Thursday Thirteen 027: Strine!

[misslj_author]

Strine. What is it? I quote: "As a legacy, the contemporary Australian dialect, or Strine, is littered with idioms, similes and invented words that make it one of the world's most advanced English dialects. Speakers of Strine can understand everyone, or confuse everyone if they so desire." (Convinct Creations Com). And, "An Australian's 'greatest talent is for idiomatic invention. It is a manifestation of our vitality and restless imagination'". (Baker S 1983, A Dictionary of Australian Slang, 3rd Edition , Currey O'Neil, Melbourne (1st published 1959)).

Strine is an integral part of Australian English. Basically, it's rhyming slang, and it's used a lot. Many's the time I've used a strine phrase and had non-Aussies ask "...what does that even mean?"

There are loads of books on strine and our slang, too! (Though we don't call prawns shrimp. They're prawns. So "Throw another shrimp on the barbie" is wrong, as it would really be "Throw another prawn on the barbie." Barbie=barbeque. Not that you should throw seafood on plastic dolls.)

Personally, I love strine and our Aussie English, so here are thirteen of my favourite phrases/terms, with their meanings. Enjoy!

1. Flat out like a lizard drinking.
Meaning: I am extremely busy. OR I am extremely tired.

2. Fair suck of the sav!
Meaning: Seriously? OR Really? OR Hey, come on! ALSO an expression of wonder, awe or disbelief. Sav is also short for saveloy, a type of sausage.

3. Dry as a dead dingo's donger.
Meaning: I am extremely thirsty and require a drink immediately.

4. Like being flogged with a warm lettuce leaf.
Meaning: This is very ineffectual. The above phrase most famously used by Paul Keanting, former Prime Minister, to describe the opposition leader, John Hewson.

5. She'll be apples.
Meaning: Everything will be fine.

6. Full as a goog.
Meaning: I am extremely full and could not eat another thing. The 'oo' in goog should be pronouned like the 'oo' in cook. Goog is another word for egg.

7. Beyond the Black Stump.
Meaning: Somewhere that is far away and in the middle of nowhere.

8. Dead horse.
Meaning: Tomato sauce. This is similar to ketchup in the US.

9. Crack a fat.
Meaning: To get an errection.

10. Figjam.
Meaning: F-fuck I-I'm G-good, J-just A-ask M-me.

11. As cross as a frog in a sock. variation: Going/Went off like a frog in a sock.
Meaning: An extremely angry individual. Variation meaning: It was an amazing party/event.

12. Sandgroper.
Meaning: A resident of the state of Western Australia.

13. Chuck a yewy.
Meaning: Make a u-turn here/there/at the next set of traffic lights. [nb: doing it at traffic lights is illegal and dangerous.]

Comments

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

very interesting. I had mentioned strine years ago to my friend who lived up near the Daintree forest and she was horrified that I knew what it was (and that the Steve Irwin used it since that's pretty much how all Americans assume Australians talk). I have an accent that is very indicative of one city here and am just as proud of it. I like language and all its forms

[misslj-author.livejournal.com]

I thought of Steve Irwin, actually. We don't all speak like him, but I can't deny that a lot of strine seeps into my day to day language. I'm fascinated by language and etymology, too. :)

[captlychee.livejournal.com]

I should really look into that Baker book. We had the 59 edition when I was at school and it seemed dated even then, so I hope that thye have updated it for the 83 version. Of course, even that would be dated now. Such is langugage, or at least living language.

'Gully trap' was one that Barry Humphries mentioned that wasn't included in Baker's work, but Baker's original work was done in Sydney so our cabbage patcher and crow eater expressions didn't feature in it. I do hate the way that TV has made some of the regional expressions disappear, but at least we're now getting our own regional accents.

I wonder if Tony Abbot alienates people other than me by using expressions that are current in and local to Sydney only? It drives me nuts!

[misslj-author.livejournal.com]

What Sydney-centric ones does Abbot use? I tend not to listen to him if I can help it.

[captlychee.livejournal.com]

Well, put to the task I can't think of any other than 'motzah' but there are a lot more. I'll have to ring my Dad and see how he talks to remind me.

[misslj-author.livejournal.com]

Motzah. Is that supposed to be money? o.O

[captlychee.livejournal.com]

I think it means 'a very big thing' or 'a great amount'. Wayne Swann once used the phrase 'They've made a motzah on this' in reference to the profit made by the 'alcopop' companies. Julia Gillard is from South Australia, so it would be interesting to see what regional terms she uses.

