Words/things I learned watching BBAU from the US

good laugh reading this thread lol
i guess the americans would be puzzled by some of the words we use

My favorite one is "WEAPON HEAD" describes someone who i dislike or is annoying to be around
or a bit slow on the uptake haaaaaaaaaaa;)
 
Badlands said:
I'd like to point out that Hekate apparently lives in Brazil, and is not an American who thinks the world revolves around the US (and yes, there are a lot of those here!).

Sure, American English is pretty universally understood due to movies and TV shows being shown throughout the world (and American phrases and slang are quickly picked up elsewhere), but that sure doesn't make it official in any capacity.

BTW, Canada uses a mixture of British and American English.
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The US discussion is interesting. It is true that through popular culture many US origin words and phrases gain wide exposure in other English speaking places, and catch on there too. Australia knows and uses plenty of new US origin words.

However, even in the last 100 years, new slang from the UK also gains wide exposure through UK media, and is also then taken up in other places.

I am sure many Australians swear black and blue that things like 'cheers' (thanks), 'have a slash' (urinate), 'take the piss' (send up; take the mickey) are true blue authentic Australians terms. But I am old enough to remember when no one in Australia ever said them. They were, however, heard in UK television programs.

Like, the first ever series of 'Absolutely Fabulous' in 1992 features Patsy often saying 'have a slash'. It wasn't known or heard much in Australia then, but it certainly is now. I suspect that's due to it being in several UK films and TV programs.

Likewise the 1992 series of 'Absolutely Fabulous' featured Patsy saying 'cheers'. Her TV chat show appearance where she had stagefright and could only repeat in deadpan 'yeah, cheers, thanks a lot' through the entire appearance was much quoted in Australia at the time. (Pats ended the bit with a deadpan 'you can never have enough hats, gloves, or shoes' - which was also much repeated by Australian fans.) Before that 'cheers' (thanks) wasn't said much in Australia (I knew some 'cool kids' from Darlinghurst who ended their emails with it at that time though). I think AbFab and other films and TV programs of the day helped it catch on here.

Likewise 'take the piss' seems to have emerged in Australia only in the last thirty years. And that is from the UK, not the US.

The 'Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi' chant is derived from the similar, UK based chant, 'Oggie Oggie Oggie, Oi Oi Oi'.

I believe that people in the UK sometimes use terms like 'Uni' (University), 'no worries', 'walkabout' (the Royal family does them), these days. These are from Australia and may have been transported there through Australian made TV soaps.
 
Melbourne003000 said:
The US discussion is interesting. It is true that through popular culture many US origin words and phrases gain wide exposure in other English speaking places, and catch on there too. Australia knows and uses plenty of new US origin words.

However, even in the last 100 years, new slang from the UK also gains wide exposure through UK media, and is also then taken up in other places.

I am sure many Australians swear black and blue that things like 'cheers' (thanks), 'have a slash' (urinate), 'take the piss' (send up; take the mickey) are true blue authentic Australians terms. But I am old enough to remember when no one in Australia ever said them. They were, however, heard in UK television programs.
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Interesting stuff! It's too bad Americans are so insular. I'm a TV ratings buff. The only non-US shows watched by more than 1% of Americans are British period pieces Downton Abbey (which is actually a fairly big hit here) and Mr Selfridge (with an American actor in the lead). Both of those shows are shown on Public Broadcasting (PBS). Otherwise, most other British shows are on BBC America, which has very low ratings. Last year, Doctor Who set the network record with 1.55 million viewers (later broken by Copper with 1.8 million). With 317 million people, even those record numbers aren't too impressive.

