SOURCES OF OUR SLANG

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 60, 16 August 1940, Page 18

SOURCES OF OUR SLANG

Much Of It Is Home-Grown, But We Owe A Big Debt To Australia

SIDNEY J. BAKER, who has been broadcasting from 2YA about slang in New Zealand, discussed the sources of our slang in his second talk, of which this article is a summary.

N my recent talk on New Zealand slang I alluded briefly to the currency of many hundreds of Australian terms in this country.

To-night I want to make the statement more explicit and produce some examples. For at least 20 years New Zealanders have considered it rather a good joke when someone says that he can "speak Australian." A good joke, that is, against Australians in general. But the fact of the matter is that people in this country are using and hearing Australian slang and colloquialisms almost every day of their lives. How, for instance, could we surrender such terms as: backblocks, larrikin, barrack, squatter, Anzac, wowser, cooee, cocky (a farmer), rough as bags, run rings around, Pommy, push (a clique), and dinkum? There is a misapprehension that most of our slang has been imported in bulk from America. Ww No supposition could be further _- from the truth. In the first place we use far more English slang than American slang (the English authority, Eric Partridge, supports that point) and in the second we use as much Antipodean slang as English and American importations put together, many of us a great deal more. Influence of the Talkies True, the American talking picture has supplied the Southern Hemisphere, as well as the remainder of the Englishspeaking world, with more than ten years of U.S.A. speech, but its influence is limited to a much smaller field than is commonly accepted. Whereas U.S.A. underworld slang may appeal to the imaginations of the young in this country, it is impossible for those terms to have their strict American meanings in a section of the world which has few gangsters or negroes and has comparatively little intensive factory production. The reason is clear, Geography and environment have provided unique conditions of life in the Southern Hemisphere and our slang has been quick to suit itself to those conditions. . We have been using Australian slang now for the best part of a hundred years,

so much so that it requires a highly specialised knowledge to be able to separate the slang of the two countries. Since I returned to New Zealand from London not long ago I have discovered that stockyard was in use even before 1802. In some old documents relating to New South Wales in the Wellington Public Library I came across evidence showing that the term was current even before 1800. It can be seen that the origins of our indigenous speech go back to the roots of our history.

Consider the term Bush and to what uses it has been turned. Originally used to describe scrub-covered land, it was by the 1840’s applied to the country in general, whether tree covered or not. By the 1850’s bush could be used for anywhere outside a town. To-day it can be applied to the suburbs of a large city, such as Sydney, Melbourne or London. I have on numerous occasions heard London’s suburbs called the bush by Australians and New Zealanders in that city. Here are some more bush derivatives, many of which are used in New Zealand: to go bush, take to the bush, bush apes (that is, workers in the bush), a bush Baptist, a bush lawyer, bush telegraph, to be bushed, bushranger and bushwhacker. The Language of Children No record of Antipodean slang would be complete unless we spared a little attention for the delightful and often inspired language used by children. I shall run through a selection of them, mainly all authentic Australian and New Zealand contributions to the language: dag, rubydazzler, hangasinun, swinjer,

pearler, stunner, beaut, snorter, ripsnorter, hummer, bosker, corker, snitcher, snifter, trimmer, jake, jakealoo, dinky, dinkydie, wonky, batty, and binjey.

---- We should pay an ungrudging tribute to the youngsters who can find such wholehearted enthusiasm for their own language. I have been asked in what way our slang has developed characteristics of its own. The question is not altogether easy to answer, since it is clear that such characteristics can emerge only over a fairly lengthy period. There are, however, several features of our slang which are individual and which seem worthy of mention, The " -ie" Suffix Take for example that simplest of all terms, Aussie. Thig -ie suffix after "z" or "ss" emerges in a dozen or more instances. Here are some of them: Tazzie, Tasmania or a Tasmanian; pozzie, a position; mozzie, a mosquito; cossie, a bathing costume; rousie, a rouseabout. The -ie suffix has an additional interest. In English slang it is used almost exclusively as a diminutive or an endearment. In Australia and * New Zealand, however, it is possible -- to name at least ten or twelve terms which, by the addition of an -ie will serve to mean the same thing-"a 4 good or tall story, or a shrewd trick." Among them are: fastie, hottie, shrewdie, smartie,' swiftie, roughie, goodie. This particular use of the -ie suffix seems to have been age inherited from America, but it has received such wide currency in our own countries that it can be regarded as an interesting feature of our own slang. Similarly the -o suffix, which appears frequently in English and American slang, has been given special use in New Zealand and Australia. Few terms have @ more general and hackneyed usage in these two countries than goodo and righto, neither of which is guaranteed to find favour with purists. They have, however, a kinship with many expressions ending similarly: whacko/ a joyous exclamation; scrappo, a fight; arvo, afternoon; evo, evening; susso, sustenance allowance received by the unemployed; compo, worker’s compensation. Harsh Sounds One other feature of Antipodean slang is certainly worth attention. That is, the use of harsh sounds. Take, for instance, such examples as plonk, cheap wine; cronk, no good, worthless or ill; tonk, a simpleton or fool; pat, a Chinese; ziff, a beard; and zack, sixpence. These are but a few of many dozens of such terms, largely monosyllables, in which sharpness in sound is the prevailing motif. What effect the Maori and Australian aboriginal languages have had on this growth is a little difficult to assess, but it is an influence that cannot be ignored, (Continued on next page)

(Continued from previous page) The Maori language, per se, appeals to us aS a graceful, charming speech in which few esses appear. But we have only to listen to Maori vowels as spoken by the pakeha to realise how they can be mutilated practically beyond recognition, with a deftness that seems almost deliberate. Paikok, for Paekakariki, or worse still, Paikokareek; Wokker, for Whakarewarewa; and Waimack, for Waimakariri. The aboriginal language is naturally harsh, so that there are numerous influences operating to sharpen our vowel sounds and to encourage the evolution of somewhat unlovely-sounding slang terms. Whatever conclusions New Zealanders may reach on the subject of slang, let them be wary of dismissing it as a mere passing phase in the history of their country. Australia has been using her own slang for 140 years or more; New Zealand for over a century. It is obvious that, as is the case with every other large country in the world, slang serves its purpose in the Antipodes and will survive prejudices against it. ty _ ft