ounce)	small glass	bobbie/six
200 ml (7 fl oz)	seven	–	seven	seven (ounce)	butcher	seven (ounce)	glass	glass
285 ml (10 fl oz)	middy	half pint / middy	handle	pot	schooner	ten (ounce)/pot	pot	middy/half pint
350 ml (12 fl oz)	schmiddy	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
425 ml (15 fl oz)	schooner	schooner	schooner	schooner	pint	fifteen / schooner	schooner	schooner
570 ml (20 fl oz)	pint	pint	pint	pint	imperial pint	pint	pint	pint
Notes:							References: The Aussie Beer Baron Buying Beer in Australia Guidelines at a glance Ordering Beer Liquor Merchants Association of Australia Which Size Beer Do Ya Want, Mate?

Sport

Australia has four codes of football, rugby league, rugby union, Australian rules football, and soccer. Generally, rugby league is called football in New South Wales and Queensland, while rugby union is called either rugby or union throughout. Both rugby league and rugby union are often collectively referred to as rugby in other states where Australian rules football is called football. Association football was long known as soccer in Australia. In 2005, the governing body changed its name to Football Federation Australia. Many media sources now refer to soccer as "football".

See also

• Australian English
• Australian comedy
• List of English words of Australian Aboriginal origin
• List of Australian place names of Aboriginal origin
• Strine

Further reading

• Hornadge, Bill.(1989) The Australian slanguage: a look at what we say and how we say it (foreword by Spike Milligan). Richmond, Vic: Mandarin ISBN 1-86330-010-4

External links

• Macquarie Dictionary