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Wednesday May 17, 2006

Australian Slang

While I have secretly loved Australia - its people and culture - it wasn't until my friend married an Aussie that I had the opportunity to spend time getting to know the people from the land down under. During the wedding preparation and celebration, I learned a lot about my new friends from Australia - their spirit of adventure, their fun loving attitudes, their friendliness and their creative vocabulary.

Here are a few of the Australian words that made me laugh.

Stack - wipe out, crash (while skiing)
Stock - ski pole
Bingle (perhaps bengle/bengal) - crash while driving
Pissed - drunk
Bu'ah - butter (specifically Gus)
Trolley - grocery cart (thanks, Ann)
Palava - hullaballoo, much ado about nothing
....and Bob's your uncle - to finish off a sentence with no particular meaning
Jumper (jumpah) - sweater
Geah - gear (same word, just different pronunciation)
Snay - snow (again, pronounced strange, particularly by Dahni)
Heaps - a lot (Hatt)
Dodgy - of inferior quality
Grog - beer
Sunnies - sunglasses

While Looch is the unheralded king of slang, I know my Australian friends (Dahni, Hat, Gus, Jen, Tim, Em, Sal, Sue, Ann, Looch) have slang to share.

Posted at 09:50PM May 17, 2006 by phil in Personal  |  Comments[2]

Comments:

Thank you for the dictionary, Phil. I might come back to you if I have further problems with Aussie slang... I completely agree about Looch being the 'unheralded king of slang'... Thank you so much again for coming to our wedding and to play such an important part in it. We couldn't have imagined it any better! Skiing together was a perfect way to 'calm down' from the excitement... Dahni and I also had a wonderful honeymoon in Croatia. Particularly the islands were gorgeous and we met many great people! Hope to see you soon again (of course I am a little 'disappointed' that I don't get to see you this weekend...). All the best, also to Charlotte, Hudson and Worth! Kaspar

Posted by Kaspar Sollberger on May 18, 2006 at 01:14 AM EDT #

Hi Phil and Family, It is great to finally catch up and here your interpretation of the Sollberger Wedding Extravaganza. You have really made me laugh with your Aussie Vocabulary and I must say on reflection we really must have been quite crazy. I will try to send you an Aussie Translation Dictionary so that you can have a practice before we next catch up (when you come Downunder of course!) I spent last night catching up with Dahni which was wonderful (Kaspar's not back yet) and we went through all the photos - they are simply fantastic - great job Gus. I will write again soon. Take Care Hatt

Posted by Hatt on May 20, 2006 at 08:42 PM EDT #

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