I am not as Strine
as I once was. The word strine means to speak in a broad Australian accent. The
term was coined in 1964 by a journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald named
Alistor Ardoch Morrisson. He wrote humorous columns for the newspaper and
enjoyed taking the piss out of the Australian accent. His readers enjoyed it
too.
The word 'Strine'
is not recognized by my now English- English word auto spell check function on
my now-not-so-new Mac Air Book. I worked out how to change it from the default
setting of American-English - which is an abomination. The auto spell check
function on my now-not-so-new Mac Air Book keeps changing the word "Strine"
to "strike".
It just did it
again.
Morrison also
wrote a song that he recorded in an exaggerated Australian accent. It was
called "With Air Chew" ("Without you"). It was a
love song. Morrison's book, "Let's talk Strine" was where the
word Strine first appeared in print. Strine is of course the word
"Australian" - being said in strine.
Good and
proper Strine is spoken through the mouth and nose - at the same time. Many of
the languages of the native and indigenous people of Australia have been lost.
The aboriginal tribes of Australia who are the traditional land owners of our
nation have been scattered and their numbers are greatly diminished.
However the Strine
dialect is alive and well and it is spoken by the very large bogan population
of Australia. The bogans are a white Australian tribe and they are mostly the
ancestors of English convicts. They are not indigenous.
I have written
about the bogans before – and at great length so I will not repeat myself here.
If I speak too
Strine in many Asian countries - where I now live and work - some people cannot
understand me. So over the years I have modified my accent. I am occasionally both
horrified and appalled though when some people ask from which part of England I
am from. This is enquired of me on a fairly regular basis and it happened twice
today.
In Delhi.
I generally
correct such occurrences immediately and I advise the enquirer quite firmly
that I am not English. I politely inform them too that it is quite an insult
for most Australians to be mistaken as being English.
We don't like
it.
The two Indian
gentlemen who enquired from where in England I came from actually seemed quite
pleased to hear that I wasn't English. They didn't say as much but I suspect that
they also don't hold the English in very high regard either. I don't blame
them. India was one of the countries that the British invaded and occupied way
back when they were once a world power. They referred to themselves then as the
"British Empire". This was a long time ago. The Indians kicked them
out of the sub-continent more than one hundred and fifty years back.
They
overwhelmed them by sheer weight of numbers.
It is only
marginally less worse for we Australians to be mistaken by our accents as
Kiwis. However this also happens on occasion and we don't like that either. The
New Zealanders also do Strine they however have a significant problem with the
vocalisation of some vowels. They can't pronounce them.
For example a
New Zealander would say "fush" instead of "fish" and
"chups" instead of "chips". Listening to New Zealanders
converse in such a way and for any length of time is painful and annoying. It
is acoustically offensive and it is often intolerable.
It is this
distinctive vowel impairment that differentiates them from we Australians.
I tend to
speak Strine more frequently and quite easily when I am in the company of my
countrymen and women at expatriate gatherings that I occasionally attend where
I live in Singapore. I attend these gathering at places that are named the
Boomerang Bar or the Platypus Kitchen. I am serious - these are real names.
Yes I know.
I know.
We all speak Strine
when we gather at such places - the names of these establishments and being
amongst our brethren compel us.
I just slip
into it.
"Owzitfukingoin
mate?
When
conversing and communicating with the bogans in Melbourne and Sydney - when I
go back home - I speak Strine out of necessity. Many people would not
understand me otherwise – or they would assume that I am English. The current
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard is of bogan stock and she speaks bold
and fluent nasal strine.
She speaks it
very well.
Many Strine
words are just made up. "Fair Dinkum", "Strewth"
"Yobbo" and "Ridgy-Didge" are some examples. Few non-Strine
speakers would know the meaning of some of our Strine words. There is "Woopwoop'
for example and "Tucker" and "Hooroo" and “Dunny”.
For those who
may be interested in knowing, "Woopwoop' is a place in the middle of
nowhere - it is somewhere that is a long way from anywhere.
"Tucker"
is food" and a “Dunny” is a toilet.
“Hooroo"
means goodbye.
You are a peculiar individual, very funny and surprisingly clever at times
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