It
is another typical expression but it has the opposite meaning with the one
explained before, “fair crack o´the whip”.
“To
give someone what for” means to give them what they deserve in terms of
punishment. For example, let´s say little Johnny deliberately poured black
paint on the new beige carpet. Mum might say, “Johnny, you just wait until dad
gets home. He´ll give you what for”
It
is not an useful expression, but you might heard it sometimes.
A good advise for turist, don´t make anybody say that to you!
The
language in Australia is English as everyone knows, but there are some
differences on some expressions between the English and American English. And
some expressions doesn´t have anything to do with the British meaning.
Here
I attached some expressions with the Australian meaning. I will explain it with
practical examples to make easier for you to understand the purpose.
“Fair crack o´the whip”
This
expression might make you a bit scared if you haven´t heard before... but don’t
worry it will be good news whatever is going to say after that.
Imagine
that your boss says to you, “i´m going to give you a fair crack o´the whip”, be
calm! He is just trying to say that he will give you another opportunity or a
fair chance.
Although Australian
English is relatively homogeneous, some regional variations are notable.
The dialects of English
spoken in South Australia, Western Australia and Victoria, Queensland and the
Torres Strait islands differ slightly from each other and from the English
spoken in New South Wales. Differences in terms of vocabulary and phonology
exist.
Most regional
differences come down to word usage. For example, swimming clothes are known as
cossies or swimmers in New South Wales, togs in Queensland, and bathers in
Victoria and South Australia. The word footy generally refers to the most
popular football code in the particular state or territory; that is, rugby
league in New South Wales and Queensland, and Australian rules football
elsewhere. Beer glasses are also named differently in different states.
Distinctive grammatical patterns exist such as the use of the interrogative
eh?.
There are some notable
regional variations in the pronunciations of certain words.
This phonological
development is more advanced in South Australia, which had a different
settlement chronology and type than other parts of the country.
L-vocalisation
is also more common in South Australia than other states. In Western Australian
English the vowels in near and square are typically realised as centring
diphthongs, whereas in the eastern states they may also be realised as monophthongs.
A feature common in Victorian English is salary–celery merger.
There is also
regional variation in /u:/ before /l/.
Here you are a comedian video about the AusE accent in different places:
What
are youse talking about?Have you ever heard something like that?
English used to have singular and plural second person pronouns "thou"
singular and "you" plural. Over time the singular form was dropped
and the one word "you" was both singular and plural.
However, many languages have singular and plural second person pronouns
as the Irish language. Australian slang contain much evidence of the Irish -for most of the nineteenth century at
least a quarter of the population of Australia was Irish or of Irish parentage-and one example is the use of “youse” as attempt to differentiate singular “you” from
plural “you.”In some regions this
term is considerated unsophisticated and it is an example of lack of
education.
....and what about use
the Spanish alternative ustedes?
There are no
"official" lyrics to "Waltzing Matilda" and slight
variations can be found in different sources.This version incorporates the famous
"You'll never catch me alive said he" variation introduced by theBilly Tea company.Paterson's
original lyrics referred to "drowning himself 'neath the coolibah
tree".
Once a jolly swagman camped by a
billabong Under the shade of a coolibah tree, And he sang as he watched and waited till his
billy boiled: "You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me."
Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me And he sang as he watched and waited till his
billy boiled: "You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me."
Down came a jumbuck to drink at that billabong. Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee. And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his
tucker bag: "You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me."
Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda "You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with
me", And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his
tucker bag: "You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me."
Up rode the squatter, mounted on his thoroughbred. Down came the troopers, one, two, three. "Whosethat jolly jumbuck you've got in your
tucker bag? You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me."
Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda "You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me" "Whose that jolly jumbuck you've got in your
tucker bag? You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me."
Up jumped the swagman and sprang into the
billabong. "You'll never catch me alive", said he. And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that
billabong: "You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me."
Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda "You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me" And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that
billabong: "You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me."
"Waltzing Matilda" is
Australia's most widely knownbush ballad. Acountryfolk song, the song has been
referred to as "the unofficial national anthem of Australia"
The title is
Australian slang for travelling by foot with one's goods (waltzing, derived
from the Germanauf der Walz) in a "Matilda" (bag) slung over one's back.The song narrates the story of an
itinerant worker, or "swagman", making a drink of tea at a bush camp and capturing a
sheep to eat. When the sheep's owner arrives with three police officers to
arrest the worker for the theft, the worker commits suicide by drowning himself
in the nearby watering hole, after which his ghost haunts the site.
