Back To The Basics To Take The Strain Out Of Strine

Kangaeroo.com originally started as a bit of a joke site focused on Strine–the word to describe Australian English that is a play on the word “Australian” as pronounced in a broad Aussie accent.

In the earliest years of the site, language played a central role in content. I created categories like やばいリンガル, which was loosely for words that were a little bit on the naughtier side, or yabai, in both English and Japanese.

Then we had 豪cabulary that honed in on individual words that are distinctly Australian with the category being a portmanteau of go (豪), the kanji abbreviation used in Japanese for the now virtually archaic name for Australia of goshu, and vocabulary.

ストラインと日本語 (Strine and Japanese) is a category supposed to show instances of fusion between Strine and Japanese through homonyms in both languages like oi, dunny and shiela.

And, finally, there was the lexicography category of Strine Why Atorkin/Australian Methods of Speech/豪語の話し方, which I have forgotten why I set up and what it means, but made into a category anyway.

Having gone through all that rigmarole, I thought it would be a good chance to do a refresher on Strine and provide a comprehensive list of Australian English resources as a throwback to the earliest days of Kangaeroo.com, when I must confess to having had an image of publishing a Strine dictionary. How wonderful if would have been had anybody else had the same interest!

Strine Origins

Strine

Afferbeck Lauder

Australian English

Sociocultural Variations of Australian English

Types Of Strine

Australian Aboriginal English

Australian Aboriginal languages

Australian Aboriginal sign languages

Australian English phonology

Australian English vocabulary

Australian Kriol

Australian performance poetry

Barossa German

Macquarie University – Australian voices

Norfuk language

Torres Strait Creole

Torres Strait English

Torres Strait Island languages

Variation in Australian English

Western Australian English

Strine Speakers

Banjo Paterson

Bogan Pride

It’s rooted: Aussie terms that foreigners just won’t get

Diminutives in Australian English

The great Australian speech impediment

Weary Kiwis changing accents in Australia

Worst Words of 2012 Poll: Mommy Porn, Gangnam Style, Fiscal Cliff

Odd Australian Place Names

Australian Word Map (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Australian Word Map (Macquarie)

Collective Nouns

Why Aussies Shorten Slang

Australian English For Beginners

New language discovered in remote desert town

Sunburnt Country Strine Sayings

The Darwin dictionary will get you talking like a true Territorian

Strine From Ye OIden Dayes

11 Delightful 19th-Century Australian Slang Terms

19 Confounding Discrepancies Between American English and British English

Geographical renaming

Glossary of British terms not widely used in the United States

Strine Sources

Macquarie Dictionary

Macquarie Dictionary explanation

Australian National Dictionary Centre | School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics

Cop A Gander At These Rippers Too...

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    Watch Your Words!

    Many foreigners guffaw at the frequent mangling of English that some Japanese can achieve and there’re plenty of websites and the like dedicated to highlighting these flaws, but they should note that this can go both ways. Perhaps a tad of extra time and consultation could have gone into the names of some of these products or places. Fukuppy was probably not the best name to give a character intended to promote a company called Fukushima Industries, especially as for most of the world, the company name evoked images of one of the worst nuclear reactor accidents in history. Fukuppy, or at least a phrase remarkably close to that, is…

  • Sooky Sook And The Slur That Brings Tears (If They’re Not Already There)

    もしもう涙が出ていなければ、出してしまう悪口 “You’re being a sook.” That probably isn’t the kind of encouragement you were hoping for. If an Aussie calls someone a sook, they are usually saying that the person is being overly sensitive, complaining, whining or behaving like a cry baby. Sooky is the corresponding adjective. sook は、「泣き虫」「弱音を吐く人」「すぐ文句を言う人」などに近い言葉です。sooky は「泣き言ばかり言う」「すぐ弱音を吐く」「ひ弱な感じ」という形容詞です。ただし、いつも強烈な悪口というわけではありません。仲間同士で冗談めかして使うこともあります。 Meaning Sook is a person who is soft, whiny, overly sensitive or prone to complaining. Sooky describes someone behaving that way. Example “Stop being sooky and get on with it.” 「そんなに弱音を吐いてないで、さっさとやれよ。」 “He’s a bit of a sook when things don’t go his way.” 「自分の思い通りにならないと、あいつはちょっと泣き言が多いんだ。」 Australia Japan Connection 日本語にも「泣き虫」「弱虫」「へたれ」など、相手の態度をからかう表現があります。sook も、そのような親しい間柄の軽いからかいから、かなり嫌味な批判まで幅があります。声の調子と人間関係が重要です。 Aussie英語では、人をからかうことが必ずしも敵意を意味するとは限りません。sook と呼ばれても、笑いながら言われたなら、単なるmate同士のからかいかもしれません。 If You Liked This, How About These…?

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    Up yourself, up someone Australian English To be up yourself means to have an over-inflated opinion of your own value. To get up someone, however, means to get angry at them, or to rebuke them. 日本語 Up yourselfは、自己評価が高過ぎるという意味。Get up someoneは、人に対して叱るまたは怒ること。 Plain English 1) Up yourself: Haughty, an over-inflated opinion of self-worth, overly proud. 2) Get up someone: To rebuke or admonish, get angry with. Strine Dictionary

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    オーストラリア最大恐竜がエロマンガに

     オーストラリアの最大恐竜がエロマンガにあった。  本当。  下品なことを考えってんじゃねぇよ!エロマンガはオーストラリア先住民の言葉で「風がよく吹く平野」という意味だそう。  エロマンガは、北部クイーンズランド州にある小さな村です。石油とオパール鉱業が中心となっている人口約40人の村である。  1990年代までエロマンガ有名なことはオーストラリア内で海から最も遠く離れている町ということだった。(今でもそうと主張しているが、そうじゃないという人もいます。)  いずれにせよ、クイーンズランド州都ブリスベーンから約1,000キロ西の方に置かれている。  1994年にチャリ乗りの少年が化石を見つけて、以降次から次へ恐竜の化石が発見された。  2007年にみつかった化石が今までオーストラリアで最も大きいな恐竜のものだった。  その恐竜がティタノザウルス類の一種であり、エロマンんがの恐竜がクーパーと名付けられた。  しかし、名前は名前なので、当然にエロマンガという村が日本に注目を浴びた。  数多くの日本のエロ漫画や普通の漫画もエロマンガの話が出ています。  その中は「ニニンがシノブ伝」、「サムライフラメンコ」というまでもなくオーストラリアで児童ポルノとして禁じられている「エロマンガ先生」がある。  今、エロマンガに恐竜研究が励んでいる。  2017年に開館したエロマンガ自然博物館が運営しているが、コロナ禍で苦しんでいるだろう。  それでも、間違いなくエロマンガがオーストラリア恐竜研究・跡地の最前線にひとつということはまちがいない。  これからもエロマンガにますます期待できるだろう。      

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