Speaking of insular, did you know that only 39% of Americans have passports? I'm amazed how many people have never been out of the country (and many who have crossed the border have only been to Canada and/or Mexico).
 
lynne said:
funny, I've watched most of the BBUK seasons and i'm married to a Brit so i've heard most all of these so yes I think most are part of the English language.
One that get's me, I just love it, is pash That sounds more like a newly made up word, like the slang of today, like cra cra and totes. Is pash an expression you used growing up?
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I was born in 1970 and we definitely used "Pash" ( short for passionate) and even "Pash Rash" ( to describe the tell-tale redness you get after you pash a guy with stubble for too long)
 
San Antonio said:
What's "povo?" Also "strine."
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"Povo" is the short form term for "poverty", or at least those who live on or below the bread-line.
Similar to America's term "Trailer Trash". We don't really have big Trailer Parks full of the poor here.
Working Class and lower often live in "Housing Commission " Affordable Government Housing.
 
Badlands said:
I'd like to point out that Hekate apparently lives in Brazil, and is not an American who thinks the world revolves around the US (and yes, there are a lot of those here!).

Sure, American English is pretty universally understood due to movies and TV shows being shown throughout the world (and American phrases and slang are quickly picked up elsewhere), but that sure doesn't make it official in any capacity.

BTW, Canada uses a mixture of British and American English.
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I resent your statement that the people in the US think they are the center of everything. No, we are a mixture of everything. We are a country of immigrants like you are, but our immigrants came from many more countries than yours did. Our language is a mixture of British English, Irish English, Italian, French, Hebrew, Spanish, German, Norwegian, etc. etc. etc. and evolved differently depending on where the majority of these immigrants settled. I'm sure that's true of Australia as well, hence the different pronunciations of the same words from one state to the other. Like you, our immigrants tended to be working class so even as their languages influenced our overall language, the words we've adopted usually sound nothing like the "proper" version of the word in the originating country.

Canada has a significant French population and some of the French language has mixed with Canadian English in certain parts of the country. English speaking Canadians and Americans sound alike (even though some phrases are different) but French Canadians who speak English sound completely different.
 
What's Vogel?

When I was talking about immigrant's countries, I didn't mention the strong influence of the language of slaves brought here not just from many different tribes in Africa, but from virtually all Caribbean islands as well.

Final thought: Australians use the word reckon. To my knowledge, it is not used in the US except among poor, uneducated people in the south and east central states. We used to hear it all the time on T.V. on The Beverly Hillbillies so when I hear it, I think of an illiterate person.
 
San Antonio said:
I resent your statement that the people in the US think they are the center of everything. No, we are a mixture of everything. We are a country of immigrants like you are
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I think you missed that I'm an American. I don't think you can deny that a large portion of Americans think the world revolves around us. I would probably be somewhat annoyed if a non-American said it, though. :)
 
Hekate said:
Tell me when you say 'Commonwealth' do you mean 'British Commonwealth'? If so, I get around the world and I've not heard of it for many years. I think that it became defunct in the 1950s.
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You're partly right in that I am indeed referring to the 'British' Commonwealth of Nations which dropped the British part of the name in 1949, the organisation however didn't disband. Also you mustn't get too far around the world if you haven't heard of the Commonwealth for many years considering there are 53 member countries and always some sort of event being planned such as CHOGM or the Commonwealth Games.

Do they have Google under that rock of yours? If so you might want to start with a search on 'the world' seeing as you have no idea.
 
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psykologist said:
You know something about all this doesn't make sense for me with Boog. I thought she was supposed to be from a wealthy family & educated at some prestigious school. I realize wealth & manners/education are not synonymous, but you'd think the majority of people she would associate with in school would at least speak better. I wonder what her history actually is. (Not meaning this to sound pompous or judgemental, but something just doesn't fit with what I've seen about her). I know it doesn't matter, just curious.
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I was wondering about this as well. Her mother did not speak as she does, and one of my daughter's said she saw somewhere on Boog's resume that she was NIDA trained. I wonder if she's playing the lovable Aussie larrikin, Reggie (former BBAU winner), type role.
 
I have a question for all our American viewers. What is your favourite Aussie Movie? Let me guess it has 2 words and starts with C? Am I right?
Recently I've been watching alot of Australian movies some are really good and others not so much.
To all the Aussies on here what are your favourite Australian movies?
 
