Strine
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Strine is a term coined in 1964[1] and subsequently used to describe a joke or made-up "language" purportedly spoken by Australians. The term is a syncope, derived from a phonetic rendition of the pronunciation of the word "Australian" in an exaggerated Broad Australian accent.[2]
It was the subject of humorous columns published in the Sydney Morning Herald from the mid 1960s. Alastair Ardoch Morrison, under the Strine pseudonym of Afferbeck Lauder (a syncope for "Alphabetical Order"), wrote a song "With Air Chew" ("Without You") in 1965 followed by a series of books - Let Stalk Strine (1965), Nose Tone Unturned (1967), Fraffly Well Spoken (1968) and Fraffly Suite (1969). An example from one of the books: 'Eye-level arch play devoisters ...' ("I'll have a large plate of oysters").
Steve Irwin was once referred to as the person who "talked Strine like no other contemporary personality".[3]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ The Oxford Companion to the English Language, Oxford University Press (1992), p. 990 (ISBN 0-19-214183-X)
- ^ Chris Roberts, Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The Reason Behind Rhyme, Thorndike Press,2006 (ISBN 0-7862-8517-6)
- ^ Freakish end to a wild life – The Age
- Lauder, Afferbeck (A, A. Morrison) Let Stalk Strine, Sydney, 1965, page 9
- Steber, David. Strine and Amusing Language from the Land Down Under, Steber & Associates, 1990. (ISBN 1877834009)
[edit] External links
- 'With air chew' - Copyright registration copy of the song in the National Archives of Australia.
- Some examples of Strine (includes audio files)
