Learning Aussie English

They speak a different language down here. Really, mate. This is one thing about Oz that I’m really fond of. The language is very colourful.

Just as all the plants and animals in Australia are adapted to conserve energy, so is Aussie English. Never say multiple syllables when a shortened version of the word will do. Three or four syllables in a word is out of the question - who has time? Endings of "-ie" and "-o" are the route to energy conservation: I cook on the barbie, I live in Brissy. Here's a short glossary of Aussie English, both shortened and non-shortened words.

"Can I see your rego?" = Can I see the registration for your car? "Registration" is 4 whole syllables, an outrageous energy expense! They shorten it to "rego," pronounced redge-oh.

"Did you see that doco on the telly last night?" = I would ask you if you'd seen that documentary on television last night, but I can't be bothered to say all that.

"arvo" = afternoon. "Can I come see you this arvo?" Again, the syllables problem.

to chuck a wobbly: to have a temper fit, a tantrum. "I told her she couldn't have ice cream, and she chucked a wobbly."

to bung: to put.
The first time a colleague said to me "Just bung it in me box," I was a little taken aback. Good thing I knew we were talking about an envelope. Such moments of bewilderment are all too familiar to me.

cozzie, swimmers: a bathing costume, swimsuit. "Bung on your cozzie, we're going to the beach."

daggy: unfashionable, dowdy, uncool. "That’s a really daggy outfit." A "dag" is a little ball of brown stuff that hangs off the bits of wool at the back end of a sheep – not a very pleasant image, but most people don’t think about where the term comes from.

to earbash: to talk endlessly and boringly. An "earbashing" is a dull lecture. "I made the mistake of asking him how LED’s work, and he gave me an earbashing."

dunny: a lavatory. I think it used to mean outhouse, but it’s used more generally now. Our department head, Debbie, has commissioned the refurbishing of the bathrooms on our floor at work, so we've dubbed them "Debbie's dunnies."

to bang: to have sex.
to bang like a dunny door in a gale: to have sex often and with enthusiasm

stuff up, get stuffed: f**k up, get f***ed

"giving you the goss" = telling you my gossip.

"my week is chockers" = my schedule is chockerblock full this week

"getting rugged up" = bundling up in warm clothing to go outside

"Mind if I take a sticky beak?" = This might be said the first time someone comes to your home, and wants to take a look around. It comes from Cockney rhyming slang, peek rhymes with beak, taking a peek is nosy, like a bird sticking its beak into nooks and crannies, so "take a sticky beak". It will take me decades to figure out rhyming slang. A lot of the convicts sent to Australia were Cockney, so some Aussie English traces its roots back to Cockney English.