Australia // "Let Stalk Strine", the Aussie slang - Part I

Many many times we hear the "Down Under People" talking a  misterious language... in a misterious way... with misterious noises...

No idea what the hell they were talking about even after 10 years of languages' classes, travels abroad and living for a while in Sydney. Even though, I must admit that... the worst accent ever is the Scottish one... Once I met a guy (Jonathan), I thought he had serious problems with the English language... NO WAY. I mean for me... not for him ;). No clue he was native of Scotland.

Anyway, I love discovering new expressions and in particular new "languages".

That's why I want to share with you what I have learnt so far.

First of all... I have noticed while I was working there that the customers used to greet you by saying: "G'day, mate.. How are you going?" and I understood after a while that they were not really asking to receive a real answer...but they just need to place the order... and when I was replying "Fine, thanks and you?"... that "and you?" was a problem. They were not expecting that.

I didn't stop to reply in that way, though... I'm Italian and I love to be a good host and it was funny to see their reactions, like...

customer: "How are you going?"
me: "Fine, thanks and you?"
customer: [a couple of secs of hesitation + embarrasment] "Well... I'm fine.. ehmm ehmm.. a double shot flatwhite please"

then .. it comes the moment, where you will hand the flatwhite and they will answer back by simply saying "TA".

and this is now YOUR turn of hesitation .."TA" ... "TA what?" ... to discover that it was "thank you".

Another answer to the same flatwhite could be "Cheers".. and don't pretend not to think my same thing... "why are you saying that for a coffee? where is your beer?". Aussies use it for different circumstances.

Among my researches about the Australian slang and interesting ways to map the world through words, I have found a lively guide, Let Stalk Strine, by Afferbeck Lauder.

Afferbeck Lauder was the pseudonym used by Alastair Ardoch Morrison, an Australian graphic artist and autor who, with this book, illustrated phonetically the Australian way of talking to show it as a complete different language.

A couple of examples:
"Emma chisit" - How much is it?
"Egg wetter gree" - I quite agree

and the pseudonym of the author itself is an example of that "Afferbeck Lauder =Alphabetical order".

I am personally fascinated by all this. It might be because languages are in a continuous change and - by changing - they bring with them a portray of an age, a culture and somehow of the people. I LOVE IT!

"I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks." - Harper Lee