Duck's Nuts on Play: Mozzies At The Barbie With Our Rellies This Arvo In Freo

There are plenty of stereotypes about Australians and the Aussie way of speaking. I remember one of my neighbours, who had visited Australia before me, saying: "Let's put a shrimp on the barbie." I later realised she had heard the phrase from a Tourism Australia ad featuring none other than Crocodile Dundee himself, Paul Hogan.

Photo: Screengrab of 1984 tourism ad featuring Paul Hogan

What I didn't notice that time, but have become pretty aware of since I start living here, is the shortened word "barbie", which was used in place for barbecue.

Australians have a habit of shortening words - all words. The headline of this blog post should read "Mosquitoes at the barbecue with our relatives this afternoon in Fremantle" but as you can see, mosquitoes = mozzies, barbecue = barbie, relatives = rellies, afternoon = arvo and Fremantle = Freo.

In my line of work, I often have to get in contact with emergency services officers and all their job titles are shortened. So a firefighter is a "firie", an ambulance officer is an "ambo" and a police officer is a "coppa". The same goes for people working in the trades or other blue-collar jobs. A tradesman is a "tradie", a garbage collector is a "garbo" (one well-known example in NSW is politician or "pollie" Nathan Rees, the former premier), a truck driver is a "truckie", a postman is a "postie" and so on.

Caption: Nathan Rees, garbo turned pollie
Photo: Local Government and Shires Associations of NSW via Flickr, Creative commons

Interestingly, this doesn't seem to happen with professional jobs. So there's no short versions of banker, accountant, lawyer or dentist for example, or at least none that I know of. A doctor can be called a "doc", but that's hardly unique to "Oz" (Australia). Journalists are called "journos", but I suppose it wasn't considered a professional job in the old days but more like a trade. (Just a note about banker, there is another word that is sometimes used in place of it or with it - w--ker - but that's another blog post!)

I've found that since I've started living here, I've started to use these shortened words so regularly that I'm not conscious of my use of them anymore. So if I was heading to the shops, I could say I'm going to Woolies (Woolworths) to buy a brollie (umbrella), some sunnies (sunglasses), veges (vegetables) and lollies (short for lollipops, it's a general term used for sweets), before heading to the bottlo (short for a bottle shop, where alcohol is sold) to get some Cab Sav (Cabernet Sauvignon) and then to Macca's (McDonald's) for a quick bite.

Caption: Fancy some Maccas? Photo: Yusuke Kawasaki via Flickr, Creative commons

Even place names or people's names are not sacred. So Brisbane is "Brissy", Tasmania is "Tassie", the Brisbane cricket ground, located in suburb of Woolloongabba, is called "The Gabba", the Sydney suburbs of Sutherland Shire, Parramatta, Darlinghurst and Paddington are called "The Shire", "Parra", "Darlo" and "Paddo", and the Queensland city of Bundaberg is called "Bundy". Personal names are shortened as much as possible. My name has gone from Madeline* to Maddy to Mads to M.

Caption: Watching cricket at The Gabba in Brissy
Photo: Talisen via Flickr, Creative commons

The big question is - why? And why bother? Is it about saying less? Saving time? Being lazy? Or being inventive? A "uni" (university) lecturer, Nenagh Kemp from the University of Tasmania, who is studying these Aussie terms, reckons it might be about "a feeling of companionship or casualness and friendliness".

"You might use that to say, 'hey, I'm on the same level as you. I'm not being too pretentious."

Dr Kemp hasn't finished her study yet, so it'll be interesting to see what she does eventually discover, but it's fair to say that this form of Aussie slang does reflect the image of the laid-back local who likes nothing better than some "snags" (sausages) and a "bevy" (beverage) - preferably a "coldie" (cold beer) - on a warm summer's day while the cricket's on "telly" (television).

Now, whether that image of the laid-back Aussie is accurate or not is also a topic for another time ...

Here are some other examples:
Australian soldier = digger
beautiful = beaut
breakfast = breakie
chicken = chook
compensation = compo
Englishman = pom, pommie
football = footy
kangaroo = roo
lipstick = lippie
pick-up or utility truck = ute
poker machines = pokies
present = pressie
Salvation Army = Salvos
service station (or petrol station) = servo
sick day = sickie
smoke break = smoko
thanks = ta
tracksuit = trackie
vegetarian = vego

*Not my actual name, but the example still stands