What an interesting thread! It's odd that people seem to think we South Australians shorten our vowels, because I think the opposite is true, and that's backed up by the site someone linked to. http://clas.mq.edu.au/australian-voices/regional-accents

In SA, a word like "fear" is pronounced with a diphthong, an exaggeration of it would be "fee-er". I've also had Americans pick up on the way I say "toast" as though it's a two syllable word, sort of like "toa-ist" (but more subtle). And we also pinch off our vowels at the ends of words like "no" so it's a little like "noi".

I've also noticed how where we might say "further" people from the Eastern states say it more like "furthah", and we're more inclined to pronounce the "a" in words like "dance" and "chance" as it is in "barn", not "ant". We also pronounce the "t"s in "bottle", not "boddle", and soften the "u" in "but" so it almost sounds like "burt".

Ed's accent is a strange one. I've noticed a peculiarity in the vowel sounds of private school educated people, particularly younger (gen y onwards), and more often males, and I think Ed is trying to assume that in his speech. There's something really obnoxious and annoying about it. I'm trying to think of other public figures who talk that way, and all I can come up with is Christopher Pyne - hate the way he speaks! I think Ed is trying to poshify his slightly broad accent and not doing a great job of it.

A couple of words that differ from state to state are bathers (swimmers, togs), deli (milkbar, dairy in NZ), and fritz (devon, berliner? which is a jam filled donut thingie here).

Sook is definitely an Australian word, which I think is an unweaned calf, and another Aus word that's etymology harks back to a more rural past is ropeable.

And just to comment on the people saying our country can't bear an influx of immigrants because we need to preserve our culture - that is such crap. Our culture is a fusion of other cultures, and we're all the richer for it. Imagine if we didn't have the influx of Italian and Greek immigrants in the 50s, or Vietnamese in the 70s? I think it's great that there are so many African people coming to Australia - so many great restaurants!! :)
 
Inigo Montoya said:
I have a question for all our American viewers. What is your favourite Aussie Movie? Let me guess it has 2 words and starts with C? Am I right?
Recently I've been watching alot of Australian movies some are really good and others not so much.
To all the Aussies on here what are your favourite Australian movies?
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Mad Max!

To be honest I don't know a lot of Aussie movies, would need to see a list.
I was so young when I saw Crocodile Dundee I don't even remember it.
 
watermellie said:
Mad Max!

To be honest I don't know a lot of Aussie movies, would need to see a list.
I was so young when I saw Crocodile Dundee I don't even remember it.
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So here is list of all the Aussie movies I've watched recently

The Castle. (seen this many many times)
100 bloody acres.
Animal Kingdom. (Jackie weaver was nominated for an Oscar & this film helped her break into Hollywood)
Clubland.
Gallipoli. (Again seen this many times but I watched it again this year on ANZCA day)
Kokoda. (watched on ANZAC day)
Rogue. (From the director who made wolf creek)
The Dish. (seen this many times)
The Hard word.
The Jammed.
The Nugget.
Snowtown. (based on a true story & is one of the most disturbing movies I've ever seen)
Undead.
Take Away.
The Sapphires.
Wake in Fright.
The Square

These are just the ones I have on my computer atm. But I've seen alot more....
You should check them out on IMDB and see if you like any.
 
[MENTION=34449]Inigo Montoya[/MENTION] Wow, thank you for the list.

I have seen Gallipoli, many years ago, but I remember really liking it. I'll check out some of the others.

I have seen a lot of that h20: just add water show, I had my niece staying with me, don't judge... was either that or completely surrender my cell phone to her. Thank you Netflix!
 
Yep - The Castle - is a great, great movie. To all you 'foreigners' ;) if you want to get to know the 'common' Australian you just have to watch this movie. It is such a laugh.

Also 'Kenny' is a great Australian movie.
 
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