
Up a Wombat's Freckle - drjohnson
http://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/australian-slang-humphries/
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tomcam
The author, Barry Humphries, is a fascinating character of many careers also
known as Dame Edna (now retired).

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emmelaich
Edna is his most famous character but I found Sir Les Patterson more
entertaining and Sandy Stone much more interesting.

"Humphries in his Sandy Stone persona could "reduce an audience of young
unbelieving cynics to tears with material that might have been written by
James Joyce - delivered with wan, uncomprehending wonderment"

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Stone_(character)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Stone_\(character\))

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nthcolumn
"The English have twenty-five ways of saying “sorry” and they don’t mean one
of them."

dinkum

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mpalmes
As someone from rural QLD, Australia, I feel like we might be losing some of
these unique sayings in our vernacular over time. Though we are definitely
still hanging onto our diminutives, especially those ending with o, ie and y
(E.g. ambo, rego, arvo, servo, barbie, footy).

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nthcolumn
Have you ever noticed that in Aussie people tend to end stuff with 'o' more
often? Nobody else in the world calls documentation 'doco' do they? It's not a
hard and fast rule, granted. Pokies, blueys, I guess. For the imagery, I
always loved 'flat out like a lizard...' or one of Dame Edna's: 'I feel like a
shag on a rock' which always makes the poms smile.

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vacri
No-one says doco for 'documentation', but they do all the time for
'documentary': "I saw a doco on sharks last night..."

We're definitely losing a lot of our colloquial terms, but not so much the way
we speak. It's the nature of language after all, to change over time. I miss
some of the terms, and a while back I intentionally started to use 'crikey'
again (though that word itself is not hugely missed). Friends of mine, born
and bred here, think it's hilariously quaint.

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emmelaich
I've used doco for documentation though as you say it is almost exclusively
means documentary.

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hiharryhere
for me docs = documentation and doco = documentary

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thomasfoster96
> Of course, the use of the word “mate” is ubiquitous in Australia, and has
> slowly lost its old, comradely meaning. Not seldom now it can have a hostile
> ring, as in “Whadaya think you’re doin’, mate?”

'Mate' now usually either implies condescension or social distance (or
cultural cringe), at least in the south eastern states. International
stereotypes of Australian language are yet to catch up.

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vacri
Jimeoin had a bit years ago where he talked about the three kinds of 'mate'
there were. There's the short, clipped 'mate' for when you're pissed off (oh,
mate, got a parking ticket). There's the medium 'mate' when you see your
friend arrive at the pub (maate, maate, how are ya). And the long 'mate'...
for when you're about to ask to borrow something (maaaaaaaaaaayte...) :)

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danieltrembath
Holy shit, I was born in the 'rat and had no idea we birthed chunder.

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cromulent
In the movie from the article, Barry explains the etymology of the term
(coming from the sea journeys of the early settlers) before a performance of
_Chunder in the Old Pacific Sea_.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1W0pP6A8BE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1W0pP6A8BE)

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oluckyman
mate

