She’s brilliant at acknowledging local culture and using colloquial phrases to connect with her audiences. And she nailed it with “yeah-nah”.
Through characters such as Bazza McKenzie, the late comedian promoted Australian vernacular – the witty, the crude, and both – to new audiences.
Colloquialisms such as barbie and smoko are like accents – part of the glue that brings together Australian English speakers.
It’s one of those hard-working little linguistic scraps like “you know” or “I mean”, but there’s also a rich vein of humour in the little discourse marker “a bit”.
States have long been divided over what to call the humble deep-fried potato snack.
What looks to be a straightforward, simple little expression is anything but.
One of the special things about Australian words is that they’re near and dear to who we are – and we take pleasure in confusing other people about them.
As you make your yuletide preparations, do you wonder where some of the season’s strange words come from? Our linguistic experts have the answers.
An extensive study is underway to catalogue Australian slang, its origins, and why it’s such an important part of our language.
Times of crisis have always changed our slang, with the help of a little black humour. Coronavirus is no exception.
... about those awfully terrific words we use to take language to extremes.
An unspoken class war has long been waged around the pronunciation of the letter "h" - is it haitch or aitch?
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