Hi everyone!!! Today I
am going to leave you a video which, in my opinion, is very interesting and helpful
to try to understand a little better Australian accent. In the video, we can also learn some differences
between American and Australian vocabulary, an example for that could be “gas
station” in America and “service station” in Australia, like the blond guy (who looks exactly like an Australian guy) explain to us in the video. I hope you enjoy it!!!
Australian English has, as almost all varieties of English, several words, expressions, and idioms which have moved across borders and therefore they are spoken in all territories where English is present. Some well-known examples of Australian terminology include outback, meaning a remote, sparsely populated area, the bush, meaning either a native forest or a country area in general, and g’day, a greeting.
Australian poetry, such as The Man from Snowy River, and folk songs, such as Waltzing Matilda, contain many historical Australian words and phrases that are understood by Australians even though some are not in common usage today.
Australian English, in common with several British dialects (for example, Cockney, Scouse, Glaswegian and Geordie), uses the word: mate. Many words used by Australians were at one time used in England but have since fallen out of usage or changed in meaning.
Nevertheless the sort of vocabulary, expressions, and idioms that we are going to talking about are those ones which are unique to Australia.
We will try to find the most curious ones and treat them with a humor point of view. Have fun everybody!!!
As we
must know, Australian accent is one of the hardest in the world. There is a
tripartite division of Australian English accents:broad, general,
and cultivated, occasionally tied to notions of social class, education
and urban or rural backgrounds.The 'prestige' accent of England(RP) also
exerts a considerable influence.
-'General' Australian English is a neutral
accent. It is the most spoken variety of Australians. This is what you
will hear on the radio or on television.
-Cultivated Australian accent (used by about
10% of the population) is similar to British English (the Near-RP),associated
with high status.
-Broad Australian English is a more extreme
accent often identified as 'Australian'.It is associated with the values of the
traditional Australian working-class and lower middle-class male.'This
form moved the Australian vowels and diphthongs even further away
from what was now the British standard of pronunciation, and emphasized
nasality, flatness of intonation, and the elision of syllables'
This is an excerpt
from the ABC Documentary,The Sounds of Au,about the three Australian accents.
You should also visit these interesting web sites, they have many useful
information and so you'll learn to love AusE:
The founding of the British penal colony of New South
Wales at Sydney in 1788 is the starting point of a process of evolution from
British English, spoken by the children of early settlers exposed to a
wide range of different dialects, particularly from Ireland and South East
England. Then arose Australian English,a new variety of English and the
standard language of Australia.
'Many of the words now thought of as Australian in
fact started out in Britain, and some can still be heard in British local
dialects - such as dinkum, cobber, tucker (cf. tuck shop) and joker
(person).
On the other hand, in recent years the influence
of American English has been apparent, so that the country now displays a
curious lexical mixture.Thus we find American truck, elevator, and freeway
alongside British petrol, boot (of a car) and tap.
People usually think of Australian English as
characterized by such Aboriginal borrowings as boomerang, billabong, dingo, kangaroo,
koala, kookaburra, wallaby, and wombat; but in fact the English settlers took
very few words from the native languages spoken in the country'.It was due
to the Aborigines of Australia were very few, nomadic and because over 200
languages were in use at the time.
"We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing
through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love... and then
we return home.”
ABORIGINAL PROVERB
Australian Aboriginal culture is one of the oldest and longest surviving
cultures, that has dated back to at least 40,000 years. Some say it may date
back as far as 65,000 years ago.
The
aborigines lives are distinctly related to the land and being one with the
environment. The land is not just the physical rocks, trees, and rivers but
rather the land is part of the people spiritually and must be used in harmony
and sustainably. The land has its own stories of creation. They were
semi-nomadic people living in large groups within their own territories, often
referred to as ‘traditional lands’. These lands were defined by the surrounding
environmental boundaries, such as rivers or mountains.
There has existed over 250 Aboriginal languages in Australia with many
dialects spoken, for example Anjumarla, Warrungu, koko-Bera... It
is a very diverse language. Recently a map showing the geographical region of
each different language of Australia.It was created by David
Horton.
Here I leave the link,
where you can see specifically in which part developed each dialect.
