Strine
Template:Short description Strine, also spelled Stryne (Template:IPAc-en), is Australian slang for a broad Australian English accent. Someone who speaks Strine is called an Ocker. In contemporary Australian spoken English, the term Strine is being replaced by Strayan, a word gaining traction in more recent years (although Strine is still used among some populations). In written English, Strine remains more frequently used.<ref name="Google Books Ngram Viewer - Strine">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Google Books Ngram Viewer - Strayan">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The term is a syncope, derived from a shortened phonetic rendition of the pronunciation of the word "Australian" in an exaggerated Broad Australian accent, drawing upon the tendency of this accent to run syllables together in a form of liaison.<ref>Chris Roberts, Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The Reason Behind Rhyme, Thorndike Press, 2006 (Template:ISBN)</ref>
The term was coined in 1964<ref>The Oxford Companion to the English Language, Oxford University Press (1992), p. 990 (Template:ISBN)</ref> when the accent was the subject of humorous columns published in the Sydney Morning Herald from the mid-1960s. Alastair Ardoch Morrison, under the Strine pseudonym of Afferbeck Lauder (a metaplasm for "Alphabetical Order"), wrote a song "With Air Chew" ("Without You") in 1965 followed by a series of books—Let Stalk Strine (1965), Nose Tone Unturned (1967), Fraffly Well Spoken (1968), and Fraffly Suite (1969). An example from one of the books: "Eye-level arch play devoisters ..." ("I'll have a large plate of oysters").
In 2009, Text Publishing, Melbourne, re-published all four books in an omnibus edition.<ref name='text'>Template:Cite book</ref>
The late environmentalist and TV presenter Steve Irwin was once referred to as the person who "talked Strine like no other contemporary personality".<ref>"Freakish end to a wild life", The Age</ref>
See alsoEdit
- Diminutives in Australian English
- Monica Dickens
- How to Talk Australians, an online miniseries looking through the eyes of teachers and students at a fictional college
ReferencesEdit
CitationsEdit
SourcesEdit
- Lauder, Afferbeck (A. A. Morrison) Let Stalk Strine, Sydney, 1965, page 9
- Steber, David. Strine and Amusing Language from the Land Down Under, Steber & Associates, 1990. Template:ISBN.
External linksEdit
- With Air Chew—Copyright registration copy of the song in the National Archives of Australia
- Some examples of Strine (includes audio files)