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

I still miss Steve-o. And I'm sure there is a lot of regional variation as well (there certainly is in the states)

[misslj-author.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, definitely. Especially in pubs. So many different names for the one size of beer!

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

now that's unexpected

[misslj-author.livejournal.com]

We do like our beer.

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately about the only Australian beer I've ever seen in the States (and I go looking for beers) is Fosters. I'd like to try something else.

[misslj-author.livejournal.com]

Yuck, no, don't drink Fosters. That's the worst beer in the world.

Of the beers local to my state, anything from the Coopers brewery is excellent. I'm personally a big fan of the Dark Ale and the Coopers Ale. Pale Ale is good too. West End Draft by the SA Brewing Co. is okay, but definitely not as good as Coopers.

From the other states, I don't mind Victoria Bitter (also called VB), Carlton Draught and Melbourne Bitter from Carlton and United Breweries. The Cascade Brewery beers from Tasmania are pretty good, too.

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

yeah I wasn't impressed by Fosters. Darker beers are my preference. I have not seen any of these here (though I've heard of VB).

and I didn't know that Australia also had a prohibition. Interesting.

[misslj-author.livejournal.com]

You'd probably like Coopers Dark Ale, then. It's a really lovely dark beer.

Well, sort of. We had curfews - here in Adelaide, we had what was called the Six o'clock Swill - all the pubs shut at 6PM, so everyone drank their body's weight before 6, then bought booze to take home (bc that was legal), and then the pubs shut at 6. Private clubs could stay open and serve liquor until 10PM, but the regular person had to make do with taking home their booze.

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

I probably would. I had a great time in Wales and England this past summer getting to try all the various ales.

oh well yes much different take on it than America had (which I keep having to remember for my demon hunter series. No alcohol for them)

[misslj-author.livejournal.com]

Yum-o! I do like a good ale.

Yeah yeah. I don't think it ever really took off here, people like their beer too much.

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

It was very interesting research on my end into forensic chemistry (both for my pleasure since I like that sort of thing and for a story) to see how crazy and outrightly evil prohibition and how it was handled was.

[misslj-author.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, that does sound interesting.

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

the gov deliberately poisoned the ingredients moonshiners used with fatal results and an attitude of 'eh so what, they shouldn't have been doing something illegal.'

Makes me wonder (especially since Granny ran shine)

[misslj-author.livejournal.com]

I vaguely remember reading something about that. Absolutely awful.

Though that's fascinating that your granny ran moonshine. What did she make it out of, do you know?

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

corn mash. Somewhere i'm sure we have the recipe. Mostly her dad made it and she sold it. got tagged by the ATF once but didn't get taken in

[misslj-author.livejournal.com]

Wow. That's fascinating!

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

yeah she had an interesting life

[angharad-gam.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I've heard people use the term 'crack a fat' to mean get angry too, but maybe that was just a severe misunderstanding on my part. :-)

I'm quite fond of the good old 'fair dinkum' myself.

[misslj-author.livejournal.com]

I like fair dinkum too!

[angharad-gam.livejournal.com]

Also Andy said 'mad as a cut snake' today and I thought 'there's another good one'.

[misslj-author.livejournal.com]

I did toss up whether to use that one, but I'd already reached 13.

[ali-wilde.livejournal.com]

13. Chuck a yewy.
Meaning: Make a u-turn here/there/at the next set of traffic lights.

Please tell me you don't chuck yewys at traffic lights. That is so illegal and very annoying and dangerous. :D

[misslj-author.livejournal.com]

Oops, yes, I will add that.

I don't actually drive, so I've never done it. No license or car, here. I'm medically not allowed to drive or operate heavy machinery.

[captlychee.livejournal.com]

An interesting thing here is that I can't think of any regional Victorian slang. This is, of course, because I speak normally and all of you use slang.

'Gully trap' is a local term, but I think that's because gully traps aren't very common outside of Victoria.

[vayshti.livejournal.com]

I know this is a late ninja response, but I've had a reason to revisit LJs blog entries :)

A regional SA term that I imagine creates quizzical looks in the rest of the country is 'stobie poles' - the name given to the concrete and steel girder electricity poles which have a bad habit of surviving better than cars do when they crash into them. Like other brand names standing in for generics, SA peeps will call all electrical and lamp poles this, regardless of their composition.

There's a good explanation of why they were built and named here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stobie_pole, but this is the type of useless trivia I just know, having grown up in an ETSA family.